Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on October 12, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
The children are dismissed by the children’s church.
Luke chapter 12. This is page 924 in the Pew Bible.
Luke 12. Pew bible, page 924.
We’re continuing our series in Luke today. Just as a reminder, the first 11 chapters were about why Jesus is the Messiah. Through the miracles, the testimonies, his teaching, his followers. Luke is presenting to us that he is God in the flesh, the Messiah. He deserves our attention and our allegiance.
Follow him and listen to him. And then we get to chapter 12. It changes to how we’re supposed to live as people of God. We look first that we are to live to please God, not people. Last week we looked at maintaining a proper perspective of fear and respect for the Lord.
And today we’re looking at the fact that we are to live lives that prosperity. Proclaim vocally Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. May we read together? And I say to you, anyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Whenever they bring you before synagogues and rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how you should defend yourselves or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour when what must be said. May we pray? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.
We ask that you would impress upon our hearts the message that it has for us today, that we would see anything that we need to change, that you would help us to live more in accordance with reflecting your Son in this world. That you might attain more followers to worship you throughout eternity and to give you the glory and the praise and the honor that you deserve for all time and beyond. It’s in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. The first thing we want to see is the importance of public profession.
And we go back to verse eight. And I say to you, anyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. We have two terms that we need to understand here. One is acknowledge.
That means that we confess Christ Jesus personally. We’re not just talking about him because we know about Him. We are talking about him because we know Him. He is an intimate part of our life. And on the other hand is the word deny.
And that means to say, I have Absolutely no connection to Christ. There’s a lie that a lot of Christians believe and that lie is, well, if I just live a good life, people will watch me and they will know from my life that they need to follow Jesus. That is a lie. Don’t believe that living your faith quietly pleases God, because that’s not what this passage is telling us. Your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co workers will not come to faith just because they see you being a good person.
They need to hear about Jesus. Jesus. Jesus doesn’t offer us a middle ground here. He’s saying, you either confess that you belong to me or you say there is no connection. There isn’t this in between option that says that I can be quiet and be good and please the Lord.
We are supposed to be professing him to others. Let’s go to Luke chapter nine. Luke’s already said these words of Jesus to iterate the same thing. There in Luke 9 we read, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and the holy angels. The question is, do you want Jesus to ever be ashamed of you?
I know growing up, part of the reason why I was a compliant child is I didn’t want to do anything to embarrass my parents. Now maybe you all were not that way. Maybe some of you enjoyed embarrassing your parents. But I didn’t want them to be ashamed of me because I loved them and I respected them. And in the same way, I don’t want to do anything or say anything that would embarrass my family or that would make you as a church ashamed of me.
Because I have a relationship with you and I love you. If I love Jesus, then I should feel the same way toward him. I don’t want him to be ashamed of me.
There is an importance of public profession throughout scripture. A public confession of Christ. It’s an acknowledging that you belong to Christ. And in that day what that equal to is meant that the Roman world was going to be against you. There were going to be various means of cruel and painful torture.
There was going to be death by stoning. People were covered with pitch and hung on posts and set on fire just to provide light for nighttime entertainment. They were even wrapped in animal skins and they were thrown to vicious hunting dogs. Jesus was telling his disciples, knowing this was coming, it’s simple to follow me. You just have to place your faith in me.
But it’s not going to be easy and he was telling these people, you need to be bold in professing me in spite of all these evil things that might happen. And yet here in America today, some of us are afraid to share the gospel because somebody might fall frown at us or they might not want to listen to us anymore. We don’t face anything like this. Rod Mattoon describes what life was like in that time. During the time of Christ.
Many Christians were severely persecuted in the early days of the church. The price paid was often the ultimate in resentment against the Gospel. The Romans invented charges against the Christian, such as accusing them of being cannibals because in the Lord’s Supper they spoke of eating Jesus body and drinking his blood. They accused them of having sexual orgies because they had love feasts, and even of setting fire to Rome. They branded believers as revolutionaries because they called Jesus Lord and King and spoke of God’s one day destroying the earth by fire.
