The Refreshing Power of Sharing Your Faith | Sunday Message

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast and my objective is to deliver hopefully compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry just go to our website harvest.org.

So thanks for joining me for this podcast. Okay let's go back in time. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away a very young Greg Laurie age 17 came to believe in Jesus Christ. This is what I looked like back then. Okay so I started going to church. I started reading the Bible for the first time I might add and I heard the pastor say you need to go out and tell other people about Jesus Christ and I did want to tell people what God had done for me. My life had been transformed. I found the answers that I and my generation were searching for but I did not want to walk up to a total stranger.

There was a fear of rejection. They might ask me a question I don't have the answer to but I got a little booklet called The Four Spiritual Laws put out by Campus Crusade for Christ and I went out looking for someone to talk to. Understand I had a thimble full of theological knowledge at this point. I knew very little.

I saw a middle-aged woman sitting on the beach in Newport Beach about the age of my mom and I thought well maybe she'll be nice to me. I walked up I was very nervous. My voice was shaking and I said hi could I talk to you about God and stuff and she says yeah go ahead. So I sat down and I was so new at this I literally just read this little booklet. I hadn't even memorized its contents. Page one page two page one God loves you and has a plan for your life. You're separated from God by your sin and I read through it and I remember thinking as I'm doing this this is not going to work.

Who do I think I am? This is the most insane thing I've ever done. I couldn't wait until it was over with. So at least I could say to someone I talked to someone about Jesus. I was planning for failure trust me. So I get to the end of this little booklet where a question is asked is there any good reason why you should not accept Jesus Christ right now? I realize oh that's a question. So I looked up at her and she said no. I looked back down wait does that mean you want to accept Jesus Christ right now?

She said yes. Oh no I didn't know what to do. Well I'd heard the pastor say let's all bow our heads and a word of prayer.

So I said let's pray bow your head. I'm frantically searching this booklet for like what do I do now and I found this little prayer which I let her in and after she was done praying she said something just happened to me and something happened to me too. I discovered the joy of sharing my faith. The thing I didn't want to do.

The thing I dreaded doing ended up being exciting and fulfilling and refreshing. So that's the title of my message. The refreshing power of sharing your faith which is a part of our new series that we're simply calling refresh. Now I know it seems counterintuitive to talk to people about Jesus because it seems hard.

We too are afraid of rejection. But here's the truth of the matter. By the way I don't think Satan wants you to know this. Listen when you tell others about Jesus it will revive you, it will restore you, and it will refresh you as a follower of Jesus Christ. I want to say that again.

It's right there on the screen for you to read. When you tell others about Jesus it will refresh you, it will revive you, it will restore you. Proverbs 11 25 says a generous person will prosper listen and he who refreshes others will be refreshed himself. So this is a very important spiritual principle. Now we all know as Christians we're supposed to share our faith.

You've probably heard of the great commission in case you don't know what it is. It's found in two gospels Matthew and Mark. Mark's version has Jesus saying go into all the world and preach the gospel. Matthew's version is go into all the world and make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and lo I am with you always says our Lord.

The great commission. We know we're supposed to do it but frankly most of us don't. Studies have shown that 95 percent of Christians have never led another person to Christ.

Only two percent of churchgoers invited an unchurched person to church in the last year and 59 percent of all Christians say they seldom or never share their faith with others. Honestly we're a little bit like Jonah. By the way we're going to be looking at Jonah chapter three so turn in your bibles there and we talked about Jonah a little bit in my last message which was titled the refreshing power of revival. But we can be like Jonah. We don't want to bother ourselves with the needs of others.

We'll get into this a little bit more in a few moments but Jonah was called to go preach to these people who lived in Nineveh and Nineveh was the capital of Assyria and the Assyrians were the enemies of the Israelites and as a patriotic Jew he didn't want to go preach to his enemies. He didn't care about him and we can be this way as well. If we're brutally honest we'll say I don't really care that much about non believers and I have what I need and I don't want to share it. Hey this goes back to our childhood when we were taught to share we would be happily playing with a little toy as a baby or a toddler and then another child's introduced into this setting and someone says share your toy with your cousin or your little friend and you start fighting over the toy.

