Why We Evangelize

By Bobby Blakey on September 21, 2014

1 Thessalonians 1:4-5

AUDIO

Why We Evangelize

By Bobby Blakey on September 21, 2014

1 Thessalonians 1:4-5

This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] This week was back to school night at the Blakey house. Anybody else have back to school night at your house this week? See those hands? Maybe you got it coming up, I was like going to back to school night because you get to hear the other half of the story. All I hear about his lunch and recess. My son came to me the other day and he said the fifth graders won't pick me to be on their team. And I was like, you are definitely my son. I totally related. It took me back, you know? So it's nice to hear about all the, you know, math that we're going to teach in the spelling homework that we're going to do is great to hear about that. But the part that I remember about elementary school and when you're there on the playground, it kind of comes back to a little bit is I remember not getting picked every day at lunch and it didn't matter what sport it was, basketball, baseball, football.

[00:00:48] Nobody wanted me to be on their team. And this bothered me as as a person. All right. Because I was OK. I thought, you know, I mean, I thought I was pretty good, actually. Right. So I went these guys picked me and I came up with this strategy one day of why they were gonna pick me. We were playing football and I was sitting there eating my Cheetos and I knew no one's gonna pick me. I'm going to be the last guy again. And, you know, when you're eating your Cheetos and you get that cheesy residues on your fingers. And it was like inspiration struck. And he was like, I'm hot hands. Blakey you got look. Look at my hands are red. You've got to have me on your team. So I rubbed the rest of my Cheetos all over my hands and I was like, pick me. I'm hot hands Blakey. It didn't work, but at least I felt better about myself.

[00:01:33] You know, that was I was like I had to sell myself to these guys somehow to give them some kind of incentive to pick me to be on their team.

[00:01:43] I got good news for everybody here this morning that God wants to choose people out of his love to be on his team when they offer nothing to him. Open your Bible, the first Thessalonians, chapter one.

[00:01:56] And I want you to see that you don't have to try to do hot hands to impress God. You don't have to try to make yourself look desirable. The great thing about God's love is he wants to love you. That's what we're gonna see here that he chose to love. You have. And that's why you are saved if you're saved here this morning. We've been going through First Thessalonians and we have come to versus four and five here this morning. This is a great example of a church. It's held up as an example to us. And look at versus four and five of the First Thessalonians chapter one. It says four. We know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you. And then here's a verse five, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. And then it goes on, you know what kind of men we proved to be among you. For your sake. So, Paul, he's right into the Thessalonians in last week, we kind of went through the greeting. He says, hey, I'm Paul, you're the Thessalonians, and I am so thankful for you. And here's one thing I think about you guys. Man, you work hard. You have this you have this work of faith. This labor of love. This steadfastness of hope. That's what we looked at last week. And now he says and here's something I know. Like here's something I remember from our time together. I remember that God loved you and that God chose you. That's what he says about them. And he says, here's how I know this, because when the gospel came to you, it came and there was this power with it in the Holy Spirit was involved in it, and it came with full conviction or assurance, he says. When I was gospel. Gospel ising you guys, when I was gospel ing you basically is what he says there that you guys.

[00:03:43] I could tell the Lord had chosen you. The Lord loved you. That's what he says.

[00:03:50] And there's a lot of people talking about God's love these days that's getting thrown out a lot. And they're kind of acting like God just loves everybody everywhere, no matter what they do. But when you study the Bible, it actually gets bunch more specific about God's love than that. And it says, here's something amazing. I know you guys are loved by God because he did something. He chose you to be on his team. That's what it says, that God would look at the end of the line all the way down there, and he would see your skills and abilities, and yet he would still choose you. That's the way that God loved you. That's what the Bible clearly teaches. So I want to talk about God's love in the fact that he chose us. That's what it says here in verse four. Let's look at let's go back to a Fusion's one, the passage we read earlier. And I just want you to see it in that passage as well. This is a clear teaching of the Bible that God loves people in one way, that he loves people is by choosing them. And that's an especially good thing of God to do, to choose to save people. That shows his grace. And that's how it's described here in officiants. Chapter one. With me in verse three, again, let's just review what we read just a few minutes ago, it says, Blessed be. That means you're when you're blessed in the Lord, you're saying good things about God. You're eulogizing you're saying good things about God. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what he's given us. He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. How blessed are you? You're so blessed. You've got every blessing you could have. That's what he just said. Now, verse four, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. And and why did he choose us? It says right here, here's the answer. In love. He predestined us for adoption as sons. Through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, because he wanted to. So let's praise his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved here. Here's what the Bible saying here this morning, that God chose you for no other reason. You had nothing to offer. It wasn't like you did these things. So God said, OK, you could be on my team. No God out of the goodness of his heart, not because of the goodness of your heart.