So by the end of the first century, Rome had expanded almost to the outer limits of the known world and unity became more and more of a problem in the Roman Empire. And because the Roman Emperor personified the entire empire, the Caesars came to be deified as gods. And their worship was demanded as a unifying and cohesive influence. And it became compulsory to give a verbal oath of allegiance to Caesar once a year, for which a person would be given a verifying certificate called a libellus. They just had to show up, do a little bit of incense and say, I follow Caesar.
Once they said, caesar is Lord one time a year. Then they were free to worship any other gods that they chose to worship. But because faithful Christians refused to declare such an allegiance to anyone but the Lord Jesus Christ, they were considered traitors, for which they suffered confiscation of property, loss of work, imprisonment, often death, and all of these terrible atrocities that were done against them. Pliny was a governor of the province of Bithynia in northern Asian Minor, and he wrote a letter to the Emperor Trajan. He was trying to explain why he had been so unsuccessful in stamping out the sect called the Christians.
He had tried arrest, fines, imprisonment, beatings, torture, various forms of execution, all in order to get the Christians to renounce Christ and just to burn a pinch of incense to Caesar as an act of worship. But it was to no avail. And in trying to excuse himself before the emperor, he said, none of these things that I have done, none of these acts. Those who are really Christians can be compelled to do what you are asking them to do. How many of you face any of these things today.
And yet God asks us not to be ashamed of him. There is an importance of public profession. It was true in the Old Testament, first Samuel 2:30. But now this is the Lord’s declaration no longer, for those who honor me, I will honor. But those who despise me will be disgraced.
God has always required us to honor him. Then in the New Testament, this is trustworthy. In Second Timothy we read, if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. And here’s what we’re pointing out today.
If we deny him, he will also deny us. But if we’re faithless, if we’re lacking some faith, we just have a little bit. Jesus still remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Even the psalmist proclaims, I will speak of your decrees before kings and not be ashamed. How many of you know who Charles Schulz is?
What’s the famous Christmas movie that we always watch? A Charlie Brown Christmas. Maybe some of y’ all are too young. Charles Schulz was a believer, and when he came up with this idea for A Charlie Brown Christmas, he talked to a couple producers, and they had a hard time finding any network that that said that they wanted to show this film. They finally found one that agreed, but he wanted to include something in the show that gave it its most significant meaning.
And it’s the time when Linus walks out at the Christmas program and what does he read? He reads the Christmas story. Well, when they read his script, his friend said, no, you can’t put this in there. It’s going to affect people. Nobody’s going to be for it.
And his answer was, if not us, then who’s going to do it? He knew that he needed to proclaim the gospel, and he did it in that show. Let’s go to Romans chapter 10, 8, 10, and just see where they have the importance of public profession. Here again in verse eight, we read on the contrary. What does it say?
The message. And that’s the emphasis here. We have a message to share. He says, the message is near you. It’s in your mouth.
You’re speaking in, and it’s also in your heart. This is the message of faith. And he says that this message is so important that we proclaim it. He goes on to say, now if you confess with your mouth, if you in turn present the message that you believe, and you say that Jesus is Lord, and you also believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, because one Believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. There is a message and it’s important that we proclaim it.
And in all these instances in Scripture, faith is always followed by confession. The question is, do you really know Jesus or do you just know about Jesus? You can know about all of his miracles, you can know all about his teaching. You can know that he died on the cross for your sins and was buried and he was raised from the dead and. But that’s just knowing about Him.
To know him means that you have a personal, intimate relationship with him, that he’s the most important person in your life. Faith without confession, if people just believe, but they’re not willing to speak it out, should be a red flag of concern. Is it really faith in someone’s life if they’re not willing to profess their belief in Christ? If we truly believe that Jesus is who he says he is, and if we truly believe that he will do what he says he will do, what could possibly lead us not to share about Him? We might deny him because of fear.
But we’ve just learned we’re not to fear people, we’re to fear God. Why else might we deny Christ? Well, you might be not willing to share him because you really don’t know him and you really don’t believe that he is the Almighty, all powerful, all knowing, ever present, Sovereign Lord of infinity and beyond. And you might not believe that he has really given you the gift of salvation. But an unwillingness to bear witness of Jesus A once again, it may be an indicator that you know about him, but you really don’t know Him.