We don't like to share. Often as Christians we hoard the truth but listen the gospel by design is meant to be shared not hid and sometimes we're hoarders of truth instead of sharers of hope. Sometimes we become so inward in our focus we miss this great truth as you give to and serve others you yourself will be replenished and refreshed.

Jesus put it this way he said give and it shall be given to you pressed down shaken together running over and with the same measure you give it will be given back to you. Listen the Bible says that God is looking for people to show himself strong on behalf of. He's looking for someone well like you who will actually say use me Lord I'll go where you want me to go.

I'll say what you want me to say. Listen will you be that person if so a wonderful adventure awaits you. I believe that sharing your faith can be exciting joyful and dare I use the word fun.

Yes you heard me right. As psalm 126 says those who go out weeping carrying seed to sow will return with songs of joy carrying their sheaves with them. You've heard that old song bringing in the sheaves bringing in the sheaves that's what that's about. You go out with sadness concern for people that don't know the Lord but you come back with joy because people have come to Christ. Jesus said there's joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance and C.S. Lewis pointed out quote joy is the serious business of heaven end quote. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than it is to receive and that word blessed is interchangeable with the word happy so you can translate it as follows it's a happier thing to give than it is to receive and that is certainly true when we're sharing the message of the gospel. I already pointed out that there's joy in heaven every time a person puts their faith in Jesus Christ and if there's joy in heaven because of that there ought to be joy on earth and in our hearts if we had the privilege of playing a role in that as well. Listen next to personally knowing the Lord the greatest joy I know is bringing others to him and then watching them grow and be transformed. 3rd John 1 3 excuse me 1 4 says I have no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in truth. Joy there's joy in telling people about Jesus and seeing them grow in Jesus. The apostle Paul wrote to the believers there in Thessalonica about the great joy he was experiencing as he watched them grow spiritually and he said in 1 Thessalonians 2 19 what is our hope or our joy or crown of boasting before the Lord Jesus at his coming?

Is it not you? You Paul writes are our glory and our joy. Listen to this the happiest Christians are the evangelistic Christians. Let me say that again the happiest Christians I know are the evangelistic Christians and the least happy Christians I know are the nitpicky kind.

They're arguing over theological minutia and never telling others about Jesus. It was the old country preacher Vance Havner who once said if we're too busy using our sickles on each other we're going to miss the harvest end quote. Yes there is a happiness that we are missing out on if we're not sharing our faith. You know they have done studies and found that when you help someone else there's an actual release of endorphins. They call it the helper's high an actual euphoria that one can experience by helping a person. Now that's true in just helping in general but when you're pointing a person to Christ and they would come to believe in him that's the greatest joy of all. You know as Christians sometimes we find ourselves down and depressed and lethargic. We don't understand it because we're reading our bibles we're praying we're going to church we might even be in a small group but there's a sort of depression that is set into our life and we wonder why. Maybe it's because you need to start thinking of others instead of just yourself. Maybe this is not all about you.

This is about you getting grounded in your faith and then helping others to come and believe in Jesus. I have a 10 step cure for depression. Now before I give it to you let me just say I acknowledge the reality of clinical depression and I know some people have a serious struggle with this.

I'm not really talking about that. Talking about the depression that many people have in life. So I have a 10 step step cure for depression.

So you might want to write this down. 10 steps. Step number one find someone who has greater needs than you and do something for them. Find someone who has greater needs than you and do something for them. That's step number one. Step number two is repeat step number one nine more times.

Get it? The idea is look at the needs of others and share Jesus with them. You see Satan wants to steal your joy as a Christian and he wants to keep people from coming to Christ. He doesn't want you to hear what I'm saying to you right now because it's a direct threat to the kingdom of darkness. The devil's not happy he lost you. He's not happy that you transferred your citizenship from his kingdom to God's kingdom. He's not happy you changed your eternal address from hell to heaven.

But I'll tell you what if you want to make him really unhappy start trying to bring people out of his kingdom into God's kingdom and he will stop you. But listen God wants us to do this. He wants us to share our faith because God chooses to reach people through people. In fact we're told over in Romans 10 14 how can they call on him unless they've believed in him. How can they believe in him unless they've heard about him and how can they hear about him unless someone tells them.

