Let's pray. Our father, your people are gathered here to hear from you because your name and your renown are the desire of our hearts. So Lord, whatever has been going on in our people's lives this week, whatever tasks lay before them in the week ahead, I pray that for these next 45 minutes, for these next 30 minutes, Lord, that that you would give us ears to hear from you. And because we come and we say like Simon Peter, Lord, where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Speaker 1:And so speak to us by your spirit and write the truth of your word upon our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Just last week, I had the great privilege of joining our college mission trip to the Dominican Republic. There were 30 of us that went down to partner with Filter of Hope, and we brought clean water and the good news of the gospel to impoverished communities within the Doctor.
Speaker 1:We saw the Lord do some pretty amazing things. It was awesome. We brought water filters to around a 100 families, and there were around 15 people that professed Christ at the end of the week. It was awesome. So thank you guys, first of all, for letting me join our college team there.
Speaker 1:For our first few days, as we were sharing the gospel, things weren't necessarily going well. We would tell the Dominican people about the good news of God's grace and a lot of people believed in God, they had some sort of religious background, but they resisted this idea that we were saved solely by grace. They believed that we were saved first by God's grace, and then we kinda finish God's work with what we do. In other words, we're saved by grace and works. And our team began praying heavily for the Dominican people that God would give them his eyes.
Speaker 1:That God would grant them understanding, that they might understand the beauty of grace. And on our last afternoon, after we'd gone to pretty much every house in these first two villages, I was in the back of the bus with a student who pointed out to me that we had stopped a number of times and then kept going and we made 4 or 5 u turns in the last hour. And he just says to me, I don't think we know where we're going. I don't think that there's a plan. Which if you have heard anything about our trip, you would know that that is probably the case.
Speaker 1:After all, we were supposed to be in Haiti until, about three and a half weeks before we headed out. The civil unrest within Haiti, kinda prevented us from being able to go. So we were going to El Salvador, which was great. Delta was super helpful. They said they were more than willing to fly us into El Salvador.
Speaker 1:They just weren't willing to fly us back home. My wife was not very excited about that idea. So about 10 days out, we landed on the Dominican Republic. So it was just amazing that we had any plan whatsoever. But eventually, we stop outside a small village and my team of 5 and our translator, we get out and we walk up to this house, where one girl gets out the water filter, she takes a bucket, she explains how the filter works and installs it.
Speaker 1:Then another girl on our team started using the filter as a means of sharing the gospel. And then Juan, who is the owner of the house, he stopped and he said, you know, I've actually been thinking about becoming Which was amazing because we hadn't asked him to do that. And so me, of little faith, I start asking him a number of questions. I say, do you believe and understand that God is holy? That God is the creator of absolutely everything?
Speaker 1:That God owns everything and all glory is due his name? Yes. Do you believe that you have sinned and rebelled against this God in such a way that you cannot hope to fix your relationship on your own with him? Yes. And so on and so on.
Speaker 1:And then Juan prays that Jesus would save him from his sins. And we go up the hill, and we meet a woman named Jacqueline, who's there with her 7 year old grandson, and the same thing unfolds. A few minutes later, Jacqueline is asking Jesus to forgive her for her sins. When we get back to the bus an hour later, we meet up with our team, and somebody else shares that at a house that they were at, 3 family members all prayed that Jesus would save them. And our team may not have had a plan, but god did.
Speaker 1:All of these students prayed, and they raised this money thinking that they were headed to Haiti, but God was orchestrating all of these events all along to get us exactly where he wanted us to be, which was at Juan's door. So that he might hear the good news of the gospel, that Juan and Jacqueline and 13 others might rejoice in the kindness of our God. And our team got to see the smallest glimpse of the mysterious sovereign hand of God at work in the salvation of his people. In Acts chapter 18, the curtain gets pulled back just a little bit for the apostle Paul, and he, too, catches a glimpse of the mysterious sovereign hand of God and salvation. That God is at work, saving people from every tribe, tongue, language and nation.
Speaker 1:Last week, if you were here, you heard Joel preach from Acts 17, where the Apostle Paul, he was in Athens and he was provoked by the city's idols. So he used images and poetry from within the Athenian culture, to try to share with the people there, that there is a God and that they will face judgement one day. It doesn't go particularly well. So after a short while, Paul leaves Athens and he heads on a 2 day journey to Corinth. Corinth is one of the biggest, most prominent cities in the Roman Empire.