Is your unwillingness to bear witness due to the fact that you have something other than what we call saving faith? How many of you know a famous person?
Okay, how many of you know about a famous person? So if I asked a person that knows a famous person to come up and share about them today, they might be able to tell you a lot of personal information that would be very different than someone else that just knows about them. And that’s the difference with Jesus Christ. You can know about him, but if you don’t have an intimate, personal, knowing relation with him, then you are not one of his followers.
Now, I want to emphasize that it’s not the profession of your faith that saves you, because what is necessary is that you have faith. Let’s go back to Matthew, chapter 7. And Jesus shares about these people that are professing his name. They’re doing miracles in his name because they know about Jesus, but they don’t actually know him. Not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
And on that day, many will say to me, not just a few, but many, lord, Lord Jesus, didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we drive out demons in your name and do many miracles in your name? But Jesus says, I will announce to them I never. And here’s the key. Knew you.
They knew about Jesus, but they didn’t know him. Depart from me, you lawbreakers. Professing Jesus does not mean that you are saved. Professing Jesus is not equivalent with placing your faith in Jesus, but it is a necessary thing in order to please the Lord that comes after you place faith in him. When Mary and I started dating, it was probably about four weeks before I knew that I loved her.
And it wasn’t until I knew in my heart that I loved her, that I began to tell her with my mouth that I loved her. Now, I could have professed my love to her and not had it in my heart. And would that have been real love? No, it would not have been. It’s the same way with Jesus.
We have to place our faith in him first and have this relationship so then we can share it with others. If I had verbally expressed my love with my mouth but did not have love in my heart, then my love would not have been genuine or real. It’s necessary to have faith in your heart, but that should come out in verbal expressions. We go to Matthew chapter 7. Jesus shares this parable about two men.
One of them has faith in his heart and the other one does not have faith in his heart. Jesus said, therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. You all know the story, the wise man built his house, house upon the rock. Did you sing that one growing up? Okay.
And the house on the rock went. I mean, sand went. Smashed. It was always fun. We were kids.
Jesus says, the rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew, and they pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse because its foundation was what on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine, in other words, they know about me, but they don’t act on them. Will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house and it collapsed. And it didn’t just collapse a little bit, it collapsed with what a great crash. Two men.
They both have the same blueprints, they both have all the same construction materials. They have the same instructions on how to build the house. But only one of those houses is going to stand, and that’s the one that was built where on the rock. Jesus is saying, there are people that look like they’re followers of me, exactly like followers of me. But they’re not followers because it’s all external and they haven’t actually placed their faith in me.
They haven’t built their house on the rock. There is no other foundation that leads to certainty of salvation. That is Jesus Christ alone. The necessity of faith precludes it precedes the fact that we willingly profess about him. Then Jesus comes to the subject of blasphemy.
In verse 10, he says, anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. I just want to read some definitions from some Bible scholars about this. J. Vernon McGee says when a man blasphemes with his mouth, that is not the thing that condemns him, it is the attitude of his heart. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is to resist his convicting work in the heart and life. And it’s not a one time condition.
It’s like this permanent condition that that person has decided it’s never going to go away. Zodiatus says it’s reviling against the Holy Spirit. It means to resist the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and not being willing to repent. RK Hughes defines it this way. What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
Helpfully, we know from Matthew and Mark and from an earlier passage in Luke that Jesus made this declaration after the scribes and Pharisees had attributed his cures to Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils. In other words, they attributed the mighty works of the Holy Spirit to Satan. And this is what Jesus said there is no forgiveness for. He also says that the blasphemy is not so much a matter of blasphemous language, but of a conscious, persistent, wicked rejection of the Spirit’s witness. It is a setting of the mind against the Spirit of God.
Let’s go to Matthew and Mark and just read a little bit about where this first comes up. There was a demon possessed man who was blind and unable to speak that was brought to Jesus. And Jesus was able to heal him so that the man could both speak and see. And all the crowd was astounded and said, could this be the son of David? Now you have to understand that in Jesus time and in the Old Testament, the priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, they believed that you had to know the name of the demon that was inside the person in order to exorcise that demon.