How true. Now look God could do this work without us. He could roll away the heavens and poke his face through and say hello humanity I'm God and you're not.

Believe in me right now but no God chooses to reach people through people. So back to the story of Jonah. Now when we think of the story of Jonah as I pointed out last time we focus on the whale. But the book of Jonah is not about a whale.

There's only two verses that deal with that crazy sea monster he got swallowed by. The book of Jonah is a story of a massive revival that came about through the efforts of one man and that man was Jonah. He was called to preach to Nineveh which was a great city by the way. The population of Nineveh was around 300,000. It might have been a little smaller but that was a mega city back at that time. The reason the population was so high is because it became the capital of Assyria.

There was a magnificent palace built there so it was a very very large city of its day 300,000 strong. It was a great city we read in Jonah 1-2. But Jonah said I don't want to go preach to that great city. So then we read in Jonah 1-4 God sent a great wind and then that wind brought a storm and Jonah was ultimately swallowed by a great fish. Jonah 1-17.

But the ultimate story of Jonah is about a great God who showed great love to a lost city like Nineveh and offered them his forgiveness. If we miss that we've missed the whole point of the story. So I heard the story of a police officer who pulled over some guy who had two penguins in the back seat of his car. The officer said sir I don't know if you know this but penguins are an endangered species. You can't drive around with penguins in your car so take them to the zoo. And the man said I will officer. The next day the officer saw him driving around with the penguins again but this time they were wearing Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. The officer said excuse me I told you to take those penguins to the zoo yesterday.

The man said I did and now we're going to the beach today. Yeah I think he kind of missed the point of what the officer was trying to say and we can very easily miss the point of the book of Jonah. God turned around 300,000 people through one man.

How was he able to do this? Because you and I well we want to be the Jonah in our neighborhood. The Jonah in our family. The Jonah in our sphere of influence.

Hopefully mine is being swallowed by a sea monster. Okay so if you're taking notes here's point number one. It takes a changed person to change other people. It takes a changed person to change other people. It started with Jonah himself. Of course he was swallowed by maybe the whale or whatever that creature was and it was in the belly of that whale that Jonah had a personal revival.

It was there that he repented of his sin and recommitted himself to the Lord and was willing to do what the Lord called him to do. And so what happened? The whale cruises up to the beach there on Nineveh. I wonder what that was like. You're just sitting out on the beach catching some rays watching the surf and all of a sudden you see this large object coming toward you. The Ninevites might have stood up.

What is that? What that it's a it's a whale and and the whale pulls right up in the shore and opens its mouth and vomits. The Bible says he vomited. Jonah out comes Jonah. Boom.

Ta-da. I wonder what he looked like. His skin was probably bleached white from the gastric juices of the sea creature. He probably smelled worse than anyone you've ever smelled before and he has a message 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Wow what a story this is.

But listen Jonah was the right man at the right place at the right time. I wonder if you know somebody right now that the Lord has been nudging you to talk to. You know it's interesting for me because sometimes they'll be out and about and I'll just see someone and and I just the Lord I don't know how to explain this but just in my heart I sense I should go start a conversation with them and and I don't know what to say to them exactly. I don't know how the conversation will go. I don't know anything about them but I've sensed I've come to realize that I need to respond to those promptings of the Holy Spirit.

That's how it starts. It's just a little nudge, a little prompting, a little direction. Look at that person right there.

Why don't you engage that person in a conversation? Did it ever occur to you that God has placed you right where you are right now to reach certain people? One of my favorite Bible stories is the story of the beauty queen Hadassah. It's found in the book of Esther. The king of Persia wanted a new queen so he had this beauty contest and Hadassah a very attractive young Jewish woman entered the contest.

She had been raised by her uncle Mordecai. Her father had died and incredibly she won the beauty contest and she became the queen of Persia. Sounds like a fairy tale right? Her prince comes and now she's the queen and if it was a fairy tale it would end with these words and they live happily ever after.

