How to Share the Gospel in 60 Seconds

How can I share the Gospel in just 60 seconds? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity.

Well, Happy New Year. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We'd love to hear from you, and you can call us right now at this number, 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Our phone lines will be open for the next 25 minutes or so, so now is the time to call. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and of course you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. And Adriel, first up, today we have an email question from one of our listeners named Dave, and this actually I think strikes home for a lot of people in churches today. Dave says this. Dave, thank you for that question.

The answer is yes, they can. This is actually a wonderful thing, you know, people coming to the church and wanting to hear the Word of God proclaimed. Now, if the Word of God is being faithfully proclaimed, if Scripture is being taught, then they are going to be confronted with their sin.

And so, you know, I would say if you have a church where there are a bunch of people who are there and they totally reject the ethics of Scripture, you know, they reject what the Bible says about sex and sexuality, about drunkenness and so forth, and they're never being confronted with their sin, well, that's a problem because that indicates that the Word of God is not being faithfully taught. This is all said in 1 Corinthians 14 in the context of spiritual gifts. And one of the things he highlights there is when people are prophesying, which I think you could think of also is, you know, telling forth the Word of God. He says, The Word of God brings conviction. We can't be under the ministry of the Word and have the Spirit of God at work in our lives and just left in our sin. And so if they're coming to hear the Word of God preached, I think that's good. I don't think you ever want to say, no, you can't do that because, you know, we want people to hear the Word of God. We're forced to think about, okay, well, the claims of Christ.

What do I believe about this? And this is where the church should come alongside of leadership, and the church in particular should come alongside of these individuals and walk with them through the teachings of Christ, the Gospel, and bringing them closer into the truth so that they might participate more fully in the life of the church through repentance, through baptism, and then, you know, receiving the Lord's Supper. If they reject the Word of God and the call to live as Christ, you know, commands us in His Word, well, then they ought not to be baptized. If they're unwilling to follow Christ, they ought not to be baptized. They shouldn't be participating in the Lord's Supper. I mean, think about what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 about judging ourselves, you know, not coming to the Lord's Supper flippantly, but, you know, taking account, stock of our sins and turning from them so that we might not eat and drink judgment to ourselves.

And so there is a line when it comes to participation. There are some churches that say, you know, oh, just come, come one, come all, doesn't matter what you believe, you know, this table is for you, you can partake of the Lord's Supper, regardless of what, you know, this is just for you. Well, it's for the people of God in relationship with Jesus Christ who have trusted in them and have confessed their sins. And so, so there is a wall of separation there, but when it comes to just, you know, folks wanting to come and hear the word of God, I don't think we should ever prohibit that. We want them to hear the word of God so that they might turn to Christ.

Thank you, Dave, again, for your question. May God bless you and your church and give the leadership of your church wisdom and faithfulness to preach the word well. Let me ask you a follow up question as a pastor. I know at your church you have children that attend the service with their parents. Let's say you have a same sex couple who starts attending the church and is openly affectionate in front of those children.

Then what do you do? Yeah, well, I mean, I think if you had a situation where any couple was being inappropriately affectionate, you know, people are making out in the pews or whatever, you might want to have a conversation. In fact, you should probably have a conversation with them because coming together for worship, and actually, you know, I brought up 1 Corinthians 14, where one of the things that Paul talks about is all things being done decently and in order.

The focus in worship is not on us. We're not trying to distract our neighbors, you know, with our spiritual gifts and with these displays of religiosity or, you know, these inappropriate displays of affection. And so I think at that point, somebody needs to say something, regardless of who's exhibiting the affection. Now, of course, it does raise other questions, you know, when you think of a same sex couple coming in. I mean, right there, if you have two people who are doing that and sort of trying to put it in your face, I think, well, are they here to hear the word of God, or are they trying to sort of be a stumbling block for others? And in situations like that, then I think you do have to, as a church, say, okay, you know, it's one thing to come in and want to grow and hear the word of God preached.

It's another thing to come and try to be a disruption. And you have to deal with that. You have to address that because you want worship to be undisrupted from everything. You know, as much as is possible, you want the focus to be on God, and whatever is getting in the way of that, we have to address that.

