I am Urgent with the Gospel:
If I’m not urgent:
- You won’t understand the implications of the Gospel
- You fail to see yourself as ambassador
- You just don’t care
- In Prayer, I am Alert (Col 4:2)
- In Presentation, I make it Clear (Col 4:3-4)
- In Wisdom, I seize the Moment (Col 4:5)
- In Speech, I am Gracious (Col 4:6)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:06
Jesus is first. Why is that our theme? It's vertical. Everything that we're after, it's vertical.
00:07-00:10
It's vertical. It's passionately pursuing the Lord.
00:11-00:22
All these other things, like he mentioned, you know, the evangelism, the compassion ministries, all those other things are byproducts. It's first of all what Christ is doing in here.
00:24-00:30
And the overflow of that is when ministry takes place, right?
00:31-00:34
So we want to be vertical. That's why we're pretty serious about worship.
00:35-00:37
That's why we're pretty serious about God's Word.
00:37-00:38
That's why we're pretty serious about prayer.
00:40-00:40
Vertical.
00:41-00:43
We have another word today.
00:45-00:48
Kind of flowing out from what Pastor James mentioned in that video.
00:50-00:56
But I want to ask you, is there anybody here who has not been on an airplane?
00:57-00:58
Anybody at all?
00:59-01:00
You have not been on?
01:00-01:01
Anybody else?
01:02-01:03
Just Heather Shriver?
01:04-01:04
Really?
01:05-01:05
Oh, I'm sorry.
01:05-01:06
I shouldn't have mentioned you by name.
01:07-01:09
Like, hope that doesn't embarrass you.
01:10-01:10
Yeah.
01:11-01:11
Heather, stand up.
01:11-01:12
Oh, wait a minute.
01:12-01:12
Will.
01:13-01:14
You know what?
01:14-01:17
You have more of an excuse because you're not as old as Heather.
01:17-01:18
we're gonna let you slide.
01:18-01:19
Well, but Heather, really?
01:20-01:21
You've never been on an airplane?
01:24-01:25
Wow.
01:27-01:28
Wow.
01:28-01:30
I thought it'd be unanimous.
01:30-01:31
Like, yeah, I've been on an airplane.
01:32-01:34
Well, Jacob's gonna take you somewhere, right?
01:35-01:36
You're gonna take your new bride somewhere.
01:37-01:41
You're gonna get that lady on an airplane and you're gonna take her somewhere nice.
01:41-01:42
All right?
01:44-01:45
(laughing)
01:47-01:58
Well, for those of you that have been on an airplane, you know the speech that the stewardess gives at the beginning, right?
01:58-01:59
Do you know the speech?
02:00-02:00
You know the speech?
02:02-02:07
She gets up and shows you how the seat belt works.
02:10-02:14
And then how the oxygen mask come down, right?
02:14-02:17
You put your own oxygen mask on, and then you You know this speech?
02:19-02:19
You know this speech?
02:19-02:24
And then in the event of a water landing, what?
02:25-02:25
Somebody tell me.
02:26-02:32
Yes, your seat becomes a flotation device.
02:34-02:38
And I've been petitioning for years why they can't make the seat become a parachute.
02:40-02:46
I'd rather get ahead of it than hope that I have a boat when we hit the water, right?
02:46-02:48
We're still working on that.
02:50-02:54
But what you actually say, and this is this always amazes me every time.
02:58-03:00
The person, the stewardess is giving the speech.
03:02-03:05
And I look around at the people and what are the people doing?
03:06-03:11
You know, I got I got that folder out, I got that laminated thing out and I'm following.
03:13-03:14
What's everybody else doing?
03:16-03:27
reading, sleeping, messing around on their cell phones or whatever, talking to the person next to them, not paying attention.
03:30-03:32
And, you know, that whole scene.
03:34-03:36
Is a lot like church.
03:38-03:39
You have a non urgent person.
03:41-03:45
Giving a life and death message to non urgent people.
03:46-03:47
Isn't that like a lot of churches?
03:48-03:49
Let's be honest.
03:49-03:50
Isn't that like a lot of churches?
03:50-04:03
A non-urgent person going through the motions, giving a life and death message to people that are just sitting there and they really don't care.
04:06-04:13
And I've often thought, what if that plane was in the middle of a nosedive and the stewardess got up and she's like, you know what?
04:13-04:16
I'm going to go through the little life and death speech again.
04:17-04:18
Do you think she'd give it urgently?
04:19-04:20
Do you think? Do you think?
04:20-04:23
Listen, listen, we're going down.