And so they would ask the person, give me the name that is inside of you. And the problem here with this man, he’s unable to do what speak. He would never be able to share the name of the demon that was inside of him. And in everybody’s mind, this man could never be freed from that demon. But Jesus, because he is the almighty God, he was able to do this astounding miracle that no one else believed could happen.
And all the people said, could this be the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, this man drives out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. Do you hear the insult there? It wasn’t like we don’t believe him. They’re attributing what he did to Satan.
In Mark 3, we read the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said he talking about Jesus is possessed Beelzebul, and he drives out demons by the ruler of the demons. I want you to think of three different types of people. Person number one says, I don’t really care about God. I don’t want to listen to what you have to say about him. Continue to pray for that person, because there’s still hope that someday they will change their mind that they want to hear.
Person number two says, well, I’ve heard about God. You’ve shared with me about Jesus, but I’m not ready to believe or I don’t want to believe. I’ve heard that’s an honest person saying, I just don’t want to make the choice. But that’s not what these scribes and Pharisees were doing. They said, I’ve heard about God.
I’ve seen Jesus do these impossible things that only God could do. But instead of giving glory to God, they give glory to who? They give glory to Satan. And they say that Satan is glorified here because basically Satan is able to cast out these demons and Satan is able to heal. But throughout Scripture, we know nothing of Satan ever healing anybody or giving life or wanting to do anything good.
Satan came to kill, to destroy and to steal away from us our relationship with the Lord. They were actually honoring Satan by attributing only things that that God could do to Satan himself. And this is why they had performed blasphemy. They were so hardened in their heart that they were calling God the devil.
Jesus now shares about the promise of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Verse 11 we read whenever they bring you before synagogues and rulers and authorities. Don’t worry about how you should defend yourselves or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said. Jesus said, the Holy Spirit indwells you. You shouldn’t fear sharing the gospel with people because he’s there to help you.
Now this isn’t an invitation to neglect preparation and study. It’s a promise that he’s going to help you with what you already know and what you have already learned. That’s why it’s important that we read the Bible, that we learn how to share the Gospel and then the Holy Spirit enables us to present it in the right way and to remind us of what we’re supposed to say. Let’s look at Acts 4, 8, 13, and we see an example here of how the Holy Spirit was working in Peter.
Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and he said to them, all of them. And he’s speaking to the religious leaders and the people, rulers of the people and elders. If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man by what means he was healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and he puts on the blame who you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead by this man is standing here you healthy. This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation and no one else.
For there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved. It sounds like he’s been to seminary. It sounds like he’s had a doctor’s degree. He is speaking boldly to all these well educated religious people. And he sounds like he’s on the same level or the par of intellect and knowledge as them.
But the truth is, what type of upbringing did Peter have? What was his job? You remember, all he’d done was fish all of his life. He hadn’t been to seminary, he didn’t have all of this training. But he had the guidance of the Holy Spirit in him to lead him.
And in his text, when he’s talking about the stone that’s rejected by the builders, the Holy Spirit is reminding him of passages in the Old Testament that he has read and he knows about. He goes on to tell us in verse 13, that when they. All of these people with doctor’s degrees and seminary training, when they observed the boldness of Peter and John and they realized that they were. What does it say? Uneducated and untrained men.
Where I come from, we call them rednecks. Okay, Do y’ all have rednecks up here?
And they were amazed, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus by the guidance of the Spirit.
John 14:26. Jesus gives us this promise. The counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things. And what does it say remind you of everything I have told you? I must admit, if Mary sends me to the grocery store and she gives me more than three items, I. I can’t remember it.
Can y’ all any relate? I can keep two things in my mind. So in order to keep me on track and to remind me that’s the important word. She used to give me a piece of paper. Now we have an app on our phone, but I can only be reminded of something that I’ve already what heard or something that I already know.
It’s important for you to spend time in God’s word to understand the gospel. And as you study it, then the Holy Spirit is going to remind you. And if the time comes that there’s something you don’t know, then he steps in and he teaches you something. The Holy Spirit reminds us of what we have already heard and what we have already read. So we have the responsibility of believers.
Go to First Peter 3. Even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Jesus said it’s simple to follow him, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. He says, do not fear them or be intimidated. He’s saying, don’t fear these people that were going to do these awful things to them, but in your hearts, regard Christ the Lord as holy.