But this isn't a fairy tale. This is a Bible story which means it's true. It actually happened because a villain enters the story more sinister than any villain you've seen in any child story with a plan to literally exterminate the Jewish people and meanwhile Hadassah also known as queen Esther was oblivious to what was going on. The king signed a decree that every Jew would be put to death but Esther was living in the lap of luxury.

You know she was being pampered there in the palace and she knew nothing of the plight of her fellow Jews. So one day her uncle Mordecai shows up outside the walls of the city and he's calling out for Esther. Someone says I think this guy is related to you. She goes oh send him some new clothes and he didn't want new clothes.

He wanted her attention and I love what he said to his niece. He says to her if you keep quiet at a time like this deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place but you and your relatives will die. Then Mordecai makes this very well-known statement but who knows perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this.

In other words he's saying Esther this is your wake-up call. This is why you are where you are. You're not there by coincidence. You're there by providence to save your people and if you don't do it God will find someone else.

Did it ever occur to you that you are where you are because God wants you there? See the problem is is when we become Christians we want to remove ourselves from bad influences. Stay away from ungodly people who might tempt us to do ungodly things and that's good but we have to be careful that we don't lose contact with non-believers. We can sort of retreat in what we might describe as a Christian bubble. You know we we listen to Christian radio. We buy our car from a Christian car dealer. We watch Christian movies and we've boycotted so many stores there's none left to go to anymore. We're sort of isolated all by ourselves but listen Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel. So I have to go. I have to leave my comfort zone, my safety zone even.

Jesus did not say the whole world should go to church but he did in effect say the church should go to the whole world. So you need to go to where people are to that person in the restaurant that's serving you. Tell them that God loves them. Make sure you leave a tip.

Don't be a cheapskate. Nothing worse than sharing your faith with a waitress or a server and then not leaving them a very generous tip. But what about that person?

You're pumping gas around the other side putting gas in their car. There just might come a moment for you to start a little conversation. Start by praying and ask the Lord to lead us because you are where you are for such a time as this.

Now listen to this. God does not need you to accomplish his work. God can reach people without you but he would rather be reach people with you and through you. Again Mordecai said to Esther if you keep quiet at a time like this deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place.

So seize the moment. What else do we learn about sharing our faith from the book of Jonah? Number two. Jonah went to where the people were. Jonah went to where the people were. Jonah 3 3 says Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city. It took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city crying 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

Then we read these words. The Ninevites believed God. He went right into the middle of the city. He could have just shouted it from the shores of Nineveh. 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

Thank you very much. Whale I need a ride back somewhere. No he went into the city. He could have shot a tweet out. No they didn't have twitter back then. But he could have got the message out in other ways but he realized I need to go into the middle of the city where people are.

This massive city of 300,000 people. Listen we need to go to unexpected people in unexpected places to share with them what will be an unexpected message. That's why here at Harvest we're online for you every weekend and you may be watching us at our website harvest.org. Maybe our Facebook page.

Maybe on YouTube. You might be watching this on television. You might be hearing this on radio.

These are the various media platforms that we use. We're always looking for ways to reach people that you would not normally reach. People who would not necessarily darken the doorway of a church. We read a letter a little bit earlier from that gentleman who was a trucker. He heard our ministry while he was driving his truck and we were able to invade his world.

And this is the thing as Christians we're not called to isolate. We're called to infiltrate and we're called to permeate. Number three our message. The message of the gospel must be delivered with urgency.

It must be delivered with urgency. Notice it says in Jonah 3 4 as he entered the city he cried out 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. He cried out. This is by the way not the first time that Jonah cried.

He also cried out in the belly of the fish. And Jonah 2 he says we read Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly and he said I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction and he answered me out of the belly of Sheol I cried and you heard my voice. Are you in a time of affliction? Are you in a time of difficulty? Are you in a time of trial? Cry out to the Lord. Jeremiah 33 3 says call out to me and I will answer you says the Lord.

