"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the Power of God for Salvation to those who believe, first to the Jew, and then to the Greek." Romans 1:16
Sunday, the invitation was given to the whole church: to share the Gospel with at least 10, 5, or 1 person. It was a great response! Most of the church stood and said they would (we're trying to get people to Jesus who will add people to His Church, as opposed to inviting people to do or come to church!). Being that I invited the church to do this challenge, I felt that it is my responsibility to do the most I recommended, and so I resolved to share 10. After all, I have taught people to share the Gospel, I've shared the Gospel with complete strangers on my travels, I even had young people after church asking me how to do it! (We have a sheet we gave to our church members on how to swiftly share the Gospel). Yet, yesterday, I had 2 opportunities placed before me, and I choked! I felt ashamed, I felt like a coward. This is what I had been preaching on! What I came to the conclusion of, though, was it is easy to share with strangers, but with people you have to see day to day and week to week, it's a much harder and daunting task! It requires a lot more investment, accountability TO the Gospel, and I am literally representing the church here in our community: I still get nervous preaching, I don't want to blow it, and misrepresent!
This morning, I had to fill up my gas tank. Today I was going to share. I ordered a biscuit and a cold drink, and prayed as I was paying for my food, drink, and gas. 40 Dollars in the Tank. For some reason, I didn't share, knowing I had that opportunity. So I prayed "Lord, when I get the change," and when I did, another fellow had pulled up and was inside. I had the opportunity to share with two strangers! So I asked if they wanted to hear some good news, and shared with them the Gospel Message. My heart raced. I felt the thrill of the Power of God as the Gospel poured from my lips: that we are sinners who, because of our sin, are destined to die, not once, but twice; that Jesus, God's Son came and lived the perfect obedient life that we could not, and He died in our place to pay the penalty for our sins; that He was buried and rose on the third day, so that we may have a resurrection life now, and rise again with Him on the last Day; that He is alive at the right hand of the Father, and that He is returning again some day. I told them that we can get in on this good news by following Jesus and being born again! It was the simple Gospel, and you could feel the power of God in the room!
I still have 8 more people to share with (not that I have a quota), but I hope it is more. I want to share this hope I have in Jesus. I want people to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ. It comes when we are not ashamed. The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation to those who believe. I want to see that power unleashed again and again. I want to speak it the rest of my life, and I want to invite to to join me! Who will you share the Gospel with today? Who will you speak God's power to?
1 Corinthians 5:1-11, 50-58
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, 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: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, 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, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
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I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
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