Speaker 1:It's famous for its sexual immorality and for its wealth. And when Paul arrives, he just so happens to run into 2 Jewish Christian tent makers. I want you to read that. That is not a coincidence. They've been freshly booted from Rome, and Priscilla and Aquila, they give him a place to stay and a way to provide for himself, until verse 5 tells us, Silas and Timothy show up with an encouraging report about what's happening in the churches in Macedonia.
Speaker 1:And they also bring with them a financial contribution, so that Paul is now freed up to go into full time ministry. And this is not an important detail whatsoever, but I would be remiss if I didn't say this. At this point in our story, our dear friend, Silas, he goes the way of Minkus on Boy Meets World, Judy Winslow in Family Matters, and 85% of the characters in Lost, just disappears without a trace. No explanation. We don't know what happens, and we're just supposed to roll with a plot like we don't care.
Speaker 1:And so we will. Verse 6, and when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and he said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. What Paul is saying here, is in essence, I have done everything that I can do.
Speaker 1:I have told you about who Jesus is and why he's worth following. I've carried out my responsibility, but how you respond to Jesus is on you. JC Ryle once wrote, If man is lost at last, it will be his own fault, and his blood will be on his own head. Why will you die, o house of Israel? You will not come unto me that you may have life.
Speaker 1:This is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. The bible never says that sinners miss heaven because they are not elect, but because they neglect the great salvation, and because they will not repent and believe. It is the love of sin, unbelief, and unwillingness to come to Christ, which ruins souls that are lost, end quote. Make no mistake here. Paul, dusting off his garments, he still desperately longs for his Jewish brothers and sisters to come to faith in Christ.
Speaker 1:In fact, in Romans chapter 9, which Paul writes from Corinth later, he says that he could wish himself accursed. In other words, he could wish, if it were possible, that he himself were cut off from Jesus, if only that would mean that his brothers and sisters would believe. He's still desperately praying for these people. He's just plead in every way that he knows how. But the Jewish Corinthians have neglected the great salvation, And God has to be the one to open their hearts.
Speaker 1:And so, Paul moves on. In verse 7. And he left there and he went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of god. His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household.
Speaker 1:And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. I remember going to New York, when I was in maybe 8th grade, for the first time, with my family. And we were visiting Chinatown and Chinatown is full of, let's call them street vendors. Right? So I am walking down the street and I see that there are Rolexes for $20.
Speaker 1:I was out of my mind with excitement. So my dad and I walk up to this guy and all of a sudden, a police officer starts walking down the street. My guy, he packs up all of his stuff, he immediately ducks down in the alley and he is sliding over to another street. And as soon as the police officer walks by, the guy starts yelling through the alleyway, my dad and I follow him, and all of a sudden, I buy a $15 Rolex. And, I can just imagine that this is a little bit like what Paul is doing right here.
Speaker 1:Do you notice where he is? He gets kicked out of the synagogue and where does he go? Literally next door. You can just imagine him continuing to preach just a little bit louder, making sure that his voice carries just over that fence, so that they can continue to hear him in the synagogue. And the Holy Spirit uses it.
Speaker 1:There are people in Corinth that come to faith in Christ, even the leader of the synagogue. And the Lord said to Paul 1 night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you. And no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed a year 6 months, teaching the word of God among them. When I was studying this passage, this was maybe the most surprising thing to me.
Speaker 1:God shows up to the apostle Paul, of all people, and he says, do not be afraid. This is Paul. This is the guy who gets shipwrecked. He gets beaten, beaten with rods. He gets stoned.
Speaker 1:He gets bitten by a snake. He receives the 39 lashes. If anyone is not going to be afraid, it's gonna be the Apostle Paul. But God doesn't waste words. Right?
Speaker 1:The only reason why God would have said this to Paul is because he is afraid. In fact, later, when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he tells them, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. But why was Paul afraid? Well, one reason might be that he is at a very low point in his ministry. He's more or less been kicked out of the last 3, or He traveled to Macedonia and he was pretty much kicked out of all three cities that he visited there.
Speaker 1:He shows up to Athens. He presents these wonderful arguments, but pretty much no one cares. He shows up and he's got this great situation going on with Priscilla and Aquila, but as soon as he goes into the synagogue, the Jews oppose and revile him. But that doesn't seem to be all of it. Because after all, Paul gets this vision after a bunch of people come to faith in Christ.