Good counsel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open on this second day of a new year, and we would love to hear from you. Maybe you have a question about the Bible, the passage that has always kind of confused you. Maybe there's something going on at your church that you're concerned about and you're wondering, is this really biblical?

How should I respond to this? Here's our phone number. You can call us for the next 25 minutes at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

We do get voicemails here at The Core, and here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Dave. My question is, before, after I was saved, I've committed adultery over the years, and now I'm divorced. I don't see how the Lord could forgive me.

I just think that I've been so much. I know what the Bible says and what pastors tell me, but I still look at women lustfully, and it's in the book that that's adultery, so I'm not sure if I can ever break this, if I'm doomed for hell or what I can do. I'm in the Bible, I go to church, I pray, and I just can't seem to get the demons out of me. Dave, brother, let me just take a moment right now to pray for you and invite others to pray for you as well. In this spiritual battle that you're in, I can tell that you're discouraged and maybe even feel a sense of hopelessness as you fight against this sin, lust. So let's pray for Dave and ask for the Spirit of God to fill him and to strengthen him, to give him hope, not in himself, not in his own strength, but in the power of God to forgive sins and to sustain his people. Our Father in Heaven, we come before you right now, and we lift Dave up to you. Father, do not let him be crushed by his sins and the despair that often comes with that struggle, that can come with that struggle against sin, Lord, feeling hopeless. O God, would you give our brother hope, not in himself, but in you, in your willingness to forgive, in your grace through the Gospel, and in the power of your Holy Spirit to put to death those sinful deeds that we wrestle with, Lord, that you would sanctify our brother, even as you promised to do for all of your children in Christ, those justified that you are at work in them by the power of the Holy Spirit, molding them more and more into the image of your Son. Would you do that for Dave, and would you give him encouragement through the Gospel? We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Dave, what I would want to say to you is, one, just recognizing first, in the fight against sin, it can be overwhelming, we can be very discouraged, but I want you to know that God is for you in this fight. And so you have the greatest ally in the fight against sin, and in particular, in this fight against lust.

I think about what the Apostle Paul told to the church in Thessalonica. He said, this is the will of God for you, your sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality. And John, in his letter, says, we know that if we pray anything according to the will of God, that God hears us. He answers those prayers. And so, Dave, I want you to pray confidently to the Lord, in accordance with what God has said in his word, that, God, would you sanctify me? Would you, by your Holy Spirit, sanctify me and give me grace in this fight against lust? And know that when you pray in that way, I mean, it's just what Jesus taught us to pray as well, right? Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from all evil.

You're praying in accordance with the will of God, and when you pray in accordance with the will of God, God hears you. God is in your corner. And so don't give up.

Don't feel hopeless. Because God is in your corner, you have the greatest hope. Not just that the Spirit of God is and can be at work in you to sanctify you, as the apostle Paul talks about in places like Romans 6-8, but that the forgiveness of Jesus Christ is abundant to all those who come to God in faith. That you can come to the Lord even after having struggled with a lustful thought.

You've let your eyes wander. It's not okay. There's no excuse for that, and yet you can come to the Lord again and say, Father, forgive me.

Help me. Have mercy upon me. And know that He does forgive you, that you have not dried up the ocean of God's grace towards all those who confess their sins and come to Him broken and contrite of spirit. So I just want you to know, Dave, one, that the mercy of Christ is sufficient for you when you come to God asking for forgiveness, and that the Spirit of God and the power of God's grace is very real and able to work in your life. So don't give up hope and pray with that confidence, knowing, God, this is your will for me, my sanctification, so I'm coming to you saying, Lord, sanctify me. And sometimes in those moments, brothers and sisters, sometimes the prayer is, Lord, help me to even desire that, because I don't desire that right now. Help me, God, to long for and desire the good, the right things that you call me to in your word.

And if that's what you're praying, know that God hears you and that your prayer is in accordance with His will. And so may the Lord be with you. May you be comforted in the hope of the Gospel. And rest assured of the fact that God does not abandon you in this fight. No temptation is overtaken, as Paul told the Corinthians, but that which is common to man. God is faithful. He's not going to allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but will provide the way of escape. And so take that way of escape and continue to submit yourself to the Lord, resting in the grace that He gives you through Christ.