04:23-04:25
We are going down. Pay attention.
04:26-04:27
This will save your life.
04:27-04:28
Do you think the people will listen?
04:29-04:32
Like, oh, man, I was just getting into this movie.
04:32-04:34
What are you talking about?
04:34-04:35
We're going to we're going to crash.
04:35-04:36
This is life and death.
04:36-04:37
Do you think people are going to listen?
04:38-04:41
See, that's what church needs to be urgency.
04:41-04:44
So we talked about vertical kind of put that on the shelf for now.
04:45-04:47
We're not putting it away. Just set it aside.
04:47-04:50
But the word for this week and next week is urgency.
04:50-04:53
Let me hear you say urgency. Urgency.
04:55-05:02
I'm really concerned, honestly, with the lack of urgency that we see today in churches.
05:04-05:13
I'm not calling out any other church or anything like that, I just mean across the board, I'm concerned with the lack of urgency in churches.
05:14-05:15
I'm very concerned about it.
05:15-05:19
It's heartbreaking. Some of the silliness.
05:21-05:22
That's going on in churches.
05:24-05:25
Because there's no urgency.
05:27-05:36
We have a car show and we play secular music, and a friend of mine was a musician who went to one of these car shows, was playing Christian music.
05:36-05:40
Somebody from the church actually went and told him to stop playing Christian music.
05:41-05:48
Because this is for the community, this is like our outreach thing, and he's like, I only play Christian music and he packed up his guitar and left.
05:49-05:51
Yes. Urgency.
05:52-06:01
And we're dropping Easter eggs from helicopters and we're giving people money to come to church and then you have a guy come up and just give you some cotton candy thing.
06:02-06:03
You don't even need your Bible.
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Don't don't even need it.
06:06-06:08
If you brought it, you don't even open it.
06:11-06:11
Does that concern you?
06:13-06:15
Does that concern you what the church has become?
06:17-06:21
And I see a lot of lack of urgency and a lot of lack of.
06:22-06:28
I have to think about that, I see a lack of urgency and a lot of people, right, is that what I meant to say?
06:28-06:39
OK, I see a lack of urgency and a lot of the church that I attend and I show up Sunday.
06:42-06:51
And then I'm back the next Sunday and I try to pay attention as much as I can, and I think it might be good for my kids if we get.
06:52-06:55
Urgency, let me hear you say that again, urgency.
06:56-06:57
All right. Why?
06:58-07:00
Because this is a life and death message.
07:02-07:05
I'm just I'm concerned there's a lack of passion.
07:06-07:07
There's just a lack of passion.
07:10-07:18
I've been to funerals, attending where I'm not the one, you know, leading the funeral, preaching at the funeral.
07:19-07:31
And I see these, I see these clergy people getting up in the face of death and a room full of people that need to hear a life and death message and go through some boring liturgical nonsense.
07:33-07:41
And I just want to get up and be like, why don't you tell them the truth, tell them this is the result of sin, tell them we're all heading there.
07:43-07:47
But we get up and we do our little incantations and.
07:48-07:49
What's the matter?
07:51-07:52
There's no passion, there's no zeal.
07:54-07:55
That concerns me.
07:55-07:56
There's no focus.
07:57-07:58
Like what's this church about?
07:58-08:05
What we're just like we're this church that you know, we you know, just want to be good people What?
08:07-09:22
There's no priorities There's no priorities We need to have a meeting about the color of the carpet in the church and that's the top of our list here It's a very important That happens Just throw it throw a rug down. All right There are people that need to hear the gospel We're wasting so much time on silliness Maybe you're sitting here today and maybe you're saying, you know, well, I'm just gonna be honest with you I don't feel a sense of urgency I'm not I'm not here to give you a guilt trip. But this is just this is reality Okay, this is reality if you don't feel a sense of urgency. There's one of three things going on If you don't feel a sense of urgency in your life and in this church for the gospel There's one of three things going on. First of all, maybe you don't understand the implications of the gospel. Do you realize that eternity hinges on what you do with the person of Jesus Christ? Did you know that? Life and death message. Life and death message. This isn't a message about morality, this is a message about eternal life, and Maybe you just haven't grasped that.
09:24-09:25
I haven't really thought about that.
09:25-09:27
You mean lost people really go to hell for eternity?
09:28-09:29
Well, according to Jesus, they do.
09:33-09:40
I believe it's near the end of Matthew, 25, Jesus talks about heaven and hell, and he uses the word eternal for both.
09:42-09:49
And he's saying that hell lasts just as long as heaven does, and I've never met anybody that says heaven's a temporary place, you go there for a while and then you're off to somewhere else.