Speaker 1:Isn't that strange? So we don't know exactly why Paul was so afraid and discouraged at this moment, but this is a great opportunity for us to highlight what Jeff preached on a few weeks ago, that the people in the bible, like Paul, they're not superhuman. They're frail. They are failing sinners just like us, who need to depend on Jesus because they're not Jesus. And you can imagine Paul here, going back to God's word and going back to prayer, like he always does.
Speaker 1:And as he comes to Jesus, laying his burdens down at Jesus' feet, Jesus, the wonderful counselor, shows up the perfect time with the perfect words to the apostle Paul for his comfort. Saying, I am with you and I am with them. And I want you to hear me say this, that the God who spoke to the Apostle Paul in this vision, he still speaks. You can still hear his voice. But the primary way that you are going to hear God's voice is by opening his word and asking his spirit to speak.
Speaker 1:Most of what Paul heard from God in this vision is all over the Bible. Paul already knew that if you know Even if he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, that God was not going to leave him or forsake him. Paul knew that when God called Joshua to be Moses' successor, that he told them, Do not be afraid. I will be with you wherever you go. Paul knew that when the disciples were terrified in the boat, when it was storm tossed in Galilee, that Jesus, he was there in present form, and he told them not to be afraid.
Speaker 1:And if you are a believer here, even in your deepest times of doubting and despair, God's word has made promises to you that you do not need to be afraid because God is with you. He will never leave you and never forsake you. But my question to you is the same one I have to ask myself. In those moments, will we sit under god's word and trust it? Will we ask the Holy Spirit to bring god's word to life to us?
Speaker 1:And will we sit long enough to listen and actually hear his voice? And as God is telling Paul that he is with him, he adds a very specific encouragement. I am with them. Go on speaking and do not be silent. Keep on telling these people the good news that God saves sinners.
Speaker 1:Go on and tell them, because I will be with you, and I have many people in this city who are my people. And now the real question of our sermon comes. What does god mean when he tells the apostle Paul, I have many in this city who are my people? Don't miss this. He is telling Paul explicitly that there are specific people in Corinth who are not yet followers of Christ, but who will, without doubt or possibility of failure, become Christians.
Speaker 1:The Good Shepherd is saying to Paul, I sent you to Corinth. And the reason that I sent you to Corinth is to rescue my lost sheep. So go on speaking and do not be silent because there are people in this city who currently oppose and revile you, but who one day will rejoice that I sent you to them. There are people in this city who are living for pleasure, or living for wealth, or living for prestige, or living for sex, who are utterly disinterested in your message, but who one day will love me more than those things. There are people in this city who are presently strangers to you, but who are in fact your brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1:Open your mouth, and as you speak, my sheep will hear my voice in your voice, and I will open their hearts. Because if the mysterious sovereign hand of god does not open hearts, there is not a person on earth who will take up their cross and follow after him. In Ephesians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul writes that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. And Paul, under the authority and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he could have used any number of words to describe how we are in our sin. He could have said that our sin makes us weak, or our sin puts us in bondage, or our sin is like a disease.
Speaker 1:All of these are biblical pictures. But he says that we are dead in our sins, and there's something very specific that he wants to convey here. What can a dead person do? What can a dead person say? What can a dead person even want?
Speaker 1:Nothing. A dead person just rots. A sinner dead in their sin cannot respond to Jesus, because dead people can't respond to anything. To adapt an illustration, from one of my professors, I want you to imagine for a minute that it's the late eighties, and you're coming back from watching The Breakfast Club or Rocky 4. Okay?
Speaker 1:So you got some good MJ rolling in the car, or maybe some Rick Astley, and most importantly, in this illustration, you're Mike Tyson. Okay? Everybody got it? This is pre ear bite, pre hangover Mike Tyson. So you're on top of the world.
Speaker 1:You've got more money than you know what to do with. And so, what do you do with your money? You don't know. So you decide to buy tigers, like you do. So you don't just buy 1 tiger, you buy 2 and they come off at $70,000 a pop.
Speaker 1:I looked this up. And once you bring sweet Kenya, the white tiger home, you realize that it costs $4,000 a month just to take care of this tiger. And you're making a lot of money, but you realize that your money is going out that door pretty quickly. So you try to come up with a plan how you're gonna save money because you can't get rid of this white tiger. Right?
Speaker 1:Who gets to own a white tiger? So your plan is, you're gonna present Kenya with 2 options for her lunch every day. 1 is fresh antelope, and the other is delicious and nutritious, $2.50 a box, Quaker instant oatmeal. So you try to reason with Kenya. Tell her all of the reasons why she should want more whole grains in her diet.
