Outreach in the Place of God's Provision

We're going to go ahead and get started here with the message. I trust that you all had a wonderful Christmas and just enjoyed celebrating the incarnation of Jesus, and, and also reflecting upon the fact that he came into this world so that ultimately he would die on the cross, and Christmas is, it's a wonderful season of the year inside of which we can take the time to really meditate upon that truth a little more intensively. I am trusting too that, that you all will have a great new year on behalf of the, the staff and the elders.

Happy New Year to everyone.

I just pray that, that God would bless your year with gospel blessings, that he would grant to every single one of you that spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the true knowledge of Jesus, that you would behold the beauty of the Lord and that he would strengthen you, every single one of you, that he would strengthen you with power by His Spirit in, in the deeper part of who you are, in your inner man. that you, you will find yourself over the course of the year continuously and increasingly conformed into the very image of Christ.

One of the things that we anticipate over the course of this year is a geographical move. Lord willing, this time next year, we will be in a new church facility, not too far away from here, Maybe about 1 mile down the road, so we're still pretty much in the same neighborhood, but, but we are anticipating this move.

We believe that part of God's provision for us over the course of this next year is going to be a larger facility space, and part of the desire is that, we would in that space, be able to reach out to more people. And so the message this morning is entitled Outreach in the Place of God's provision. Outreach in the place of God's provision. We're gonna be addressing, this topic with two questions, and before I, present those questions to you, I would like for us to take a minute to pray.

Would you pray with me, please? Lord God, we just come before you this morning. We thank you for the time that we have here. We just ask Lord that you would see fit to minister your word to us, Lord, I pray that, that you would open the eyes of our understanding, that you would illumine the eyes of our heart, Lord, that you would just help us to behold you and to behold your heart, Lord, that you might draw us into worship of You, Lord, even as we take the time to hear you speak to us through your word.

And be with me, Lord, go before me, and fill me with your spirit and just help me to be a, an instrument of grace, a source of blessing to your people, Lord. And we just ask these things in Jesus' name. And so as I indicated, the sermon centers around two questions, and I'll, I'll give to you the first question up front, and that is why should we engage in outreach? Why should we engage in outreach?

And I've got 7 answers. It's not a conclusive list. There may be more answers that you can come up with, but these are some thoughts that I want to present to you this morning. and so the, the first answer to this question or one of the answers to this question is we should engage in outreach because God reached out to us in His Son Jesus Christ.

It's very, it's, it's important that we stop to just wrap our minds around this fact. Part of our motivation for reaching out has to do with the very fact that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself reached out to us. We see this point being illustrated and say all of the gospel narratives, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and all of these narratives, we've got God becoming a man. He was incarnated, he lived a perfect life, He ministered amongst us, he performed miracles.

Ultimately, he would go to the cross and he would die on the cross for us so that through Him our sins would be forgiven. And when you think about it, essentially what Jesus did is he reached out to us. God in His Son Jesus reached out to us. John chapter 1 verse 14 talks about the word, and we know that earlier on, John describes the word as Being God, and he says that that word, that that God became flesh and he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

A little bit later, John says that in John chapter 3 verse 16, that God so loved the world that He gave. God loved the world He gave. He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believed in Him would not perish but instead have everlasting life and consider This passage with me as well, just trying to underscore the fact of God reaching out to us and God coming to us and God taking this initiative. It's interesting in Mark chapter 10 verse 32, you can read along with me.

I believe the, the slide is, is, is, on the board behind me. It says they were on the road going up to Jerusalem. OK, so Jesus with his disciples are on the road heading to Jerusalem. Just picture that in your mind, going up to Jerusalem, it's Jesus was walking on ahead of them, so Jesus is blazing the trail, if you will.

He is leading the way. He is some distance ahead of his disciples, so he is walking on ahead of them. And notice what it says after that, that, that they, those who were there, those who were following, those that were part of this posse, they were amazed. Well, what's so amazing about him going up to Jerusalem and then it says, and, and those who followed were fearful.

Well, why in the world would they be? Afraid. Well, the fact is, is that Jesus had already told them what his purpose in going to Jerusalem was. In the previous chapter, Jesus had already presented to them the fact that they, he would go to Jerusalem and he would be handed over to the scribes and Pharisees and he would ultimately be put to death.

He would be murdered on the cross. And so he's presented that to them. They knew that he had already said this, and next thing we know, here's Jesus heading to Jerusalem, blazing the trail, leading the way. And it says here, and again, he took the 12 aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him.