09:50-09:52
Jesus said hell lasts as long as heaven.
09:53-09:56
Maybe you don't understand the implications of the gospel.
09:58-10:01
Secondly, maybe you failed to see yourself as an ambassador.
10:03-10:04
You don't feel a sense of urgency?
10:04-10:06
Maybe you've just relegated it to the church.
10:06-10:07
Well, that's the pastor's job.
10:08-10:09
That's the pastor's job.
10:09-10:12
That's Pastor Jeff's job to tell people about Jesus.
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And that's the pastor's job.
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That is wrong.
10:16-10:17
You know what the pastor's job is?
10:18-10:20
is to equip people for the work of the ministry.
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My job is to get you to do the work.
10:26-10:29
To train you and to prepare you, and that's my job.
10:31-10:35
To equip the saints for the work of the ministry, that's the job of the pastor of Ephesians four.
10:38-10:42
Maybe you haven't been seeing yourself as an ambassador, so you don't feel urgency.
10:44-10:56
Number three, I hope this isn't true, but this is just the only other logical thing is maybe you just don't care.
10:56-10:57
I just don't care.
10:59-11:00
I don't care.
11:01-11:01
I'm going to heaven.
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I don't really care what happens with them.
11:08-11:11
You know, these godless people I work with, they're gonna get what's coming to them someday.
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Great attitude.
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They're lost and they're blind and they're dead and you don't care.
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Urgency, urgency.
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I want you to bow your heads and pray with me, please.
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The sermon's not over.
11:30-11:31
We're just getting started, but.
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We're going to see this has to come from God.
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I can't do it, you can't muster it up.
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This is a work of the Holy Spirit.
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And let's just pause and pray.
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That the Holy Spirit.
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Would restore in us a sense of urgency, and then let's get into the word together, OK?
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Father in heaven.
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We cry out to you, father.
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That you would wake us up.
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And as we talk about your gospel, as we talk about evangelism.
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I pray, Father, for me.
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And I pray for my brothers and sisters in this room.
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That you would restore in us a sense of urgency.
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And for those in this room who do not know you, I pray that they would sense the urgency that the gospel brings.
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Father, we can't do this ourselves, we can't muster up enough.
12:56-13:02
Passion. This is a work of your spirit, and I pray, Father, that what we would do is yield.
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that we would allow your Holy Spirit to do his work in us.
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To your glory.
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To your fame in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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Open your Bibles with me to Colossians, chapter four.
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We're getting near the end of the book, and as the apostle Paul is closing.
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My Bible has a little heading at the top of this section, it says further instructions.
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If your Bible has that, just scratch that out and write urgency.
13:47-13:51
OK, further instructions, it's like Paul's like, oh, I forgot to add a couple of things.
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Let me throw these in there.
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No, you're going to see this passage is about one thing.
14:00-14:01
And what it's about is urgency.
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Jesus last command is my first priority, remember that Jesus is first, we've seen Jesus is first in the universe.
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He is first in my life.
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Jesus is first in my home.
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Jesus is first in my workplace today and next week.
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Jesus is first in my mission.
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Paul closes his teaching in Colossians.
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With an obvious call for urgency, look at.
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Verses two through six. Paul says, continue steadfastly in prayer.
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Being watchful in it.
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With Thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I'm in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak.
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Walking wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
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So on your outline today, first of all, I am urgent with the gospel.
15:22-15:29
He's talking in this passage. It's obvious. This whole passage is about being urgent with the gospel. What does that mean?
15:31-16:25
What does it look like when I have a Holy Spirit filled Urgency for the gospel. What does that look like? First of all in prayer, I am alert in Prayer I am alert Look at verse 2 again continues steadfastly in prayer being watchful in it with Thanksgiving three reminders for prayer First of all, he says continue steadfastly In the Greek that's one word. It's a compound word actually Just jot down the word diligence What's steadfast mean? It's diligence constant communion with God Constant communion with God. So why is he saying continues steadfastly? What he's saying is don't give up. I Thought so many people come to me and they're like I tried praying and it didn't work What is that?
16:26-16:47
God's not a machine. He is a person and He knows what you need better than you know So throwing up one prayer and expecting the heavens to part and then walking away saying well God didn't do anything right when I commanded him to Bad idea, constant communion with God, don't give up.
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Pray without ceasing.
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Paul teaches us and.
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Thessalonians.
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Thanksgiving, that's attitude.
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Right down on your outline, attitude, Thanksgiving, that's the notice that was a constant theme in Colossians, because that's the constant theme in the Christian life.