Amen. You know, I'm guessing that Dave's question, there are a lot of people that feel the same way. It's like, you know, have I done things that are so bad or currently doing things that are so bad that God could never forgive me, that God could never love me? I think that's a real common question.

It is. I mean, if you listen to the broadcast, you know, I mean, that's one of the things we get all the time is, is God through with me? And I do think, Bill, that that's one of Satan's tactics is he wants us to feel despairing and hopeless and to think that our sins are too great for God so that we don't go to the Lord when just the opposite is true. Our sins, really, sometimes it can be an issue of pride. I think that I'm a better sinner than everyone else in one sense and, you know, my sins are too great for even God to deal with.

And so I'm hopeless. No, we humble ourselves before the Lord and we say, God, I trust in your power to forgive my sins as bad as they are and as ashamed as I feel, Lord, I trust in you and I look to you and I'm clinging to you. And that glorifies God when we humble ourselves before the Lord and we trust in him instead of wallowing in our sin. When we look up and we say, God, I trust you, you are able to save me and I trust in you. That brings glory to God. And so that's what we want people to do. We want to point people to the God who is able to save to the uttermost and who does.

So well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, you name it, we would love to hear from you. We'd also love to pray for you if you have some area of struggle in your life right now and could use prayer. Here's the phone number. 833 The Core.

That's 833-843-2673. You know, at some point, if you're a Christian, you are likely to have a conversation with someone who doesn't believe in Christianity and asks you some tough questions about your faith. And we want to help you be ready to respond. That's one of the reasons we produced or created this wonderful little booklet written by Doug Powell. It's called Tough Questions Answered.

And it's one of those short booklets that you can read probably in one sitting or maybe a couple sittings if you want to take some more time in it. But what we've done here is we've put together a lot of the tough questions that you oftentimes hear, objections to the Christian faith, and sought to give some information, some helpful answers that you can use for yourself to encourage you in your faith or to engage with others about these topics. The first chapter is on science. Does science make religion unnecessary?

Does science disprove the Bible's account of creation? Really important questions. But you have a section on world religions, on the Bible and inspiration, on morality.

And of course, we've already had some questions today on morality and sexuality. So get ahold of this resource. Again, the booklet is called Tough Questions Answered. And you can pick it up for a donation of any amount over at corechristianity.com. It really is a fantastic resource. And we believe it will help you feel more confident in your faith and defend your faith when it comes under attack. And again, answers so many great questions that often come up. And you can get Tough Questions Answered for a donation of any amount by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, that's corechristianity.com forward slash offers or call us at 833-THE-CORE. Well, let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners. This is from Sally. I would like to know when you are trying to witness to people, you have at least three minutes.

Everybody is just so in a hurry. How do you witness to people in a short amount of time for it to be effective? Well, thank you for that question. I mean, when it comes to it being effective, this is where we really have to rely upon the Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit of God who makes the word of God efficacious in our lives. Meaning that the power of the word is with the Spirit working together with the word. And so we never perfectly share our... A lot of times we walk away from those conversations, we feel like, man, I wish I would have said things differently, or I wish I would have said more, or maybe I wish I would have said less. But you can rest in the fact that God, by His Spirit, works with even our weak attempts to communicate the faith. Now, that doesn't mean that there isn't a right way to do it.

There is. When it comes to sharing the gospel and witnessing, the focus has to be not on us and what we do, but upon the work of God for us in His Son, Jesus. I love the way that the apostle Paul summarized the gospel in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'll begin in verse 1. He says, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you. So this is, here it is, the gospel. The gospel I preached to you, in which you stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.

And here it is. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. So what does, what does, as Paul says, look, here's the gospel that I preached to you guys. And you could summarize it in less than three minutes.

You really need 30 seconds, 30 seconds here. He says, look, Christ died for our sins. In accordance with the scriptures, what the prophets said, Christ died for our sins.

He was buried and rose again from the dead for our justification, Paul says in Romans chapter 1. And so the gospel isn't about what we do, you know, us doing good things. A lot of times people confuse the law and the gospel.