[00:06:11] He chose you.

[00:06:13] That's what it says, that you were the kid at the end, the line that nobody else wanted.

[00:06:17] And God looked at you and said, I love you for no reason. But the fact that he decided to do it. Now, I find this to be very encouraging. As a guy who's not been picked many times, the fact that God wanted to pick me. That act makes me want to worship God because I know myself, as I would imagine you know yourself. There's no reason that God should choose me. What did I bring to God? What did I offer to him?

[00:06:45] What kind of hot hands that I impress him with God at Deuteronomy Chapter seven. God's been choosing people all the way since the Old Testament. And you could see it here in Deuteronomy, Chapter seven when it talks about how God chose the people of Israel. And I phrase that has always stuck out in my mind is how odd of God to choose the Jews. I don't know if you've ever heard that before, but for me, that has always made me think, why did God choose the Jewish people in the Old Testament? Why did he pick the nation of Israel to be his people? The answer is actually given here in Deuteronomy, chapter seven, verse six. Look at this with me, Deuteronomy, chapter seven, verse six. Just in case you guys start thinking here in Israel that God chose you because you're somebody special or you're better than the other nations. Check this out. Did RONNEBY seven, verse six for you are people holy to the Lord, your God. God set you apart. The Lord, your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession. And he treasures you. He loves you out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. He chose you. Think about that.

[00:07:56] And it was not because just clarify right now. It was not because you were more in number than other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

[00:08:10] But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and has redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt. Just be careful, you guys speaking to the Jews here. If you're to think that God chose you because you're some numerous people, because you were some great nation. Hey, let's just remember here why God chose you had nothing to do with your goodness and only to do with his God chose you because he decided to love you one day. That's why he decided to choose the Jewish people when they were this group of slaves held captive by Egypt. And with his mighty hand, he delivered them. Why? Because that's what God wanted to do. And when you think about that personally, the response of the Bible is always that you would want to worship God because you would know yourself and you would be overwhelmed with the fact that he would choose me and you would know that it wasn't because of your goodness. It was all because of his. And you would want to worship him. Can I get any men? Does anybody want to worship God here this morning for choosing you? I mean, I don't mean to get personal, but why did he choose you? I mean, that's how it should be, right? That's the way I feel about myself.

[00:09:27] Right. Why? Why did he choose me? There's only one answer to that question. Because he wanted to. Because he wanted to love me. God wants to love people. People like us.

[00:09:45] And if that is old news to you and we need to rethink that, we need to maybe go back to her early days when we. When how we felt left out.

[00:09:54] Right.

[00:09:55] And here's the one who has everything going for him. The one who doesn't need anything from us. At least with the guys at my elementary school. I could be like, hey, I'll sit next to you in class. You know, I'll help you with your homework. I would try I would try to offer. I had nothing to offer. God.

[00:10:11] And yet he chose me now. That's good news. But unfortunately, what we have done today in the church is we have taken this idea of God's love in choosing to save us. And we've made it this very controversial thing. Have you heard about this? Right in my mind. It's we would never do this with celebrities. We would never do this with with anybody likes a game show hosts. But we with God, we look at God and we say, wow, instead of being amazed that God would choose me or that God would choose anybody. We look at God and we're like, well, why did you choose everybody? God, right? I mean, to me, that's just so ungrateful, the attitude that a lot of people have towards God about this particular issue. I mean, I just imagine, you know, sometimes when a child has cancer, they kind of do the wish list. Right. And they get like their famous celebrity to come and visit them in the hospital. Has anybody seen those videos online or seen. I think that's a great idea. Is everybody else think that this child has cancer? Here comes their celebrity. That sounds good. Can you imagine the person in the next hospital room being like, well, that's stupid because they didn't come see me say, no, it's awesome that that celebrity went to see that child. That's an amazing thing. Let's celebrate that for a minute. No, why didn't they go to see everybody? See, when I was growing up, my mom, she was into this thing called the million dollar sweepstakes that anybody else ever hear about this.