17:15-17:23
That's a constant theme in a Christian life, a Christian is thankful, that's just all there is to it, a Christian is thankful. I don't have to tell a Christian to be thankful.
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I shouldn't have to get up and say, listen, you know what, Tom, you should be thankful.
17:30-17:31
Like, you know what?
17:33-17:37
The God of the universe paid the penalty for my sin, it gave me eternal life.
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Yeah, I'm thankful.
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And he's given me all this, all this grace and all these blessings.
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And yeah, thankfulness is like breathing to a Christian.
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So diligence continues steadfastly, attitude, thanksgiving.
17:52-17:53
Here's what I want to focus on.
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He says, be watchful, I want you to write this word down.
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You're learning a lot of words today.
17:59-18:00
You're not learning them, but.
18:02-18:04
Maybe we need to be reminded of them, I know I do.
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But be watchful right down this word expectation.
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Expectation. And let me ask you a question, do you believe that God is active?
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Do you believe that God is active?
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Yes or no.
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Do you believe that God is active or do you believe like so many that God is distant and he kind of got things rolling and he kind of took a step back and he's like, I'm just going to see how this works out.
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God is active. God is constantly at work. Therefore, when we pray, we should pray with expectation.
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Here's what this means. You pray and you consciously look, asking yourself this question.
18:56-19:02
How is God answering this prayer? That's what the prayer of faith is.
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This is a prayer of faith, not just believing that God can do something, but knowing that he will do something.
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Do you understand the difference?
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If we took a poll of the people in this room and said, "Do you believe God can?" "Oh yeah, I believe God can. I believe God can do anything." Do you believe God will?
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That's the prayer of expectation, and that's what he's calling for here.
19:30-19:42
Being watchful being watchful. I know he's active. I know he hears me. I know he has my best interest at heart So when I pray I get up and I just start looking around. Okay, how's he gonna answer this prayer?
19:42-20:52
I know he heard me. I know he loves me and I know he's active. What's he gonna do? That's being watchful in prayer Again this passage is about evangelism and why does he start here because this is where evangelism starts Okay, this is where evangelism starts You lack the power To save anyone You can't save anyone You can't No matter how polished your you know gospel presentation is no matter how passionate you are You know, you can't save anyone So when it comes to evangelism, where does it have to start it has to start in prayer It has to start in prayer That's why he says continue steadfastly be thankful and be Watching be alert Have expectations When you're burdened for those around you who don't know the Lord you take the matter to prayer and you see How God is going to answer that prayer?
20:55-21:03
Several years ago at my old church, this guy called the other pastor and said, "Hey, I'm moving in a month.
21:05-21:09
And I want to know if you can, like you and your church can help me." This guy had never been to our church.
21:10-21:14
He was just like one of those friend of a friend things and they heard about North Street Moving Company, right?
21:15-21:18
Like, I don't understand that by the way.
21:18-21:20
I'm going to call a church I've never been to.
21:20-21:21
I don't know anybody.
21:21-21:50
you move all my stuff?" So he was going on a mission trip, Pastor Bob was, so he's like, "Jeff, this guy needs help moving. Would you take care of that?" And I'm like, "Welcome to the world of the associate pastor." But that's just how it goes, right? He had a legitimate excuse being on the other side of the planet. So this, I talked to this guy, Aaron you remember this guy, right? I talked to this guy and he's like, "I need help moving July," this was in June, he's like, "I need up moving July 5th.
21:52-21:57
And I said, all right, I'll be there at 10 o'clock the morning of July 5th.
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I'll be there at 10 o'clock.
21:58-22:01
I'll have a couple of trucks and we'll get your stuff moved.
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Now, if I told you that, would you believe me?
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If I said, hey, I'll be at your house at 10 with a truck, would you believe me?
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Not this guy.
22:13-22:18
He called me every day.
22:20-22:21
multiple times a day.
22:23-22:25
"Jeff, this is..." What was the guy's name?
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You remember? I cannot remember his name.
22:27-22:28
I want to say Rick, but I don't know if that's right.
22:29-22:29
Was it Rick? Okay.
22:30-22:31
He's like, "Jeff, this is Rick.
22:31-22:36
I just want to know if we're still on for the fifth." "Yeah, Rick, we're still on, buddy.
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Ten o'clock. Ten o'clock, I'll be there." "Well, I was just worried that you forgot." I'm like, "We just talked about this yesterday." So 10 o'clock on the fifth?
22:48-22:48
Yep.
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All right, you won't forget, will ya?
22:52-22:53
Nope.