And then what does it say there? Be ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you now. You might say, well, I don’t really know how to share the gospel. Well, then you need to learn what the gospel is so that you can share it. You might say, well, what if they asked me a question and I don’t know how to answer it?
Do what I do. Say I don’t know. Talk to Hunter. Okay.
A lot of times people will just try to sidetrack you with a question. Just say, I don’t know. Let’s get back to what I’m sharing with you today. But you need to be ready. And if people don’t accept the Gospel, that’s fine.
You haven’t failed. You don’t save people. You just tell them how they can be saved. Second Timothy we read, be diligent to present yourself to God. Be diligent and study.
Be diligent in your homework. Be diligent in your housework. Be diligent in your job. We all know what it means to be diligent. Timothy we read, be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed.
There’s that word again. We don’t want to be ashamed in front of God someday. And the way we’re not ashamed is if we correctly teach the word of truth. And that doesn’t mean you have to be an excellent speaker. It’s just doing it correctly.
Moses led the people in the Old Testament, and he said that he could hardly talk and he stuttered and he had all these verbal communication problems, but God still used him. But it requires you to be diligent in your studies. The Berean Christians set a great example for this, and they were commended for it. In Acts 17:11 we read, the people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica. More noble character.
Obvious. They were better. And why is that? Because they received the word of truth with ignorantness and they examined the Scriptures every Sunday for 30 minutes. Is that what it says?
No. They spent time in God’s Word daily because they were searching to make sure that what they were hearing to see if these things were so. It is your responsibility to know God’s word to the best of your ability and to do it diligently. Why is it so important? Let’s go to Romans chapter 10, verses 14 through 17.
A series of questions is asked. How then can they call on him they have not believed in? In other words, if people haven’t believed in Jesus, they’re not going to be able to pray or or talk to Him. And how can they believe unless they have done what they have heard about Him?
And how can they hear without a preacher? And we’re not just talking about all the pastors in the world, because all the pastors in the world. There are not enough of us to share the Gospel with everyone. All of us as believers are expected to be preachers of the Gospel. How can they preach unless they are sent as it is written?
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Not all obeyed the Gospel in Other words, when you share the gospel, not everybody is going to be obedient to you. Even Isaiah said that in the Old Testament, Lord, who has believed our message, he says so. Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. There has to be the Gospel.
It has to be presented so people can hear it. And if we aren’t presenting the Gospel, people are not going to come to salvation. People can’t believe unless they hear. And we are God’s chosen proclaimers of the Gospel. He could have had angels fly throughout the heavens.
He could have printed the gospel on the clouds. But he didn’t do that. He calls us to share it. So what are some reasons why I should want to share about Jesus? Number one is I fear God more than I fear man.
I share the gospel with somebody and they frown at me or they walk away. Wow. Why should I be embarrassed to share? I should be more fearful of God than man. I should share the gospel because I have this loving, intimate relationship with him.
And I’m proud to tell everybody else about it. Just like I love my kids and my wife and my friends and my church. I want to tell people about my love for all of you and for them. I should share the Gospel because I am filled with gratitude for God because of what he has done for me, because I understand the immensity of my sin, what Jesus did to pay for that. I should share about Jesus because I know that the Holy Spirit will help me to know what to say.
And I should share about Jesus because I know that people must hear the name of Jesus and the message of salvation if they are to be saved. Just watching me be a good person does not provide people with what they need to become followers of Christ.
There’s this odd statement here, and it comes out of the Old Testament. Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. How many of you would say your feet are the most beautiful part of your body? Be honest.
Nobody. I’m not going to show you mine. But the interesting thing is that what becomes beautiful is the most homely part of the body. And it’s beautiful because those feet are what bringing the good news. Even the feet of those that share the gospel are beautiful.
Meaning that your verbal faith is what makes you a beautiful person. It’s not just your lifestyle, it’s the message. So what is the gospel that we share? We got it printed up here every Sunday. We allude to it a lot because it’s the reason why we’re here.
Help me with it here today. See how much you remember. We’ve been over it many times. The gospel story starts out in Genesis 1. Why do we start there?
Because it’s the first thing that God tells us. He tells us all about the creation. And we know that the creation was what?