I'll show you great and mighty things that you do not know. Jonah took the desperation he felt in the belly of the sea creature and channeled it in what God had called him to do in bringing the message to the people of Nineveh. Jonah had been transformed in the fish's belly. Jonah should have died in the fish's belly. He had been saved and preserved by God. Jonah was a resurrection man and people cannot argue with a transformed life. Jonah should have been dead but he was alive and well. Because of this there was an urgency and there was a passion in what he was saying.

Do you have an urgency and a passion in reaching other people? Jonah certainly had it. There was an authenticity in his voice. He was a changed man as I pointed out. He probably was also a bleached man who smelled of vomit perhaps and fish but he had a mission and he was going to fulfill that mission and the people of Nineveh could see this was a resurrection man. This was a man brought back from the dead. There's a lot of power in your personal story and I want to talk about that a little bit in our next message from this series that we call refresh and how to tell your personal story when you share your faith with others. But I want you to think of a story in the New Testament. It's called the story of the woman at the well.

It's in John 4. We don't know this lady's name but fascinating story. We know she was a Samaritan and the Samaritans and the Jews wanted nothing to do with each other. There was a lot of tension there, racial tension and then also we know she was an immoral woman because she had been married and divorced five times and she was living with some dude when she encountered Jesus. Now the thing with this woman is she would go and draw water in the heat of the day.

Why? Because she went when nobody else was at the well. The other ladies would go to the well earlier in the morning, catch up on the latest town gossip but she was ostracized.