22:54-22:55
All right, we'll see ya.
22:56-22:59
He called me at my office several times a day.
23:00-23:03
You know, boop, Pastor Jeff, you have a call on line one.
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Hello?
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You didn't forget about the fifth, did ya?
23:07-23:08
Are we still on for 10?
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10 o'clock, are you gonna bring trucks?
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Yeah, I'll be there.
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It was mildly amusing the first week.
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Then one day I got home.
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As soon as I get home, the phone rings.
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Aaron's like, "Hello?" Yeah, he's here.
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Jeff, it's for you.
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Like, "Hello?" Are we still on for the fifth at 10 o'clock?
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Finally, I'm just like, "You know what, man?
23:36-23:39
You don't trust me, do you?" He's like, "What are you talking about?
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Of course I trust you." Like, "You don't trust me, man." He goes, yeah, I do. I'm like, well, did I tell you I'll be there at 10 o'clock in the fifth with trucks?
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Yeah. Then why don't you believe me?
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I do believe you. Then why do you call me several times a day, every day asking me if I'm going to be there?
23:58-24:02
And my point in that story is sometimes that's how people treat the Lord, like.
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I'm praying. But I really don't expect him to do anything.
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I'm crying out to him, but I really come on.
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I really don't think God is going to show up.
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And I think sometimes the Lord is just like, did I tell you that I would take care of you?
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And why are you worried?
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Why are you living as if you don't believe I'm actively at work?
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So are you watchful?
24:35-24:45
Let me ask you this. When was the last time you prayed and set out, not wondering if God was going to answer your prayer, but looking to see how he was going to answer your prayer.
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When was the last time you've done that?
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I'm looking, I'm watchful, I'm expecting God to move.
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By the way, that's where Thanksgiving comes in.
24:58-25:04
The people who pray and who watch and who see God at work are the ones that are thankful to him.
25:04-25:06
That's just like no brainer, right?
25:06-25:10
Like God, I asked you, I saw how you answered the prayer.
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Thank you.
25:12-25:13
Thank you.
25:15-25:18
So urgency means I'm watchful for my opportunity.
25:19-25:19
Okay?
25:20-25:24
Number two, I have on your outline an opportunity.
25:24-25:25
Scratch that out and write the word presentation.
25:29-25:32
In presentation, I make it clear.
25:33-25:59
presentation I make it clear. Look at verses three and four. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. So what's our word today? Urgency. What's our word?
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Urgency in prayer I'm alert in presentation to make it clear First of all corporately pray for your church Are you praying for harvest Bible Chapel? I hope you are some of you have come to me like, you know pastor Jeff I'm praying for you. I'm praying for this church Thank you Because my standard answer is we need it right do we need it? We need it. We need prayer because This is a work of the Lord All right, so thank you, but also not just corporately but personally he says pray also for us Meaning this isn't just directed at the pastor It's directed at all of those who are called to serve in Christ Church But what are we praying for exactly or let me ask you this, you know, we talked in the In verse 2 he talks about being watchful being watchful being watchful Well, what are we when it comes to evangelism, which is obviously again what he's talking about What are we watchful for?
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What are you looking for you mean like I pray and I look to see if he wrote something to me in the clouds or in my Alphabets or you know, what am I watching for exactly? Well, he tells us right here what we're watching for We're watching for open doors Do you see that in the text pray for us that God may open to us a door?
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Did you know that God opens doors? Did you know that?
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You're like well, what does that mean?
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Well, this is a whole nother study in Scripture. You can you can look this up. We'll talk about it some other time but When the scripture talks about God opening doors what he's talking about is giving opportunities for evangelism That's what an open door is It's like I want to share the gospel. I want to share the gospel I want to tell people the good news of Jesus Christ and God's just like Here I've opened this door go in here This is where I want you to share and that's exactly what he says we're praying for we want to pray that God opens doors That we can share the gospel do you see that in the text He gives us opportunities To tell others about Jesus Christ, that's an open door When he gives us an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus Christ You know, maybe whether it's in your workplace or maybe you're at Walmart or whatever and Do you ever have somebody just come up and like strike up a spiritual conversation with you?
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Like that happens to me a lot at the gym. Like I'll be working out it happened to me the other day I was working out and this guy comes in and like shoves a newspaper Editorial in my face. He goes, what do you think about this?
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and it was all about, you know, Old Testament law and things like that and I shared some stuff with them, but open door It's God Open doors for me To tell others about Jesus Christ understand that we can't open doors we can't We're unable to We're able to do that to be like, you know What that person looks like they need Jesus and they're gonna hear about him whether they want to or not. We can't do that We can't do that God opens those doors right What we need to do we need to be ready to recognize when he is opening a door and We need to be ready with the gospel when he does When he opens the door What do we do?