[00:11:29] And a big man was going to show up at our house one day and give us I first I heard it was ten million dollars and then I heard was a million dollars.

[00:11:36] I was never sure how much it was, but it was a lot of money. And I kept looking at our front door as my mom's like like these stamps. And I'm just like I don't see Ed McMahon showing up here, Mom. I mean, look at that door. I don't see anybody given a million dollars out of that door. I mean, but my mom, she was like, no, you don't understand how the contest works, right? You don't even have to subscribe to everything. And you could still win. I mean, she was into it. You know, I don't know. Later, this was revealed as a scam or something. Right. But but Ed McMahon is going to show up and it's like they got the sweepstakes and there's balloons and they got this big check and they're going to come bring it up to your door.

[00:12:10] Can you imagine? Finally, my mom's dream comes true. Here comes Ed McMahon and the crew. Here's a million dollars, Roberta Blakey. And she's like, well, this isn't fair. You didn't give it to my neighbor.

[00:12:23] Here's what I'm saying today. God chose you. Why would God do that?

[00:12:30] Before we start saying, well, why didn't you do all this other stuff? Can we just be overwhelmed with the fact this morning that God would choose somebody like Hugh?

[00:12:41] But let's give him some credit.

[00:12:43] Let's give him some glory, because the truth is, if we wanted to play it fair, if we wanted to equalize it out. The truth of what God really should do is he should choose no one.

[00:12:53] That's really what should happen because I've fallen short of his glory. How about you? You living up to his glorious, perfect, holy, righteous standard? I think we've all fallen short of his glory.

[00:13:05] And the fact that he chose one person here, much less a whole new church of people that's coming together. Man, we should be so grateful. So thankful.

[00:13:14] All right.

[00:13:16] And I just think about that, though, about that celebrity. Let's go back to the celebrity. Celebrities don't have the greatest connotation, right? Celebrities are usually a lot of people like them, but some people think they're kind of sketchy. Right. Especially we start talking about politicians. Right. If I mentioned the president right now, everybody would be like, whoa, you know? Right. But I think that, hey, I think if a celebrity is willing to come visit some kid in the hospital, which I think is a very nice thing to do, you know what I bet I bet that kid would want of his. I bet that celebrity would visit another kid in the hospital. You think. You think that's probably likely. I bet if Ed McMahon is given away one million dollars in a sweepstakes, you know what I bet he'll probably do? I bet he'll probably come around and he'll give away another million dollars in a sweepstakes.

[00:13:56] And if God is so good and so loving that he would choose you. You know what I think God might be so good to do? Well, he just might be so good to choose the person next to you. And he just might be so good to choose your neighbor down your street. And he just some might be so good to choose your entire block.

[00:14:12] We don't know who God has chosen. See?

[00:14:15] But when Paul came to the Thessalonians, he said, I realized then, as I preach the gospel to you guys, that you guys were chosen because of how the gospel came to you and how you responded if you were here, work week one. We said that the word of the Lord, when it came to the Thessalonians, it sounded forth. That's what the scripture says. It resounded. It echoed. It was this loud noise with like shock waves, ripple effects. That's what it was like, because I could tell that some people here were chosen and loved by God, because look at how it came to them. See, that's the thing that we should be praying for here at our church. I want to see God's love show up in more people's lives. Let's get this down four point over one. If you're taking notes here this morning, let's pray God will show us his goodness to save. I mean, maybe he already has shown you personally his goodness to save. Let's say that he will show us that goodness in saving many more people, enough people to raise up a church of people here in Huntington Beach. That should be our response. A lot of people there. Well, why didn't God choose everybody? And they're trying to limit the goodness of what God has done rather than seeing it for the greatness of what it is that he's chosen you. He's chosen me. And maybe he's chosen someone else on my block. And I won't know until I go. And gospel. Everybody on my block. That's what this this doctrine of God's choosing, his election, whatever you want to call it, is predestination. The point of this doctrine should be, wow, God wants to save people.