Notice the word again, again signifies that he had already told them this, but he's about to tell them again, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priest and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and will deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him. And they will spit upon him. They will scourge him and kill him.

And 3 days later, he will rise again. You get a sense of the resolve of the Lord Jesus Christ. To go to the cross and on that cross to die on the cross, knowing full well that he would be raised bodily 3 days later and understanding full well that he was to do this for the benefit of those who would believe in Him. So we should engage in outreach because God reached out to us.

Secondly, we should engage in outreach because it is appropriate to, to our new identity. It is appropriate to our new identity. I'm gonna piggyback off of a passage that Pastor Carlos presented last week, just to underscore this point, but from 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, Peter says to his readers, by way of extension, God is saying to us, you are a chosen race. This is identity, this is position, this is who you are, you are a chosen race, royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, and notice the purpose.

This is why God has done this for you. This is why God has made you, this chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, God's possession. He says that That you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. So that's the purpose that you may proclaim.

So, so our identity is a basis for us to reach out. We should engage in outreach because it is appropriate to who we are, to our identity. In Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verses 13, Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth. And when you think about being salt of the earth, what Jesus is indicating here is that you are to have a preserving effect on the earth around you, in the world around you.

You are to be salt of the earth. That is what you are. And and so this indicates that we are to do good in this world in which we live. He says you are salt of the earth.

He goes on to say in verse 14, you are the Light of the world. You are the light of the world. Just please wrap your mind around your identity in Christ. Wrap your mind around what Jesus is saying you are.

You are salt and you are light of the world. He says a a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do men light the lamp and put it under the peck measure, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in. The house. You see, you take a light, you take a lamp if you will, and you put it in a place where it can, it can do the greatest amount of good, it can benefit the greatest number of people.

And, and so he says, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. OK, the idea again is that because of who we are in Christ, because of our position, because we are salt, we are light and some of these other things we looked at, it is totally appropriate for us on that basis to be just naturally engaged in outreach and seeking to just let our light shine. Moving on to number 3, we should engage in outreach because failure to do so will hinder our experience of joy.

Failure to reach out, failure to To, to be making a difference in the lives of those who don't know Christ, is going to hinder our potential for joy.

We looked at this, I believe a couple of months ago in the last sermon that I preached, but let us go ahead and consider the passage again. In, in First John chapter 1, at verse 3, John has already essentially proclaimed gospel truth, talked about the Lord Jesus, we've seen him, we've, we've heard Him, we've beheld Him, and And, and he says, what we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also that you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship indeed is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

And then he goes on in verse 4 to say, and these things we write, these things we write, we We are proclaiming the gospel to you. We are writing gospel truth out for you, for your, for your, so that you can read these gospel truths, he says, so that our joy may be made complete and the idea here is that John is indicating In order for me to experience joy to the fullness, in order for me to be lit up with joy, it is important for me that God uses me in the lives of people to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

We want for you to enjoy the fellowship that is ours and indeed our fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and we write these things. To you so that our joy might be made complete. Apart from God using us and the, and the gospel message that we preach in the lives of people to bring them to Jesus, we don't see how it is that we can experience joy to the degree that we would like to. We can have joy, but we want our joy to be made complete.

Number 4, we should engage in outreach because of the reality of hell, because of the reality of hell. In Mark chapter 9, beginning in verse 43, we read, Jesus saying, If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands to go to hell into the unquenchable fire where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. He says, if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, for it is better for you to enter life lame.

than having your 2 ft to be cast into hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out, it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell. And so here Jesus is referring to hell, he is offering the thread of hell, if you will, in order to get those who are listening to repent of their sin and to put their faith and their trust and their hope in Jesus Christ.

The reality is that there is a hell and it is an eternal place where those who don't have Christ will go and suffer forever.

Hebrews 9:27 says that it is appointed for men once to die and then after that, the judgment. And so we're all going to die and the million dollar question is, is, is what will happen to us on the other side of death when judgment comes? Will we enter into God's presence or will we be cast ultimately Into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15 says, if anyone's name was not written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

And so when you stop to think about it, we are surrounded by a people, the vast majority of which do not know Jesus. We are in a post-Christian culture. there are countless people around us who simply don't know, many have not even heard about Jesus, and so the loss throughout there. And the fact of the matter is, is based upon the teachings of Scripture, if they die apart from Christ without Jesus, they will spend an eternity in the lake of fire.