Speaker 1:Later, you try to stand in front of the antelope. And you say, no, you really don't want this. This is so much better for you. But you know what? Kenya eats the antelope every single time.
Speaker 1:Why? Because tigers don't eat oatmeal. If you guys were looking for an Instagram caption for this sermon, that's it. You're welcome. Now, could Kenya eat the oatmeal?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It is not a lack of free will that prevents the white tiger from eating the oatmeal. It's an utter lack of desire. She will never ever want it. And that's what the Bible says about our hearts and sin.
Speaker 1:That Christ is a Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jews and its folly to the Gentiles. And in case you missed it, that's all of us. We don't want him. He doesn't make sense to us. Unless God opens our ears, we are never going to hear the gospel as good news.
Speaker 1:Unless Christ opens our eyes, we'll never see him as beautiful. We will never take up our crosses and follow after him and decide that that was the treasure in the field worth laying aside everything else that we had. This is why Jesus can say in John 644, which we read in our opening scripture, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, because a dead person cannot come anywhere. And I know that there might be some people in this room who don't like what I've just said, and that's okay. Or maybe you're wrestling with whether or not these things are true.
Speaker 1:But I wanna ask you a few questions if you are a Christian in this room. If you're a Christian, do you have any brothers and sisters or family members or friends who are not Christians? And if so, why are you a Christian when they're not? You might say, well, I I believed. That's great.
Speaker 1:Why did you believe and they didn't? Well, I understood what Jesus did for me and I repented of my sins and I followed after him. That's great. But why did you understand and they didn't? Was it because you were smarter or you were a better listener, or you were more spiritually aware?
Speaker 1:See, if you don't look to God and his mysterious sovereign hand as the initiating piece of salvation, and the reason why you believe, necessarily, has to come from within you. There is some reason that you started out ahead of your friends or family members, and that's why you believe and not them. And then you run into some really big problems. But if God is the one who opens our ears and our hearts, who brings life to dry bones, then and only then, can God say what he says to the Apostle Paul. I know what it looks out like out there, but I have many people in this city.
Speaker 1:I know that because I purchased them with my blood. So don't be afraid, but open your mouth and go on speaking, because I didn't send you to Corinth with my fingers crossed, hoping that your time there would be worthwhile. While you're there, when you speak, my sheep will hear my voice in your voice, and they will follow me. Because at the cross, Jesus didn't just make it possible for people to be saved. Jesus saved.
Speaker 1:The cross didn't merely open an opportunity for people to be reconciled to God, if only they would. If only the tiger would suddenly realize the merits of the oatmeal. Jesus didn't fulfill all righteousness and drink down the wrath of God, hoping against hope that somewhere, someone would take him up on his offer of salvation, not knowing in the end if it might actually all be for nothing. Now on the cross, Christ was slain, and by his blood, he actually, fully, and finally ransomed people for God, from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation. He did everything necessary to ensure ensure our salvation, which is what it means to be saved by grace.
Speaker 1:And here's the good news. If you didn't do anything to earn your salvation, then it stands to reason that you can't do anything to lose it. If you are called by grace, then god's grace is gonna keep you through. I've had, a lot of people throughout the years ask me, kind of, in light of these doctrines, well, if god is the one who saves, why would we even bother going to share the gospel? What's the point?
Speaker 1:But look back at this story for a minute. Paul hears these words, Paul receives this vision from God, and it doesn't lead him to passivity. It leads him to action. In fact, he stays in Corinth for a year and a half, which is longer than he stays almost anywhere else. He continues to preach because he understands that it's through his preaching, it is through his sharing of the gospel, that those whom God has chosen will come to faith.
Speaker 1:Remember Paul is the same guy who writes in Romans 10, For everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
Speaker 1:As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So far from rendering evangelism and missions pointless, God's sovereign initiating work in salvation is the only thing that ensures that our evangelism and missions won't be pointless.
Speaker 1:Consider the alternative for just a second. If this is not true, then the salvation of your friends and family members, those who don't know Jesus, necessarily depends on how convincing you can make your arguments. Praise the lord. That's not what the bible says, that he is the one who opens hearts, that it's simply our job to be faithful. What if our main job in evangelism is to humbly come alongside what the Holy Spirit is already doing in the lives of people, just like we showed up at Juan's doorstep, and he'd been thinking about becoming a Christian for a long time.