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What do we do When he opens the door while he tells us here, what does your Bible say? God may opened a Open to us rather a door for the what?
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for the word Like what word?
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Sometimes I think God makes things so clear in the Bible because I'm so dense sometimes I'm like what word to declare the mystery of Christ. That's the word to tell people about Jesus We declare the gospel And you're like, well, how do I do that?
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How do I do that?
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Here's how you do that are you ready?
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You have to be in the gospel yourself That gets us back to our earlier word vertical This isn't an assignment. This isn't an exercise. This isn't we're trying to fill some more seats So let's just get the it starts vertical. That's why he starts with prayer Vertical Then it goes horizontal, you know, Jesus said the greatest two commandments. The first one is what?
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Love God with your heart soul mind and strength Then the second one's like it love your neighbor as yourself. They're connected I don't think it was an accident that Jesus put them in the order that he did vertical first But you have to be in the gospel yourself But do you know that when you're passionate about something it's not hard to talk about it See, that's the thing I'm not gonna say okay Let's put up here Here's your five talking points you want to give to people and make sure you memorize these and make sure you say it just like this a Holy Spirit ignited passion for the gospel, it is not hard to talk about the gospel. It's just not.
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For example, my brother Sammy here, when we talk about music, I'm like, "Sammy, you know, he's doing some recording.
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Amazing stuff. I get a little preview. That's like Pastor Perk, right?" So I'm like, "Sammy, how's music going?" Sammy's like, "Oh, no.
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He asked me about music. Uh, what do I say? What do I say? I'm not sure.
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Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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My music, okay.
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You know what, Pastor Jeff?
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I have this little book about how my music's going.
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Would you take and read this?
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And if you have any questions, we can talk about it.
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Isn't that silly?
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Sammy's just like, let me tell you how my music's going, man.
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And he sends me little clips online and he tells me about how he's putting his little recording studio together in his apartment.
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And he doesn't have a hard time talking about that because he's passionate about it, right?
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It's not hard to talk about something when you're passionate about it.
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Or my brother Paul, who gave me this kick and coat.
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We talk about the Pittsburgh Penguins a lot.
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And I'm like, "Hey, Paul, what'd you think of that?
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"Did you see that Tampa Bay game?
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"What'd you think about that?" And Paul's like, "Oh man, I'm not quite sure what to say." We love the Penguins, and it's not hard to have a conversation about them because we love them.
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Well, listen, born again in Christ.
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We should be passionate about what God said.
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And when somebody you know, when when the Lord opens the door for us to share the gospel of somebody, that passion is already there, like, yeah, let me tell you something about the gospel. Let me tell you about who Jesus Christ is.
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Let me tell you about what he's done.
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You see, when you're passionate about it, it's not hard to talk about.
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Lose the notion that you have to be a polished preacher.
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Okay?
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Like, well, I'm not really, you know, I'm not really a seminary graduate.
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Let's lose that, okay?
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You know, I was brought to the Lord by a student at a community college in a psychology class.
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It was a nursing student.
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A complete stranger, not a seminary student, Just somebody that said, hey, let's talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Maybe some of you are like that.
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So what's the technique?
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Like, I'm sure it's really complicated, you know, when somebody asked me about the gospel, what what should I say?
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I know I should be passionate about it, but what should I say?
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Do you see the word he uses?
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He says that I may make it.
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What does your Bible say?
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Clear.
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That word literally means apparent.
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Manifest that I may make it clear.
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So in our gospel presentation, here's what we're going for.
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We're going for clear.
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We're going for clear.
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I have an opportunity to share the gospel and like, well.
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I've done a lot of bad things in my life, man, do you think God will forgive me?
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And you're like, "Well, due to the substitutionary vicarious atonement of the incarnation..." You see, Jesus Christ was the propitiation of our sins.
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And they're like, "Huh?" All those things are true.
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And it took me like all week to learn those words.
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Most of it was just figuring out how to pronounce them, but.
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It's making it clear.
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It's making it clear.
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Draw these down here, some evangelism techniques that are not clearly presenting the gospel.
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OK, these are I'm just going to give you two.
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But thumbs down on these two.
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OK, these things are not clearly sharing the gospel.
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The first one is this.
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just about what Jesus did for me.
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Is there a time and a place for testimony?
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Yes, there is.