They will be in hell forever, and that ought to be enough to stir us up to where we find inside of us this drive, this desire, this wanting to preach Christ and to see people coming into the fold, seeing people coming into the kingdom. Well, The reason is that we should engage in outreach because we are commanded to do so. We are commanded to do so. It is a matter of obedience.

Hopefully we're not doing it just because of obedience. Hopefully we are reaching out because of something that God has done in the very depths of who we are and it's just a natural desire that springs from the inside out. But the fact of the matter is, is that, there are commands in scripture that would tell us that we are to reach out. The great commission where Jesus, he came up and he spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, and he gives the command, go therefore and make disciples.

That's the central kernel here, make disciples, make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them. And so herein we have a command from Jesus to his, to his followers and by way of extension to us. As well, we are too to make disciples. Peter in his epistle, in chapter 3 verse 15, the first Peter says, sanctify, set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you and do this with gentleness and reverence, he says, but sanctify Him in your heart.

Being ready, being ready, being ready, being on the alert, being prepared, being ready to make a defense, being ready, to point others to Jesus, helping others to realize that, that, the thing that makes you click is, is Jesus Christ Himself. He is what your life is all about. And so, number 6 then, as we just continue on, we should engage in outreach because Jesus guarantees our victory. A few passages to look at here to undergird this point.

Again, we should engage in outreach because Jesus guarantees our victory. John chapter 6, verse 37. Listen to what Jesus says. This is so encouraging.

All that the Father gives me shall come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me, and this is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He has given me, I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. This is a statement of victory. This is a statement of success.

This is Jesus saying that I will succeed in what I have set out to do. I will succeed in what my Father has called me into. John chapter 10 verse 27, Jesus says, My sheep, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no. And shall snatch them out of my hand.

They have eternal life, they will never perish, and no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. And so praise the Lord for the double grip of God's hands upon our lives. For those of us who are His sheep and who do belong to Him, we have these statements.

Of victory and Jesus in Matthew chapter 16, asking the question, who do you all say that I am? And his, followers, they offer up some of the answers that people are given, but he points his finger to Peter and he says, Peter, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And then Jesus responds by saying, I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

I will build. My church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. Again, this is a statement of victory. We, brothers and sisters, for those of us who are in Christ, we are on the winning side.

We are guaranteed that at the end of the day, that all who belong to Jesus will be raised up, and he's calling us to a ministry of outreach and he's wanting, he's wanting for us to reach out to those who do not know Him. Moving on to number 7, we should engage in outreach because in moving to Bournes, as I indicated earlier, this time next year, Lord willing, we'll find ourselves in this new facility, this larger facility, a place where we can have a greater impact on more people practicing cornerstone hospitality and reaching out and God willing souls will be saved.

number 7, we should engage in outreach because in moving to Bournes, we have committed to do so. In moving to Barnes, we've essentially made a statement that we want to reach more people through the gospel and with Cornerstone hospitality.

we've made the decision collectively as a congregation and we're not looking back. And many of us have purchased additional chairs. Some have purchased several additional chairs, and, and essentially what we're saying in, in, or the statement we are making in the purchase of those additional chairs beyond our own chairs and the and the chairs of our families, we're saying we want to fill that chair. You see, we're putting our money where our mouth is and what we're saying is that we want to reach out.

And so, the last reason that I have as to why we should engage in outreach, and this is, in my opinion, it might be a little bit of a weak revolver. Of the answers. this is not a passage that comes behind us, not a scripture there, but the bottom line is we have made a commitment to move to Boynes and in so doing, we have also in a parallel way committed ourselves to reaching out. We wanna reach out.

I, I, it's, it's, it's part and parcel as to who we are in Christ. It represents the very heart of God Himself. God is a God who reaches out. He takes initiative, he loves, and so in reflecting his image, this is what we would expect that we would do as well.

And, and, and please understand, I'm not saying that because we're moving, oh, now we're gonna reach out. This is something we do anyway. But it seems like we've upped the ante just a little bit in making this commitment to move to this facility where expenses are a little higher and so on and so forth, and part of, a part of what that move means is that we want to reach more people. Well, that was the first question.

Let us hasten on then to the second question. And the second question is this, how can we experience success in outreach? Lord willing, we're motivated to reaching out. We desire it.

There's something in the very deeper part of who we are. It's in our bones, we feel it, that we want to reach out, but the question I would like to address next then is how can we experience success in outreach? Number one, we can experience success and outreach by being rooted in the gospel. Oh, you guys always say that.