God did not create anything evil. They had everything that they needed. And because everything that he created was good. And nothing evil was created, nothing bad was created, that tells us about the character of God. He is what God is good.
There is no evil in him. But he created Adam and Eve. Not so they could be servants, not so they could be slaves. Because he didn’t need anything from them. He created them because he wanted to have this intimate, personal, ongoing fellowship, friendship, family with them.
And you can’t get that from a person unless they choose to have that type of relationship with you. So God gave them a choice. And he said, don’t eat from that tree over there. And he even warned them. He said, if you eat from that tree, you’re going to what?
You’re going to die? And he knew that it was going to cause evil in the world and bring sin and bickering and arguing and marital problems and sin and death and cancer and all these terrible things that we have today. He warned them that if they made that choice, it was going to be what? Destructive. And just like little kids, we tell our kids, don’t touch the hot stove.
And what do some of them do? They touch it. That’s right.
Because they wanted to do their own thing. Instead of being obedient to God, they made that choice and it was destructive. And sadly, it’s left all of us with. Now what’s the next word? A condition.
And cancer is real and awful. Divorce is real and awful. Adultery is awful. Child abuse. All these things are terrible.
But the worst condition that we have is what we say, the condition of death. And it’s not just physical death. We’re talking about eternal separation from God. And if God is everything good and wonderful and awesome, and we’re going to be in that goodness and wonder for eternity and enjoy it. What’s the opposite?
It’s to spend eternity where there is nothing good at all. And when you take away everything that is good, what are you left with? Just utter chaos and evil for eternity. That’s the condition that we are all left in.
Do any of us have enough money to cure ourselves? No. Can any of us come to church enough times to cure ourselves? No. Can any of us do enough good things for other people to cure ourselves?
No. God said, there is no cure that you can do for yourself. So God in His graciousness, meaning out of his abundant love and desire to give us something free, he sent the the cure for us. And that cure came in his son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose from the dead. And if we place our faith in him, it’s just like placing your faith for cancer in a medicine or you need a heart surgery.
You place your faith in that doctor that when you’re completely knocked out, he’s going to take care of the problem. That’s what it means to place your faith in Christ alone and say, I have nothing to do with my salvation. I. I’m accepting you to cure me. And then the promise is that we will now be new creatures, that God will make everything right that was turned evil. And that starts in your heart when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
And it’s going to expand one day when he restores everything to the way that it is supposed to be in the new creation. Again, this is just knowing, but we talked about, you can profess these things, but you have to make a decision in your heart and you have to tell God, I accept this gospel and I want you to cure me and I’m going to live for you and I’m not going to be ashamed to share you with others. So my encouragement to you is today that think about being proud in the right sense to stand in front of God and know that you presented the Gospel to your family, to your friends, to your co workers, to your neighbors. Don’t stand before God someday and say, I was too embarrassed or somebody might have hurt my feelings or I didn’t know how. We got a lot of things out in the foyer.
We try to make it easy for you. We got a thing called what is the Gospel? If you don’t know what to say, you can just read through this with someone. Okay, you can send it to someone. It’s kind of written in a conversational tone.
You might pick up a Gospel of John and the question on the back is, what really matters in life? It’s a question that everybody wants to know.
People are very visual. This is a film and it says J E S U S. It has the gospel on it in like 27 different languages. How hard is it to just give this to someone with the word this person means a lot to me and I care about you. Would you just watch this once? If you have kids at home, have family devotions with them, present the gospel over and over.
We give these booklets out there called Keys for Kids to help you lead them to the Lord. And these are really made for youth, aren’t they, Hunter? Is that right? This is a gospel presentation. It’s the Book of John with lots of notes and things in there that’s really good for youth.
We have those available and we put these things out for you. Start praying. God, who do you want me to share with? Pick up something as you leave today. Take action so that we might bring others to be true followers and worshipers of Christ.
Christ, may we pray? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that the gospel is something that is simple to understand. Help us to be bold in our presentation and to be diligent in our preparation that we would know how to do this with others and that we would wake up each day and walk out into the world wondering who might we have a chance to share with today? In your son’s name we pray.
Amen.
Amen. That’s.