The law is a good thing. And as a result of our having believed in the gospel, we should live in accordance with God's law, the law of liberty, the call to love God and to love our neighbor. But the gospel is the fact that Christ died for our sins, and that He rose again for us, giving us the hope of eternal life. And so as you're sharing the gospel with people, if we're not communicating the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, we're doing it wrong. We're missing, we're sharing the gospel without actually giving any good news.

The good news is that Christ died for sins and was raised again so that we could have the hope of eternal life. And so you never know, you know, the conversations that you get into. I mean, you hope that, you know, you're able to have a longer conversation, a relationship actually where you can share the love of Christ in word and in deed.

But sometimes you do only have, you know, 60 seconds, 3 minutes, something like that. And in situations like that, remember that it's the Holy Spirit that makes the word effective and that the word that we preach, that gospel that we share with others, is about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Amen.

So well said. Thank you for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Viola, who is calling in from St. Louis, Missouri. Viola, what's your question for Adriel?

Happy New Year. Just want to ask you, Pastor Sanchez, about Genesis chapter 4 verses 14. This is after Cain has killed Abel, his brother, and God is punishing him. And he says, I'm afraid that everyone, everyone that finds me shall slay me. I'm like, who else is in existence?

That's a great question. Who else is in existence? Thank you.

Yeah. Hey, Viola. Happy New Year. And may the Lord bless you this year with just a greater love for him and a deepening understanding of his word. I love that you searched the scriptures. And this is a great question, similar to, you know, some people will ask in verse 17, it says Cain knew his wife, and people say, well, where did he find his wife? And then, you know, again, who are these other people that he's afraid of?

He's afraid that people are going to take vengeance upon him for what he had done. And the simple answer just here in the text, I would say, is that Adam and Eve clearly had other children. You see this in chapter 5, beginning in verse 3. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered his son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years. And he had other sons and daughters.

Thus, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. And so I think there, even in the text, we could conclude that there are other family members, other siblings that aren't necessarily named. They're not central to the story here. And they're the ones who Cain is concerned about.

He's afraid that they're going to take vengeance upon him for what he's done. And that's why you have, essentially, God saying what he says to him there. And so, there you go.

I would say check out what's recorded there in chapter 5. And hopefully that clears it up a little bit for you, Viola. God bless, and again, Happy New Year.

Thanks, Viola. Appreciate you listening to Core Christianity. Let's go to Sue, calling in from Indiana. Sue, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, I was calling—you were talking a bit ago, and I missed a little bit of what you shared regarding a same-sex couple coming to the church, attending the services. Yeah, and I was—what came to mind was, I think it's 1 Corinthians 5, where it talks about dealing with immorality in the church, you know, where one person goes and speaks with them, and then if they don't really hear them, they bring another person and they share with them. And if they aren't hearing either one of them or listening, then they'll leave the church until they've cleared up the sin and then, you know, confess their sin and try to get back on the right path.

Hey, Sue, excellent question. So, a couple passages that you're bringing together but that are relevant to this discussion. 1 Corinthians 5, the Apostle Paul is talking about judging believers in the church, members of the church, who are engaged in sexual immorality. And he says, you exercise church discipline.

That was the other passage you were bringing up, Matthew chapter 18. The question we were dealing with earlier was, what about people who maybe aren't members of the church? They don't necessarily profess Christ yet, but they're coming and they're listening. They would still be considered, quote-unquote, outsiders.

And so they're not under the same sort of disciplinary structure. And what you do in situations like that, I would say, Sue, is you call them to faith and repentance in Jesus Christ as the word of God is being faithfully taught. Hopefully, they are brought under conviction of sin. They're, you know, being spoken to by, you know, the elders and the pastors and other members of the church encouraged to follow Jesus so that they do bring their lives into alignment with what the word of God teaches. But if somebody is a, quote-unquote, believer and they claim to follow Christ and they're members of the church and they're engaging in sexual sin, then there needs to be church discipline.

There needs to be that process that's described in Matthew 18. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, go to corechristianity.com forward slash radio, or you can call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, let us know how we can be praying for you. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.