You're always talking about being rooted in the gospel, and the fact of the matter is, is that we should never tire of being reminded to be rooted in the gospel, rooted, grounded in the good news. The good news centers upon the very person and work of Jesus Christ. It brings our attention, the gospel brings our attention to the beauty of Jesus and His majesty and his glory and his splendor and his greatness, and it also brings our attention to what it is that he has done on our behalf in the Bible says that he died on the cross of wood, that he was buried, that he was raised bodily from the dead, ascended onto the right hand of the Father, and the Bible teaches that Jesus is alive even now as I speak, and he lives to make intercession for us.

And the Bible also says that he will come again someday.

He will come again someday, and oh how we long for that day. We look forward to that day, we will see him again, but we need to allow ourselves to just be enamored with gospel, with gospel truth, gospel reality. We need to just be plugged into this gospel, plugged into Jesus Christ Himself. In John 15:4, Jesus says, abide in me.

Abide in me. Plant yourself in me, the gospel, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. You will fail apart from abiding in me. You will be able Able to accomplish nothing apart from abiding in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, Jesus says, you can do nothing, you can do nothing. Again, we can experience success and outreach by being rooted in the gospel.

I think the apostle Paul is a tremendous example of this. This dude was just so rooted in the gospel. He was so pumped up with gospel realities. he had a passion for proclamation, and I believe such a passion is expressed through these words in 1 Corinthians 9:16.

Listen to what Paul says, he says, if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of. He says, for I am under compulsion. I am under compulsion. This is an expression of deep need.

I feel it deep down in the very fabric of my being. I am compelled. This is not anything that I am being forced to do, but this represents who it is that I am. I am under compulsion.

I cannot help it. He says, for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel, and the idea behind woe is, is, is Paul is communicating that if I do not preach the gospel, I will be overcome with grief. I will be overcome with anguish. I, I, I, I, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I don't proclaim the gospel.

It is so much a part of me. I, I feel it in my bones. I, I, I just, I just have to proclaim Jesus. This is the apostle Paul, and so like he's running around doing that and as a result of doing that, being grounded in gospel realities, he's proclaiming the gospel, he can't help it and, and, and he's making a difference in the world.

He's making a huge difference in the world. If you just consider all of Paul's, epistles and all of the epistles, every single one of them is marked by an emphasis on, on this being rooted and grounded in the gospel. He is, if you will, very gospel-centered in his approach to ministry. He cannot fire off a letter to anyone without referring them to Jesus, without referring them to, to the good news of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

And it seems like for the apostle Paul, whenever he knew of people that were deviating from gospel realities, he wanted so bad to get them back on track, right? He wanted to get them back on track. So to the Galatians, what does Paul say? He says to the Galatians who were veering.

They were, they were getting sidetracked. They were moving in dangerous directions. They were succumbing to a legalistic approach and they were beginning to walk by the power of the flesh and not by the spirit, and this is a great concern to Paul. They were deviating from the gospel and subsequently they weren't enjoying gospel realities to the degree that they should, and Paul is very concerned and so he fires off this leather to and he says, you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified, drawing their attention to the crucified one, giving to them the gospel, the very work of Jesus dying on the cross, he was portrayed as crucified.

This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law? Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? How did the wheels get turning?

How did we get the ball rolling? How, how did you experience, transformation in your life, from whence did you receive the Spirit, through obedience to the law or by hearing with faith, trust, belief. He says, are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit? You see, they started off right and Paul is referring to how they started and, and how they, they, they were off to a wonderful beginning, but he says, having begun with the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

And the answer is an obvious no. You can never pick yourself up by your own bootstraps to make yourself what God wants you to be. You may as well forget it. He says, did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain, does he then, does God then who provides you with the spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

And so this underscores the importance of being grounded in the true gospel and that out of the overflow of the true gospel, we might experience the work of the spirit, we might experience the works of God as he does his thing in and through us and part of what he wants to do is he wants to use us to have a positive effect in the lives of those who do not know Christ. What a blessing. What a privilege, what a, what a call. God has called us into a ministry of outreach in one way or another, in one form or another, we are called to reach people with the gospel of Christ.

Some of us will reach more than others, but every single one of us are engaged at some level, should be engaged at some level in a ministry of outreach, and God is leading us to reach out to certain and various peoples. Well, there's more that can be said about Paul's Gospel centrality, but I do think that I need to move on. but before we get to the second answer to the question, the point begs this question, are you finding yourself cherishing the gospel? Knowing that out of the overflow of that, you will have a a greater, greater potential for success in reaching people with the love of Christ.