[00:15:48] God can do whatever he wants. And he wants to save people like me. I want to see him save many people in his good. This.

[00:15:57] OK, now there's a word I need you to write down. It's antihistamine. If you can write that down, A.I. Nami is how you would spell it. OK, antenna me. And here's something we got to just say about God. If if we could sit here under these easy ups this morning and we could figure out God, then the universe has a really big problem. OK. Now, I'm not saying you're you're not smart. I'm just saying the collective genius of the group that we've assembled here this morning. Right. Is going to have a few questions when it comes to one creation of the world. Right. To how our bodies work. I mean, we're still figuring some of this out. OK. So God is smarter than you or me. Can I get a man from anybody on that one? OK. We can not hear figure got out this morning. And this is when people move from revelation to reason. That's where heresy comes from. OK. When the Bible says it always in a positive way. Can you believe God shows you? Can you believe God loves you? That's how the Bible wants you to think about it. Like being overwhelmed with the fact that the holy one who reigns over heaven and earth had something to do with a sinner like you. That's what the Bible is trying to tell us. Now, what people are doing, though, is they're bringing their own reason now to the equation and they're trying to figure it out. Well, if God chose these people, then he didn't choose these people. Then what does that mean over here? Notice that's not what any of the text we've read so far has really gotten into saying that's not the point of where you're supposed to go. But when you start to figure God out for yourself, that's where you're going to try to get into trouble because you can't figure God out if you can. If you can, please come and explain the trinity up here right now. Right. Because because that's a little head scratcher to me. I believe it. Right. Somebody comes to my door and they says, Jesus isn't God. Those are fighting words at my door. Right. We're going to we're going to talk about that a little bit right now. Just because I believe it doesn't mean I understand it.

[00:17:52] Right. I can't explain how it works. It's been revealed to me. I can't I can't come to that conclusion.

[00:17:59] I would never know by reason, by my own logic, that God is one and yet three persons in this blessed trinity. I would never know that unless God told me. OK. So an antenna me is when two things seem to conclusions seem to contradict. And there's a lot of those. Like can God one and three. That's an antenna. Me. That seems to contradict. But in theology it actually makes sense because you and I can't figure out God. It's beyond our comprehension. What we're talking about today is another me. Did God choose to save people or are people still, you know, held responsible for how they choose God in repentance and faith? Well, there's an antenna. Me here is what I'm trying to say. You can try to figure out how those two things go together all night long. We could talk about it. It's going to seem like two things that contradict. But actually, in the scripture, they go together. And who are you? Oh, man. To try to figure out God or to tell God how he should do things good to Isaiah 55. Everybody, we're going to turn to Isaiah 55 a couple of times. It's actually very interesting that it's kind of a parallel passage to these two thoughts that we've got in First Thessalonians, chapter one versus four and five here this. Morning in here and Isaiah. We see kind of two good thoughts put together an ice age 55. Look at verse eight with me, Isaiah, 55 versus 89. Let's start with this is a great invitation to come to God. And then later on, it says this for my thoughts. God speaking here are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways. My ways, declares the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the Earth. So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. We've just gotta all give God the glory here this morning that he is smarter than us and even the smartest of the smarties that we've got going on planet Earth today are not going to be able to figure out who God is. He is above our comprehension. And so when the Bible tells us that, here's how it works, God decided to love you, OK? And he chose you. Then we've got to take that based on the revelation of God's word, even if we cannot figure it out in a way that feels comfortable to us. We must believe what God says. And here's the big word that maybe you want to write down. This is what I'm trying to say. Sovereign is really the word on theology that we would use to describe God here today, sovereign. Now, we don't really have a sovereign here today in America, sovereigns, kind of a word that we can't really relate to because we have a president. Right. And our president is not sovereign. And I didn't Amen from anybody on know. I know he we have we see we had some smart founding fathers here. Right. So we put some checks and balances into this thing so we could have like a war going on between our president and our Congress and our Supreme Court. And they could be stepping all over each other's toes. And that's what makes this a great nation. Right.