Speaker 1:What if that was your job? What if it was your job to open your mouth and it was God's job to save? Last year, at the college missions conference, the speaker shared a story of a man who traveled with his wife to a closed country. When they got there, they hopped in the car, and they drove past a convenience store, where there was an armed guard outside. A couple minutes down the road, the wife turns to her husband and she says, I think that you're supposed to go back there and share with that man.
Speaker 1:The guy turns to his wife, looks at her like she's crazy, and keeps driving. A couple minutes later, she turns to him again and she says, I really think that you're supposed to go back and you're supposed to share with that guy. And they start to get in an argument, because this is a closed country. You know, it's illegal to share the gospel. And finally, the guy says, okay.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna turn around, but that guy could kill me and if I die, my blood is on your head. Which, coincidentally, I think is the last line in the movie, The Notebook. So the guy whips the car around. He I don't know.
Speaker 1:I left the theater in the middle of that movie, judging all of you. So the guy gets out of the car, and he hands this man with a semiautomatic Bible, And he says, I think that I'm supposed to give this to you. And the guy looks at him and he said, 3 days ago, I had a dream that I was standing right here, and someone came and brought me the words of god. And I've been standing here ever since waiting. And I want you to hear me say this.
Speaker 1:God didn't take a risk when he made that promise to that man. Psalm 115 says, our God is in heaven and he does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth. God was going to so direct Heaven and Earth that that man and that wife would land in that country, that he would prompt that woman to speak to that man, that she would convince him to turn around, and then that man would hand the armed guard the Bible, that that man in a closed country might see and believe and taste and see that the Lord is good. God is faithful, even when we're not. And there have been times in my life where it seems like the door has been open and I have chickened out.
Speaker 1:There have been times in my life where it seems like a door has been open and I've had a really terrible day, or maybe I didn't have a quiet time that morning or I realized, man, I haven't prayed a ton about this conversation and I've just decided, I don't wanna do this right now. Maybe next time, when I'm a little bit more prayed up, when I'm feeling a little bit more spiritual. There have been times where I've beaten myself up over a missed opportunity, when I really should have opened my mouth out of but I didn't out of fear or insecurity. But praise god, he is at work even when we are faithless. He is at work even when we are not.
Speaker 1:He is going to rescue His own. And the great absurdity of it all is obviously, He doesn't need us what whatsoever, but out of his love and his joy, he has given us the great privilege of coming alongside his Holy Spirit's work in the lives of others. J. I. Packer wrote in his extremely helpful book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, that Paul knew that if Christ had opened the door for him to make known the gospel in the first place, that it meant that it was Christ's purpose to draw sinners to himself in that place.
Speaker 1:The word would not return void. His business, therefore, was to be patient and faithful in spreading the good news so the time of harvest should come. The sovereignty of God and grace gave Paul hope of success as he preached to deaf ears and held up Christ before blind eyes and sought to move stony hearts. His confidence was that where Christ sends his gospel, there Christ has his people. Fast bound, at present in chains of sin, but due for release at the appointed moment, through a mighty renewing of their hearts, as the light of the gospel shines into their darkness, and the savior draws them to himself.
Speaker 1:End quote. I didn't share the story in the other services, and you guys are special. You know that. Right? The loyal 430 crew.
Speaker 1:Joel, a few weeks ago, kinda made fun of people who go out and share the gospel using surveys, or using some sort of like formula or whatever. Well, I'm generally one of those people. That's fine. So, totally fine. One of these days, or I used to work for a college ministry, and we would go down to the beach for the summer.
Speaker 1:And I took a student with me one day, and we were going to, just, you know, do what everyone least wants to do ever, which is go approach strangers, and just get into spiritual conversations. So we were gonna use Romans 623, to communicate the gospel, and I go up to a man who's there with his, I don't know, probably 8 year old son, and they're building sandcastles. And we get into this conversation, and the man says, you know what? I was here on this beach about 25 years ago, and somebody just like you came up to me and started sharing something really similar. And you know what I did?
Speaker 1:I cussed them out. I'm like, okay, cool. We're just gonna go over here. I'm gonna try this guy, and he says, but you know what happened? I couldn't get those words out of my head.
Speaker 1:I kept thinking about it. And so, I went back home and I called up my old youth minister, and he started walking me through what the gospel really was. And about 6 months later, I became a Christian. I'm an elder in my church now, and my son's growing up in the faith. And I just thought about that guy who'd been cussed out on the beach 25 years ago, that he must have thought that was disastrous.