Well, let's move on to #2 then. We can experience success and outreach by beholding the Lord. We focused on being rooted in the gospel, we continue on with being, beholding the Lord, seeing the Lord through the eyes of faith. Now, when you stop and think about it, what was it that caused 11 of the original 12, apostles, if you will, 11 of the 12 original followers of Jesus, the 12 that he handpicked, what caused 11 of them to eventually Turned the world upside down with the gospel.

What caused them to be so passionately committed and motivate motivated to the proclamation of the gospel? And I submit to, to you, it's that they saw Jesus, they saw him, they literally saw him. And they saw him in his earthly ministry, but then they beheld him having been raised bodily from the dead. They saw him, and for them, the reality of the resurrection of Jesus so impressed them.

It made such an impression upon them. It transformed them dramatically to where these were a people who were willing for all intents and purposes to give their lives up in the proclamation of the gospel. They were engaged in the ministry of outreach as a result of having beheld Jesus, having seen Jesus. We see this again with the apostle Paul himself.

His passion for proclamation was the overflow of meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus. That made all the difference in the world for him. That was the main paradigm shifter in his life. Prior to that, he had a Passion, all right, but his passions were directed in the wrong direction.

But on the other side of laying hold of Jesus and being brought into an understanding of the gospel and receiving Jesus by faith and being transformed, being born again through the power of the gospel, Paul's life was completely transformed for the good and for the glory of God and for the growth of the church. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, we read, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, Paul says, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord to Spirit.

The idea here is that as we behold Him, we experience transformation, and I see a connection between beholding Him and transform. Information, there's a lot that we can say about what transformation looks like, but one of the things that transformation looks like is a passionate desire to reach out to the lost and to bring them to faith in Christ because that represents the very heart of God Himself and so in reaching out to the unsaved, we reflect the very image of God Himself, his heart.

And so it's important then to behold him. You think of Isaiah the prophet, right, in Isaiah chapter 6. He sees the Lord high and lifted up, and on the other side, who will go for us? Whom shall we send?

And Isaiah says, Here am I, send me. Again, it was because he beheld Christ. This is so incredibly important that we through the eyes of our heart, through the lens of faith, are able to see Jesus and to be blown, blown away by the reality of who he is. To see his beauty and His glory, His majesty, His power, His strength, His might, His awesomeness, and to just be able to sink our teeth into the reality of who Jesus is by faith.

And on the other side of beholding Him, there's a way in which he transforms us as we behold Him. I often think of Paul's prayers for the Ephesians and many of you, if not all of by now that, that these are a couple of my favorite prayers in all of the scripture, but what does Paul pray in his first prayer? I am praying that God would give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the true knowledge of Jesus. I am praying that you behold Jesus through the eyes of faith.

And the reason is, is because I want you to understand the gospel truth that I have already preached to you, and I know that you will not fully get it unless I pray, I pray to God that he would give to you that revelation of Himself, so that you can understand gospel truth. You see, beholding Jesus, beholding God through the eyes of faith is critical. In order for us to experience the transformation that we need, and part of that transformation involves making a difference in the lives of those who have yet to come to faith in Jesus.

And so I ask you this question, then, are you beholding the Lord?

Are you beholding him? Do you find yourselves just enraptured at times in the love of Christ? Where you are just completely blown away. By how, how just unbelievably good and beautiful and powerful and great, majestic he is.

Let us move on to number 3 then. We can experience success and outreach by being prayerful. By being prayerful. This, of course, includes worshiping the Lord Himself in prayer, and so really these first three points dovetail with each other, right?

They do, they dovetail with each other, rooted in the gospel, beholding Jesus, being in prayer, worshiping him, really what I'm saying is love God. It boils down to that. It's as simple as that. That's what Jesus says.

He boils ministry down to this, what love God and love people. If you do that, you've, you've nailed it. And that's essentially what we're dealing with here. Primarily we're talking about our worship of our beautiful savior.

Love God. And so this does, as we think about, we experience success in outreach by being prayerful. This includes worshiping the Lord in prayer, but secondly, it includes praying for opportunities to share the gospel, pray for opportunities to share the gospel. In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 19, the apostle Paul says, pray on my behalf, pray for me, that utterance may be, may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.

Paul is acknowledging his dependence upon God, his need for God. He's asking for the, for the Ephesians here to pray for him, to pray for me, that God would use me to. proclaim the gospel. In 2 Thessalonians 3:1, Paul is requesting a simile, and he's asking for prayers.