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In fact, we're working now on we've been talking about recording some testimony so that we can show there's a time and a place for that.
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But listen. Just giving a testimony is not sharing the gospel.
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Understand that it's an open door for the word to declare what the mystery of Christ, Not the benefits that I got from Christ.
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Like, you know, Alicia, you just seem so so happy and joyful and like, what's the secret?
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And you're just like, you know what?
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Jesus has done so many good things for me and I'm so happy because I love Jesus.
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And and then they leave like.
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Good for her. But that doesn't do anything for me, she's just apparently happy.
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So understand sharing the gospel is not just giving your testimony that can be a part of it.
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Listen, that can be a part of it, but that's not the sum total of it.
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Right. It's an open door for a word, the mystery of Christ.
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And here's another one. That idea, it's just about what Jesus can do for you.
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What I mean is we're selling the benefits instead of bringing them to Jesus.
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Are there benefits to following Christ?
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In a sense, certainly you can say eternal life, communion with God, a secure hope.
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We have benefits, right?
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We are a blessed people.
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But understand, we're not trying to sell people on the benefits.
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We're trying to bring them to a person.
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You understand the difference there?
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In our consumer mentality, we get that so messed up.
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What can Jesus do for me?
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He's God, first of all.
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Let's a little role reversal here.
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It's not about what He can do for me, even though He laid down His life as a sacrifice for me.
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But when we come at things with this consumer mentality, we gotta watch it, man.
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So it's not just about what Jesus did for me, and it's not just about what Jesus can do for you.
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There might be like sub points, but the main point is declaring the mystery of Christ.
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Share with them what you know from God's word.
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You're like, man, I'm not sure what to say.
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Have you been in God's word?
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Do you know some things about God's word?
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Share with them what you know.
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Just share with them what you know.
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You know more than you think you do, by the way.
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If I had a nickel for every time somebody said, "Man, this person was asking me about the Bible and the church, and all these Bible verses came to mind that I didn't even know that I knew." Did you ever hear somebody say something like that?
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You know more than you think you do.
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Because the Holy Spirit is the one that's working through you.
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He'll bring these things to mind.
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Share what you know from God's Word, but listen, make it clear.
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Make it clear.
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it clear. That's what I try to go for. That's why probably the hardest thing for me about preaching is I want it to be clear. And sometimes people come to me and say, you know, I appreciated that sermon. And what do I always ask every time? What do I ask? And every week I ask Aaron, was it clear? I don't want people leaving here on a Sunday morning gone.
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What was he talking about?
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I totally missed that.
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Well. Clear.
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Here's what I do when I share with people, I try to start them at creation and get a big picture view of the Bible to say, you know, the Bible says that Adam and God create Adam and Eve.
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I tell them the story about Genesis three.
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He brought sin and death into the world.
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That's a problem.
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And I explain what sin is and I explain what death is.
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And then I say, but here's the good news. God became a man.
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And came to this earth about 2000 years ago, he took the form of a man, he literally God became a man.
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To bring forgiveness in life, the problem was sin and death, the solution is forgiveness in life, and he did that by dying on the cross for our sins and raising from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life.
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And I encourage you in sharing with them, help them to identify themselves.
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And the gospel presentation and one of the ways that I like to do that when you talk about sin, I like to share with people, you know.
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We're born with a sin nature.
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We're born with a nature to do something here to always do what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do.
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And I share with them, you know, children, nobody teaches children how to sin.
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But children inherently know how to lie, how to sneak, how to steal, how to...
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don't they?
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Parents, don't kids inherently know how to do that?
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And they get to identify, like, "You know what?
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That's really true.
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That's... yeah.
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Yeah, we have... you know what?" And like, you know, pick up a newspaper, turn on the news, does it look like things are messed up?
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Yeah, you know what?
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And then try to get them to understand that worldview.
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But also I want to encourage you, not just that they would identify themselves in the gospel, but that you would identify with them. I'm gonna talk more about this next week, but that you would identify with them. That they're like, "You know, this is what I've always thought about God." And instead of like, "Oh, that's stupid.
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That's some crazy thinking." Identify with them. You know, maybe it's something like, "You know what? I used to think like that. I used to think God was like that, and then I learned, you know, what the Bible says about what he's really like, and come alongside them.
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They're not your project.
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They're people that need to hear the gospel.
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So here's some tips on clarity.
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Some tips on clarity.
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Keep a Bible handy.
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Number one is keep a Bible handy.
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I try to make it a practice everywhere I go to have a Bible on me.
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But keep a Bible handy, you know, in the gym bag, in the briefcase, in the car.