She was rejected because of the lifestyle she had chosen to live. So she's there all by herself drawing water in the heat of the day and who is waiting for her but Jesus Christ the very Son of God. He went out of his way to meet with her because unbeknownst to her she had an appointment with God. And there she was at that well and Jesus entered her world and then she heard the truth of his message. How if she drank of the water he gave she would never thirst again but there would be a well of living water coming out of her life and she believed she realized she had been talking with the Messiah and we read in John 4 28 she left her water jar she came back to town and said to the people come see a man who told me everything I ever did could this be the Messiah then we read this they came out of the town and made their way to Jesus why because she was a resurrection woman she was a woman who had been changed they knew her she had a bad reputation but they saw her passion and her excitement for what Christ had done for her and as a result they came and wanted to hear Jesus for themselves. You know I love the way Jesus connected to her he asked her questions he listened to her he didn't come off as a know-it-all don't be a know-it-all I know you know certain things as a Christian but sometimes they're talking to an unbeliever and they'll say something well that's wrong that's so stupid why would you think that just listen don't be a know-it-all who was more of a know-it-all than Jesus. He literally knew it all I mean technically knew it all because he was omniscient which means all knowing sometimes you're accused of being holier than thou don't be holier than thou who was more holy than Jesus he was the holiest of any man who ever walked the planet because he was God incarnate but he didn't come off holier than thou the Bible says he was a friend of sinners he entered her world he listened to her he took time with her and it resulted in a transformation. Listen effective evangelism is not a monologue it's a dialogue now when I speak at our crusades and here's what one of our crusades actually looks like I have the privilege of standing on a stage and speaking to 30,000 50,000 people sometimes more sometimes less it's effectively a monologue occasionally someone might yell at me from the audience but generally it's me speaking through a microphone through a massive sound system to a lot of people that's a monologue but when I share my faith one-on-one it is a dialogue I don't walk around with a pulpit like this on wheels you know on the market pushing it down the aisle got my bread my bottle of water hey how are you doing let me tell you about Jesus now I don't do it like that I enter people's worlds I listen to them I don't tell them I'm a pastor up front if they're a stranger because they'll run away in terror if they're talking to an actual preacher but I just try to be a friend to them and so here's some interesting stats for you to consider 79 percent of unchurched people agree with the following statement I don't mind talking to a friend about their faith if they really value it isn't that interesting 79 percent that's the majority people who are not believers are saying I don't mind talking with a friend about their faith if they value it so they want to see do you actually believe this yourself do you value this yourself the barna group asks non-believers what they value most when talking about spiritual things with someone listen they answered they want people to listen without judgment listen without judgment this isn't easy for some Christians you want to judge people you want to condemn people you want to yell at people that's not how you're going to reach people the objective is not to win the argument it's to win the soul the goal is not to burn the bridge it it's to build the bridge which means you you listen with love you let them tell you their story and then you appropriately apply the message of the gospel point number four we are to preach the message he has given us not our own message our own version of the gospel the message he has given us verse two uh here in Jonah 3 says go to Nineveh that great city and preach to it the message that I give to you God has given you a simple message to give you your job is to deliver the message I used to be a paper boy and I had a paper route and I had a really cool bicycle it was a Schwinn stingray with a handlebar sometimes they're called ape hangers had a roll bar a banana seat and best of all a stick shift a stick shift on a bicycle I don't even think they would allow that today but I had my bags holding my newspapers cruising around in my Schwinn stingray and my objective was to deliver the paper I got pretty good at clearing the hedges and sideways throw the over the top throw the underhanded throw you know and I got pretty good at it and so my job was not to write the news my job was not to be in the news my job was to deliver the news that's still my job my job is to deliver the good news of the gospel I don't need to add to it I don't need to take away from it and that brings me to my next point we must to let declare the gospel now listen if I'm if I have the luxury of time I'll take the time to hang out with the person talk with them get to know them enter their world I won't hit them immediately with both gospel barrels it might be a time of just sowing a seed it might be a time of watering the seed that someone else sowed of the gospel in their heart and it might be a time to reap there have been times when the Lord has directed me to ask a person point blank would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now it doesn't happen all that often but I think of one time when I was out to lunch with some of the pastors from our church and the server was helping us and she took our order she said you guys are from the church here in town harvest right yes we are yeah she said I've been thinking of coming out to your church one of your service times because I need to get right with God and I felt prompted by the Lord right then and there to ask her a question I said would you like to get right with God right here right now she looked a little surprised she's got her tray you know the uh here I said yeah you could pray right here and right now and commit your life to Jesus Christ she set her tray down and said yes I would like to do that and I was able to lead that server to the Lord now that's not normally what happens to me but there are those moments the Lord says do it now other times we're just sowing the seed we're watering the seed so if you have the luxury of time do that but let's contrast that to a different scenario let's say you're in a plane plane and all four of the engines were out and the plane was on fire and it was headed to the earth so you know your time is limited I hope you would have the presence of mine to proclaim the gospel you don't have time to turn to your seat mate and say well tell me a little bit about yourself where do you live no no you tell him the gospel there's an urgency that was the case with Jonah he had basically 40 days to reach 300 000 people so with this urgency he went and preached this message let me say something about preaching because the bible says that we should preach the word and be persistent whether the time is favorable or not we are to preach the word preaching doesn't mean yelling preaching is proclamation maybe you elevate your voice to be heard by a large crowd maybe you're talking to people one-on-one I've actually seen Christians like preaching yelling at people that's great don't do that calm down lower your volume listen more and lovingly share in an understandable way the things that they need to hear the primary way that God has chosen to reach non-believers