He says, finally, brethren, pray for us. And so here we have Paul ministering in the context of a small community. He and other believers together are doing ministry and he said, pray for us, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified just as it did also with you. In the same way that you heard the gospel and you received the gospel and you turned from idols to serve a God, living and true, pray for us that as we proclaim the gospel elsewhere, that, that there would be a similar impact on the lives of others as there was with you guys.

Pray for us. And so in order to experience success and outreach, prayer is critical. Our relationship to the Lord, intimacy with him, praying for opportunities to reach out, moves us to number 4 now. We can experience success and outreach by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is critical. This is important, but I believe that being filled with the Holy Spirit Spirit that's essentially the overflow of doing the things that we've talked about already, just loving Christ, worshiping Him, abiding in him, being enraptured with his beauty, and just, just, just getting our hearts wrapped around Jesus, and as we do that, we will find ourselves experiencing this, this being filled with the Holy Spirit. So we experience success and outreach by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Bible commands us to be filled.

Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, right? But in Galatians 5:22, we begin to read here some of the fruits of the Spirit. And so Paul describes the fruit of the spirit, it is love. You see, if, if the fruits emanate from us, if the fruits are, are an overflow of what's going on in the, in the inner man, if we are bearing this, this spiritual fruit as it were, That's gonna help us in evangelistic success.

What the world needs is they need to see a people who radiate the joy of the Lord. What the world needs to see is a people who are walking by the power of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit and just overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit, and what happens is eventually, at some point, somewhere along the way, they are provoked to jealousy. I want what you have. Where does that joy come from?

You look different. You, you carry yourself in a different manner, you seem to be just, there's this peace, they don't know it, but it's Shalom, the presence of God. And, and, and, and they, they begin to be open to, to you, sharing with them what it is that makes you click. Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

These are the fruits of the Spirit, and I submit to you. That, that such fruits, ought to be manifest within the context of our family relationships. Brother and sister, are you getting along well with one another? Are you manifesting the spirit's fruit?

And father, son, mother, daughter, parents, children, are, are the is your relationship with those in your family marked by the fruit of the Spirit? Because in so being that sets you up as an individual and as a family, to be positioned to have, a, a positive effect. I'm not arguing for perfection because none, none of us are perfect, but what I am saying is that as we walk by the Spirit and are filled by the Spirit and manifest fruit of the Spirit as we relate one to another, that's beautiful, that's attractive, and that's gonna provoke people to asking, what's up with your family?

What's up in a world where there is so much brokenness and so much fragmentation and parents incarcerated and, and, and kids being abandoned and so on and so forth, in a world where there's this brokenness and, and increasingly so, the idea of family is gonna be increasingly foreign to people.

What the world needs to see is a family that is walking in the power of the gospel, filled with the spirit and manifesting these fruits. So mani manifesting fruit within family, manifesting fruit within your church, Jesus says, by this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. That's an apologetic to the world, that is a testimony to the world. The love and the care and the concern and the unity we have one with another.

And it's not just about manifesting fruit in the family, in the church, but obviously manifesting such fruit within your sphere of influence. And what I am getting at here is, is amongst those that are in your sphere of influence that do not know Jesus. First Peter 2:12, Peter says, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, on account of, of your good deeds as they observe them. Glorify God on that day when he sees fit to reveal Himself to them.

That's what we want. We want for the unsafe people around us that by our example, when the Lord decides to show up at their doorstep, if you will, when he decides to begin to work in a powerful way in them, when he decides to begin to open up the eyes of their understanding, we do not want to be an obstacle to them believing in Jesus. We want for them to be able to reflect upon us and to see in us, not perfection per se, but an example. We want for them to reflect upon us and to, and to see that, I, I don't know what you call it, but, but there was this fruit in their lives.

There was this manifestation of fruit in their lives, and we want for them that because of our example to want Jesus, when Jesus shows up at the doorstep and says, here I am, we want for them to be brought to that place of repentance and belief. In Jesus. Moving on to number 5, we can experience success and outreach by being responsive to the Spirit's wooing, being responsive to the spirit's wooing. We see this throughout the book of Acts.

Where people filled with the Spirit began to proclaim Christ and on the other end of such a proclamation, souls were saved. We see that with Peter, don't we? On the day of Pentecost, he's filled with the Spirit, he stands up, he proclaims Christ, and on that day, 3000 souls were saved. Why?

Because he was obedient to the working of the Spirit. He was Obedient to the moving of the spirit and the spirit caused him to stand up and to proclaim Christ and the Spirit was present, and the spirit was active, and there were those that were there who before hearing Peter speak, they were unsaved and on the other side of hearing his gospel proclamation, they were born again, delivered from darkness, and they were brought into light. Because he was obedient to the moving of the spirit proclaiming the gospel.