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I also encourage people to have some key passages marked that you can take them and show them.
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You know, Romans 3.23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." You know, Romans 6.23, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." three. You must be born again.
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You know, my favorite Second Corinthians 521, that God took he who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.
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And I use that verse a lot to say, here's what God has done.
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He put your sin on Jesus.
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All the payment, the penalty, the punishment all went on Jesus, so when we receive him by faith, what Jesus has given us is the righteousness of God.
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And I talk about how God makes us perfect.
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Romans 8, 1, "There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And when you're sharing things, stop and say, "Does that make sense?
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You understand?
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Does that make sense?
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Do you have any questions about that?" You know, the Bible says the wages of sin is death.
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You understand what that means?
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Make sure they're with you.
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like left them in the dust like eight paragraphs ago and they're like, what?
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Also, remember one more thing.
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Remember that their conscience is on your side, their conscience is on your side.
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We're going to talk more about this next week.
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We are created in the image of God, and part of that is we have a conscience.
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We inherently know that we have a need for God's grace.
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We inherently know.
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That the sinful, rebellious choices that we have made have wrecked our lives and will wreck our lives, apart from any intervention.
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They know that.
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So when you're sharing, not only do you have the most powerful tool on the planet and the word of God, but their conscience is also on your side.
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So keep it clear, the gospel is simple, it really is.
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It's not easy, but it's simple.
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It's so simple that right now Jeanne Bloomingdale is teaching it to children who can understand it on a certain level and so deep that people have dedicated their lives, decades, to trying to understand and unravel the mysteries of God, so to speak, and still can't reach the depths of the knowledge and wisdom of God.
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But fundamentally, the gospel is so simple.
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So urgency means I'm watchful for my opportunity, but urgency means.
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I don't blow the opportunity.
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OK, in presentation, I make it clear.
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And as we close, you cubes, if you'd make your way up, here's what I want you to do.
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Just down on your outline, I want you to jot down somebody, maybe you know a couple people, jot down somebody you know that needs the Lord.
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Just jot their name down, somebody that you know.
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You're like, "Everybody I know is a Christian.
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You need to get out of the house." Jot down people, someone, a name that you know who needs the Lord.
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And here's what I want you to do.
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I want you to pray for that person, and I want you to pray for the opportunity.
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I want you to pray and I want you to be actively and specifically watching to see how God's going to open the door for you to share with that person.
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We're gonna continue this message next week, but I'm just gonna give you a little assignment.
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The other thing I want you to think about, if somebody came up to you, this is like best case scenario, somebody comes up to you and says, "Would you please explain the gospel of Jesus Christ to me?" What would you say?
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I want you to really think about how you would articulate the gospel to someone.
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Okay, can you do that assignment?
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Just think about that, what would you say?
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What passages of God's word would you take them to?
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You know, grab a Bible, jot things down, mark up a Bible.
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There's Bibles on this table.
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If you're like, "Well, I don't really have a Bible "that I can mark things and give to people." Grab one from the table, grab an armful.
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We'll put more out, okay?
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That's what they're there for, is to give to people.
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But above all.
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I want us to pray for a sense of urgency.
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Right here.
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That's the other assignment I want you to do this week, every day, just sometime every day.
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I just want you to pray one simple prayer.
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God, would you please ignite in me a sense of urgency for the gospel?
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Would you pray that prayer this week?
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Father, I've.
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I've really.
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I've really been lazy, I really haven't been thinking about the gospel, I really haven't been.
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I need that sense of urgency to come back, would you pray that this week?
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Restore urgency in me.
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And while you're praying that, be watchful.
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Because you're going to see God do some amazing things in you and through you.
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Let's pray that right now before we close in song, okay?
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Our Father in heaven.
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Just a simple prayer.
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Father, let this be from our hearts, not just because the.
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That's just because the preacher says to do this, but God, let this be from our hearts.
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Please, God, restore in us a sense of urgency.
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That when we pray.
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We're alerts, we're watchful, we know that you're going to do something and we're looking to see what that is.
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Father, as we've also seen from your word, part of urgency is making the gospel clear, there is so much confusion in our country.
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And it's amazing we have we have stacks of Bibles and we have more information on the Internet We have Christian bookstores that are full of Information about the gospel, but there is so much widespread ignorance about you So many misconceptions about your son The father we don't need to just dump information on people We need to just when you give us opportunity to make a clear presentation Please help us father Father we know that this is a work salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit. We can't do it That's why we cry out to you That you would do it in us through us Glorify your name with the advancement of your gospel we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Colossians 4:2-6
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.