[00:21:05] And we even have this whole system where we, the people get to vote and we get to elect our officials. And we like that here in America. So nobody here has sovereign power. And I think that's probably a good thing because back in the day, the king was the sovereign, the emperor was the sovereign, and he had a level of power that no man should have, what the king says. So let it be written. So let it be done right. Which is why if you read ancient documents, if you read the Old Testament, people always come up to the king. And what do they say to the king right away?

[00:21:39] Oh, King Live forever. That's what they say. Let me just get that in right now. King I'm rooting for you, buddy. Right.

[00:21:45] Because if the king didn't like you and he could say off with your head, guess what would happen to your head? By the end of the day, you'll be rolling down some stairs because the king, whatever he says, nobody questions him. Nobody told him in check. He is absolute power and authority over everyone else. He is sovereign. OK. There is someone like that over your life. There is someone like that over every nation on planet Earth right now. It is the king of kings. It is the Lord of Lords. His name is Jesus Christ. And he is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And here's what I'm telling you this morning.

[00:22:21] The sovereign, of all things, decided he could do whatever he wanted to do out of anything. He could do it. And he decided the thing he wanted to do was love you.

[00:22:32] That's what I'm saying here.

[00:22:34] He has absolute power and authority over the entire universe. And he decided what did he want to do with the universe that he made? He wanted to save a sinner like you. That's what he decided to do.

[00:22:48] That's supposed to blow your mind.

[00:22:50] That's supposed they're supposed to be like shockwaves still going on in your brain. Why would he. OK. You can do whatever you want. I mean, it was so clear in Ephesians one. How many times did we read it? According to his will. Sometimes we over spiritualized that word.

[00:23:06] You know what your will means? Means what you want to do. And God can do anything he wants, and he wants to give his one and only son to save people like us. Now, that's a doctrine.

[00:23:20] I'm not. I don't want to argue about. I don't think that's controversial. I think that's beautiful. I think that's amazing. I think I'm never going to run out of wondering why God would choose somebody like me. How odd of God to choose. Put in your name. You know, I mean, he's sovereign. And yet he loves us. Turn back with me. The First Thessalonians, chapter one. I hope that makes you want to worship. And we're going to respond in and worship a little bit. But but what it should also make you want to do is get this incredible love of God out to more people. And it should help you think this through theologically, as Paul does here, that if God chose me, if he is that good, that he would choose somebody like me. And even Paul is held up as a great example, because before he was the apostle Paul, he was the artist formerly known as Saul. Right. The persecutor of the church. Right.

[00:24:18] I mean, you could not think of a more, you know, dramatic before and after story than the persecuting murdering. Like I'm the guy who's known for killing Christians. Saul, too. I'm the guy who's known for making Christians evangelizing machine. The apostle Paul. And he points out on numerous occasions that the reason God saved him was to prove once and for all God could save anybody. Now, the best sinner I know is the person I see in the mirror every morning because I know my sin better than I know anybody else's.

[00:24:54] And I can tell you that if God could save me and he could make me a man who would want to do what he tells me to do, then I am confident God could save anybody. I'm confident he could save somebody here this morning. I'm confident he could save anybody here in Huntington Beach. I'm confident he could save people in jail. You picked the worst person that you can think of this morning. And if God could save you, then guess what? He could save them, too. That's where this doctrine should lead us. And so this actually should be a motive. The love of God in choosing people should be a motive for us to go and evangelize. Now we're looking back at versus lenience one versus four and five. Let's just you look at him again for we know they're short versus four. We know brothers loved by God. Oh, I like that. That he has chosen you. Just thinking about that because our gospel came to you.