There's other examples in Acts 4:29, we, we read the followers, the, the, the, the followers of Jesus, they're praying, they say, Lord, take note of their threats.

We're on the receiving end of threats and attack and persecution. Lord, take note of their threats and grant that thy bond servants may speak Thy word with all confidence. Take note. Of their threats, Lord, and let us proclaim Christ to them so that they may come to faith in Jesus.

They took no offense at the threat, no offense at the threat. They wanted to see that as an opportunity whereby God would grant to them that privilege of proclaiming Christ to these who were sinning against them. And notice what it says a little bit later, just a verse or two later, 31, it says, and when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken. They were experiencing God together, they were filled with the Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

They were filled with the Spirit and out of the overflow of being filled with the Spirit, they were moved by the Spirit to proclaim Christ. What a, what a blessing, to, to read this and, and, and to, and to just begin to wrap our minds around this. Remember Paul at Athens, he was provoked inside, wasn't he, seeing the city full of idols and realizing what that meant about the people and where they were headed when they died, and he was just so provoked that he had to get up and start proclaiming Christ to anyone who would listen.

He preached Christ and then he had An opportunity to speak to a crowd and so he does.

He proclaims Christ to the crowd, moved by the spirit, and the Bible says that on the other side of him proclaiming that, it says when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, we shall hear you once again concerning this. So Paul went out from the midst, but some men joined him and believed. Some men joined him. And they believed, and it says, among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris and others with them, moved by the spirit to proclaim Christ.

seizing the opportunity to preach Christ. And on the other end of the work of the Spirit, there were souls that were ready for salvation. I think about, and I've shared this, I think with you guys before, but this man in New Zealand named Nick. I was living in the island on the island of Guam.

My mom calls me Thanksgiving morning. Grandpa's dying. I call up Grandpa. We pray together.

He receives Christ. Afterwards I'm praying, and one of the things that I pray, oh God, I pray, oh God, that you would send a Christian man to minister to my grandfather. And what, it was within that same week as we have been able to, to, to put the pieces together. In that same week, Nick saw my uncle for the first time in a couple of decades.

And they had a little bit of a chat. And part of what Nick learned was that Uncle Russell's dad, my grandfather, was in the hospital with cancer dying. A few days later, Nick is at church on the Lord's Day and the preacher says, if of a man who's on his deathbed dying, you have to preach Christ. What did Nick do?

Moved by the spirit, motivated by the spirit, the very next day he went to my grandpa. To follow up and to preach Christ and to lead Him. In the knowledge of the scriptures, and the following day he brought his pastor. I'm just saying that's an example of a man that just was sensitive to the working of the Spirit, as God, the Spirit was speaking to him from the pulpit that Sunday, and immediately he applied what he heard.

Let us move on to number 6. We can experience success and outreach by taking initiative and befriending the unsaved, especially those in our spheres of influence. We can experience success and outreach by taking initiative. That's what Jesus did.

He took initiative, and he came into this world. He took initiative by befriending the disciples. He went after them and he chose them, and he welcomed them to follow him and they did, and he made a huge difference in their lives. The great commission.

would tell us that we need to take initiative. He says, go and make disciples. Go. Don't wait for them to come to you.

In a pagan society, they're not just gonna naturally come to you necessarily. they might, as they observe your good deeds and, they come to you and you give them a reason for the hope that you have, they might, but a lot of times people aren't necessarily gonna just come to the church. We have to go to the unsaved. He says, go and make disciples.

Paul himself took initiative in reaching out to different folks in different regions in order to minister the gospel to them. Consider, for example, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1, he says, you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. And he goes on to say how we had the boldness in our God to speak to you, the gospel of God, and we know that these were people who, according to the first chapter of Thessalonians, they did turn from idols to serve a God, living and true, but he says, our coming to you.

We came to you, we reached out to you, we took the initiative, we had it on our calendar, and we decided that, what, this is where we're headed.

Being moved by the spirit, of course, they went to these people. So we can experience success and outreach by taking initiative and befriending the unsaved. And the thing about the Thessalonians is Paul describes his relationship to them, doesn't he, in chapter one. I was like a father to you.

I was like a mother to you. I came and, and I befriended you. I was your friend. I like what John MacArthur has to say.