Speaker 1:But god was at work that god's word will not return void. And so as we go and as we share with our coworkers, with our neighbors, with our family members and our friends, we need not be afraid knowing that God is with us and God is with them. That it's our job simply to be faithful, and it's God's job to save. That we need not be afraid and we need not despair, knowing that if God has opened a door for us, then it's our joyous privilege to be prayerful, to be patient and to be faithful in sharing until the harvest comes. But our joyous privilege goes far beyond just our inner circles.
Speaker 1:Right? That if Christ purchased for himself people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation, then the Great Commission, it's not a hope, it's not a wish, it's not a pipe dream, it is an absolute rock solid certainty. It cannot fail. That as our team is in Istanbul this week, tomorrow, they go out into the streets and they're gonna share the gospel with the people that they meet. We trust that as these Turkish men and women go into the marketplace, thinking that they're going to buy their groceries, there they're going to meet the God who made them and died for them.
Speaker 1:Because as our team goes, they trust and believe that God has gone and prepared the way before them. That they go sharing the good news that God saves sinners, knowing that there are brothers and sisters in Istanbul to be found, and that God's way of rescuing them is by bringing them in contact with the gospel. And so church, we will not be afraid. Come tribulation, or distress, or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, because our God will never leave us and our God will not forsake us. And whether we stop the mouths of lions and put foreign armies to flight, or whether we are sawn in 2, our God will not fail until his kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 1:We go out in faith, trusting that our god is with us and our God is with them. Let's pray. Lord, we know that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And so we ask you, lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into your harvest, into our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our families to rescue those in darkness. God, we pray that you would open doors for us to declare the mysteries of Christ.
Speaker 1:Pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we might speak your word with boldness. God, John Knox pleaded, give me Scotland or I die. And George Whitfield prayed, oh, lord, give me souls or take my soul. Lord, may we beg you for our friends, for our family members, for our coworkers, for our neighbors, and for the ends of the earth. God, and may you use us for your glory's sake and for the sake of the world.
Speaker 1:We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, as the band makes their way back up, I'm gonna ask you to spend a few moments in prayer. I'm gonna ask kind of 2 main categories of things. First, I'm gonna ask you to ask the Lord to give you a burden to truly break your heart over somebody else's soul.
Speaker 1:It's a dangerous thing because like the Apostle Paul, you probably won't be able to shake that burden. And I also want to invite you to ask the lord right now to put someone specific on your heart that you are supposed to pray for faithfully, and that he probably wants you specifically to share the gospel with. So take a few minutes and ask God for that burden, and ask God for that specific person. Alright. Are you at that person?
Speaker 1:I'm getting no responses, and you're all forgetting that I can make eye contact with all of you. Do you have a do you have a person Has the Lord laid somebody upon your heart? If not, I want you to continue to pray and ask the Lord to lay somebody on your heart. But if he has laid somebody specifically on your heart, I'm gonna ask you to do something that you've probably never been asked to do in church before, which is not a good way to start a sentence. I'm realizing that now, 3 services in.
Speaker 1:I want you to pull out your phone. Again, I can see all of you, so I can see if you're doing it. So come on. Phone's out. Ready?
Speaker 1:And I want you to open your calendar, or open your reminders, or whatever it is that you use to kinda make notifications for yourself, and I want you to set a note for tomorrow to pray for that person. We're not just this isn't just something that I'm asking you to do and that I'm hoping that we'll all feel good about and then we'll walk out and forget. Let's pray that the Lord would rescue these people. Amen? Alright.
Speaker 1:Keep your phone out. You got that reminder? Now I want you to text them and ask them to lunch or to coffee this week, And all of the air goes out of the room. Right? If you are afraid, that is okay.
Speaker 1:It is not your job to save them. It is God's. It is our job to open our mouths, and it's the Lord's job to save. And if you're afraid, I wanna ask you, what is holding you back? Why wouldn't you wanna share the greatest news in the universe that we can know God, that we can have a relationship with him, that we can know him by grace.
Speaker 1:And I know full well that a lot of you guys have just heard me and you're gonna walk out of this place and you're not gonna do it. And that's okay. But I want you to take that before the lord and ask him why. Because the lord has ordained it so that the primary means by which he will save our friends and our family members is by his sheep hearing his voice through our voice.