is through the verbal articulation of the gospel you may preach it you may text it you may tweet it you may share it conversationally but the idea is I tell people that there is a God in heaven who loves them and sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for their sin and Christ rose again from the dead three days later listen to this there's only two things the bible tells us have power it's God himself and the gospel the gospel in particular because we read over in Romans 1 16 Paul says I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes the word for power that Paul uses is the Greek word dunamis the story is told of a man named Alfred Nobel he had invented this material that exploded there had never been anything like it before what would he call this explosive device he talked to a friend who knew Greek and a Nobel asked him what is the Greek word for explosive power and the man said oh it's dunamis and so he called it dynamite so there's dynamic dunamis explosive power in the simple message of the gospel the gospel what is the gospel we talk about the gospel oh I love the gospel I live by the gospel we should preach the gospel do we know what the gospel is why do we make the gospel so complex so complex it isn't what does the word gospel mean literal translation good news it's good news why do we make the good news bad news and the way we deliver it or the way we distort it or the way we leave parts out of it no deliver the explosive dynamic dynamite gospel of good news to people you know sometimes before we can appreciate the good news we have to first know the bad news I heard about two old guys that love to play baseball and they wondered will there be baseball in heaven so they made a deal if one of them went to heaven first he would somehow communicate with the other and tell him whether or not there was baseball in heaven well uh one of the friends passed and a week later uh he spoke to his buddy still on the earth through the clouds he said buddy I've got good news for you there's baseball in heaven and his friend was so overjoyed and he says but I've got some bad news too you're pitching on Friday that's a joke that never happened but good news and bad news so here's the bad news you're a sinner I'm a sinner we're all sinners the bible says in romans 3 23 we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god we also read in first john 1 8 if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us don't assume that your listener will necessarily know what sin is so you may have to help them with this and the bible is sin it can be translated different ways one word that the bible uses for sin is translated trespass and that means to cross a line so you've seen the little signs in the park no trespassing right so you want to immediately step over it and step on the grass or if it says don't touch wet paint you want to touch it don't you so trespass is to deliberately cross a line but another translation of the word sin from the greek word harmatia means to miss the mark so imagine a game of archery and uh and you go first and you fire all 10 arrows into that target but none hit the bullseye so you miss the mark now let's say that I step up with my 10 arrows and I miss the target altogether I hit a cow over in the field I hit a building I hit a bird flying over so I miss the mark now did I miss the mark more than you miss the mark yes but the goal is you got to get the bullseye and the bullseye is perfection so when the bible says they've sinned or missed the mark it means I've fallen short of god's standard for humanity what is that perfection so a person might say to you well are you perfect your answer must be no that's where Jesus comes in because God knew I could not hit this mark God knew I could not be a perfect person and by the way someone might say well I'm a good person and you might be surprised to hear me say I won't necessarily dispute dispute that I would not say no you're not a good person you're a bad person I'd say I'm sure you're a good person but you know what you're not good enough to get to heaven because you've missed the mark but here's the good news Jesus died on the cross for your sin Romans 5 says God showed us great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners here's the verse every Christian should memorize I'll put it up there on the screen that's in its entirety for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life that's the gospel in a nutshell share that message with someone if you know John 3 16 you are effectively armed and dangerous one last point our message must be authoritative Jonah's message was an authoritative message it was an unapologetic biblical directive from God almighty and so is the gospel and so as we proclaim this message of Jesus he's not one of many options he's the only choice another verse you ought to memorize John 14 6 it's there on the screen Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but through me there's only one way to come into this relationship with God because the Bible says there is no other name given under heaven whereby a man can be saved we have an authoritative message the greatest revival in the history of the world came to Nineveh because Jonah proclaimed God's message and not what they necessarily wanted to hear let me close by saying I challenge you to leave your comfort zone I encourage you to go to your Nineveh so to speak and engage people in conversations about Jesus I'll talk about this more next time but let me just close with this maybe as you're watching this you have not believed the gospel what is the gospel again it's good news the gospel says God loves you and God has a plan for you and it says God will forgive you of all of your sin but you must admit you're a sinner and you must ask Jesus Christ to come into your life to be your savior and lord and you can do that right here right now Jesus who died on that cross and rose again from the dead three days later stands at the door of your life and he knocks and he says if you hear his voice and open the door he'll come in one day the people came to Jesus and said we want to see a miracle we want to see a sign here's what Christ said no sign will be given you but that of the prophet Jonah that is Jonah was three days and three nights nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth in other words Jesus says you want a sign here it is I died on the cross for your sin and I rose again from the dead you might say oh come on Greg if you could just do a miracle something to impress me then I would believe show me and I'll believe Jesus in effect says believe and I'll show you this is the message you've been looking for this is the answer you wanted in life it's a relationship with God through Jesus who can come and live in your life and listen forgive you of all of your sins you can put your past behind you and have a new beginning a fresh start but you need Jesus to do that so in a moment I'm going to pray and I'm going to lead a prayer and I would ask any of you that are watching right now who have never asked Jesus to come into your life you don't have the confidence that you go to heaven when you die you have guilt that you carry around with you I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer with me you could pray it out loud if you like you could pray it quietly but say this to the Lord if you want Jesus to come into your life right now let's pray together pray these words Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead I turn from my sin now I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and my Lord and my God and my friend thank you for thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer in Jesus name I pray amen. this prayer in Jesus name I pray amen.