I am convinced, by the way, that friendship provides the most fertile soil for evangelism. When the reality of Christ is introduced into a relationship of love and trust that has already been established, the effect is powerful, and it seems that invariably when someone becomes a true follower of Christ, that person's first impulse is to want to find a friend and introduce that friend to Christ. I think he's right. I was thinking about the person who led me to the Lord and there were just a few, a few things that I, that I marked down here.

In regard to his influence, his impact on my life, the person who led me to the Lord did the following things. He utilized a common interest to establish a friendship with me. We were both history majors and we were in classes together in college, and then he used that as an opportunity to engage me just about history. He related to me in a warm and friendly manner.

He made me feel as if the best thing he could do with his time is spend it with me. He befriended me. He opened his home to me so that we could prepare for exams together. He got creative and says, how can I get Carlos into my home?

Oh, I know. Hey, Carlos, you wanna come over and we can study for the exam together? He met one of my basic needs by serving meals to me. He would always minister to me through food.

he invited me to join him and a few other, a few, a few of our other classmates to engage in a Bible study in the comforts of his own home, and, and by God's grace, I took him up on it. I would meet at his home once a week to do like a 30-minute Bible study with him and like 3 or 4 other guys. Sometimes it was just him and me. He ministered to me respectfully, being careful not to condemn me for my sin.

The spirit would eventually begin convicting me of my sin. And he would eventually invite me to a conference, an event if you will, that he was going to, and it was there in that location. That the the Lord. paid me a visit.

And this person that led me to faith in Christ. Gave me no reason. To say no to Jesus. So I ask you this morning, do you take initiative?

I'm not saying this by way of condemnation, I'm just by way of exhortation, by way of encouragement, by way of trying to motivate us. I ask you, do you take initiative in reaching out to the unsafe folks in your sphere of influence? And then 7th, we can experience success and outreach by proclaiming the true gospel, the true gospel. In due time when God opens the door and we can speak Christ.

unreservedly. We need to speak the true gospel. In Romans 1:16, Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. The gospel is God's power for salvation, and the, the, the million-dollar question is, are we proclaiming the true gospel?

The apostle Paul gets pretty upset when a false gospel is delivered because he knows that's the beginning towards people veering off track and being rendered, non-effective. Paul says, even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let them be accursed. I'm not about a false gospel, I'm about a true gospel. And there's a lot that we can say about that particular point, but because of time, we're gonna, we're gonna refrain.

But I do want to say to you in terms of proclaiming the gospel, brothers and sisters, we have a Sunday school class, an adult equipping school class that is being offered beginning next week. And the whole focus of it is apologetics, and if you don't know what that means, basically the whole focus is helping us to know how to articulate our faith in a way that is compelling to a nonbeliever or to a person seeking, to a person with questions wanting answers. OK, so I want to encourage you, whether that be in the 2nd service or the 1st service to, to prayerfully consider participating in that class.

I believe Pastor Mike Berry and, and Pastor Bill Payne will be leading those classes.

Is that right, Bill? And so please join them. They'll have a lot to offer by way of just giving you, the intellectual reasons that you need to be able to combat non-belief. But I wanna say though, that at the end of the day, So often, it's not our arguments.

That win people into their kingdom. Into God's kingdom. It's our Christ likeness. It's our being reflecting the image of God.

It's our love. It's our care. It's our concern. The man that led me to the Lord, he had answers to some of my questions, but I think the thing that was most attractive was just the person that he was at that time in his life, just the person he was and the way I saw him relate with people.

There was a beauty there that I knew that I did not have and that I desperately needed. So we can experience success and outreach by proclaiming the true gospel. And so guys, this morning we've answered two key questions. Why should we engage in outreach?

How can we experience success as we engage in outreach? And I trust that the answers that I have provided will serve as food for thought. I trust that God by His Spirit has encouraged and challenged, perhaps even, exhorted you. So as we prepare for God's provision of a new facility, may God continue to motivate and help us in successfully reaching out to a lost and broken people who desperately need the eyes of their heart opened to the life-saving realities of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray. Lord, we just thank you for the opportunity that we have had to look at your word. Lord, I pray that these people would be blessed by your word. I pray, Father, that they would even take the time to, to fill out the information slips, the connection cards, and to communicate whatever needs that they might have.

If there's a person here that hasn't come to faith in Christ and they feel that they need to, they can communicate that to the, to the staff, through filling out. the connection card. Lord, as we prepare to give to you out of the overflow of what you have given to us, it's just a small portion, but we pray, Lord, that you would take what we give to you and multiply it and use it for your kingdom purposes, Lord. And may we sing to you, Lord, with hearts that are filled with praise.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.