What’s one thing that’s holding us back from inviting people to know Jesus? Let’s tackle that together this Sunday with Kent’s message. Don’t miss it!

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Have I ever told you guys the story of asking Jenni out?  I was the youth pastor at our church and I was preaching some and leading worship at our young adults service.  Jenni was a teacher and went to church at that service.  I had tried everything.  I started a singles bible study she came to, I invited her and a bunch of friends over to hang out, but the thing I could never figure out was how to ask her out.  Think about how weird it would be for your pastor to ask you out… lol.  I didn’t know what to do, so finally I just decided, I’m just gonna do it.  So, I put together the best sermon I ever preached, people were laughing, and crying, and I had them all in the palm of my hand.  Afterward, I walked quickly around the back of the room and to the side where Jenni was sitting.  As everyone started to leave I walked down her row, and she said “That was a really good sermon”  I said, “Thanks…  wanna go out sometime?”  Lol, she literally started walking backward away from me.  I was like, “Or maybe I could get your phone number or something…”  Finally, her friend forced her to give her number to me…

Lol, normally I say, “and the rest is history”

can I tell you a secret?

If I had never asked, Jenni never would have said “yes”…

I know this isn’t a revolutionary idea, but it’s an important one…

If you don’t ask, people can’t say “Yes” because you’ve already said “No” for them.

I want to read something Paul said about the question he was asking people all the time…

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

¹⁹ Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

b

Paul became all things, to all people so that every person he met had the opportunity to say “Yes” to Jesus…

I don’t know about you, but that challenges me…

I feel the same fear about talking with people about Jesus that I felt about asking Jenni out…

I’m worried about how I’ll be perceived

I’m worried they might ask me something I won’t know the answer to

I’m worried I might lose a relationship with the person…

What about you? Do you find it easy to talk to people about Jesus or are there barriers?

b

What is it that was different about Paul than us? What was it that made him so adamant about telling people?

I think to answer that, we have to go back and look at Paul’s story. Can I read you a little piece from Acts 8?

Acts 8:3

3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Saul’s name will later be changed to Paul when He becomes a Christian. This is the same guy…

ILLUSTRATION:

Paul was the guy who would walk into this room and grab women and children, husbands, and the elderly, and drag them out. Can you picture him dragging a woman by her hair out of her home, her husband in cuffs yelling for Saul to get his hands off of her, their children screaming and curled up in a ball weeping…

for those of you who know this story, Saul will be on the road to Damascus to persecute more Christians. Jesus will appear to him and blind him.  He will send Saul into the city and tell a man named Ananias to go and pray over Saul.  

Acts 9:15-16

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Saul is changed forever…  

He goes from persecuting to populating the church

b

What made Paul so adamant about telling people about the love of God in Jesus?

b

Paul had experienced the unmatched, unfathomable, unmerited grace of God

as a matter of fact, this is what Paul said when he was writing to his protege Timothy about God’s grace to him…

1 Timothy 1:15-16

15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

You know what’s interesting to me about this passage where Paul is saying, Jesus came into the world to save sinner, of whom I am the worst.

I’ve heard lots of people talk about Paul with this, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a sermon on what Paul says right before that…

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance:”

b

Paul is not just saying this about himself, he’s saying it as a statement that is true of us all and should be our calling card as Christ’s Followers…  “Deserves full acceptance.”

b

What if the reason we are really afraid to tell people, is because we don’t know the full extent of what we were saved from?

b

We don’t recognize that our sin is just as devastating to us as Saul’s sin was.

I get it, you may not be murdering people or dragging them out of their houses, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have the capability.  It doesn’t mean that your sin is just as evil in the eyes of God…

Romans 3:23-24

23 for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

b

All of our sins separated us from God equally.  

It is by the gift of God that we are invited back into a relationship with God.

b

What drove Paul to tell people and offer them the opportunity to say “Yes” to Jesus was that Paul understood exactly what He had been given…

People want to know about truth, people freedom from the consequences of sin – they are dying for it because our world only offers surface-level answers…

So, how do you know when to have these conversations – what I do is I look for the Not’s

Look for the “Not’s” – for the times when people say, 

“I ‘m not doing well” 

“I’m not from around here” 

“I’m not going to church”

CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:

Jenni will tell you when she really said “yes” to me was not when I asked her at church.  As a matter of fact, she did her best to ignore me.  What got her was when she was in a town 4 hours away prom dress shopping for her little sister.  Her older sister said, took Jenni’s phone and called me to ask a question.  She then said, “You wanna go prom dress shopping with us?”  and I said, “Sure” and drove 4 hours to be with her.  Jenni said that was the moment she knew I was the guy, who drives 4 hours to go prom dress shopping with someone for their little sister.  What she didn’t know is I already wanted her to be my girl…  Listen, when you invite someone into a relationship with Jesus, it’s scary and feels a little odd, but at least for me, when I found out that God Himself had come to die for me to forgive me my sins and give me a new life with Him where I was forgiven, for me, it was when I knew…  You are not inviting people to a myth or a story, you are inviting them to know the God that is already in love with them and came for them…

This morning, some of you need to come and know Jesus and others of you need to decide you are going to give people in your world the opportunity to say “yes”

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