[00:25:48] And it came to you not just in word, it wasn't like we were just saying something. No, it had this power and the Holy Spirit and full conviction when it came to you. Now, we just need to clarify when it says our gospel came to you. The way I would say that in the English language is evangelize. So I'm going to use this word evangelize. And you can see that's the title of our sermon, Why We Evangelize. But you can even just cross out evangelize if you don't like that word and you can just put gospel lives up there because that's what that word means. All right. Evangelism means to give somebody the good news to share with somebody, the gospel. And so here's one of the reasons that Paul brought people. The Gospel is Paul had this thought that God has more people out there than are his people right now. And that's a thought that everybody should have. The reason we're worshiping here in this bowl and not in the glory of heaven right now is God's got bore people out there that still need to get safe. He has chosen to love other people who have not yet responded to his grace. That's why the world is still existing. In fact, we planted this church because we even are going to get so specific as to believe there are souls here in Huntington Beach and North Orange County that God wants to save, but has yet to do so. And he's going to use us to do it. That's what actually we believe here. A turn with me that acts Chapter 18 evangelism, as I like to say. Everybody turn your Bible over to Acts 18. Evangelism is two conversations. That's the way I like to say it. And we can see it here in our passage. Verse four and verse five really show us these two different conversations of evangelism. The first one was our first point. Pray. If God is so good to choose to save people, then perhaps the best thing I can do for somebody else is to pray to God and ask God to save them if he is the sovereign. If he does whatever he pleases. And I know he loves to choose sinners like me to save them, then the best thing I can do it for somebody. I mean, think about this. The best thing you can do for somebody, you don't really have to even be with them to do it. The best thing anybody can offer anyone is prayers that God would save that person. That's the first conversation of gospel ising anybody is praying for their soul that God would choose. He's the one with the power. He's the one who does the saving. And here's an interesting account in them in Acts Chapter 18 now we looked at a couple weeks ago. If you look over at Act 17, verse one, you can see Paul and Silas in Thessalonica. That's when they started the church of the Thessalonians that we're learning about. But now just bring your eyeballs over across the page or maybe turn the page to Acts 18. And you can see the heading there. Paul's now in Corinth. In fact, a lot of people think that Paul actually wrote this letter of First Thessalonians from Corinth back to Thessalonica. So this could be what's happening. Wow. He is writing the letter that we're studying this morning. And Paul, he's there in Corinth. All kinds of things are are going on. And look at verse nine. This is Acts 18, verse nine. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision. Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent. Ben. Be bold. Keep gospel rising. Keep evangelizing. For I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you. Here's the key line we want to zero in on. For I have many in this city who are my people.

[00:29:26] That's a cool line right there.

[00:29:28] I have many in this city who are my people now, if you read the context, your pulse just getting it started. They don't have a lot. Many people, they're out there, they're outside. They don't even have a building yet. They're above under a bunch of easy ups. That's basically what's going on right here. OK, that's a context.

[00:29:45] And it's like, wait a minute, we're just getting started. If we feel weak, we feel like we're going. And what is God saying? No, you don't understand. I think differently than you. You can't figure me out. I got many people right here right now in this city. And I want you to stay here and I want you to keep on gospel rising. Can you imagine how exciting that would be like if you knew the people were out there? What if I told you? What if I could tell you right now?

[00:30:09] Someone on your block is going to get saved.

[00:30:18] I mean, would you start knocking on the doors later this afternoon, like if I could give you a little word from the Lord this morning, your neighbor either to the right or the left or maybe behind or maybe across the street.

[00:30:30] One of them is going to get saved. I think you would invite your neighbors over. I think you would all of a sudden start making some brownies and hit up the neighbors.

[00:30:40] See, here's what here's what God saying in Corinth back in the day. And I think he could say the same exact thing here in Huntington Beach right now. Hey, I've got many people out there. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep getting that gospel out there, because here's what we're waiting for. Here's why we haven't called it quits yet. Here's why we haven't ushered in the end of all things, the wrath, the judgment, the going to heaven. All of that. That's yet to come. Here's why we're not there yet, because there's more people out there.

[00:31:08] My people, God calls them my people. Even though they haven't responded yet. God has already chosen to love those people.

[00:31:17] And he says, get the gospel out there. You could see the next verse here. It enacts 18, verse 11. And he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. I actually think that's kind of we saw us right there only a year in six months. I'm ready to be here for decades in Huntington Beach. You know, I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm thinking there's a lot of people around here, and I think God wants to save more of these people because I look in the mirror and he chose to save me. And if he would do that, then I think he could save somebody on my block. What if God does want to save somebody on your block? What if God does want to save somebody that's going to come into your workplace or somebody you're gonna run into at a fast food restaurant later on today? See, that's how we're supposed to be thinking, that the reason we're still here is more of God's people need to be gathered together and set apart here in the church. And it fuels evangelism. And what if we were praying every day? God, if you've got more people out there, direct me to them. Bring them to me. Put me in contact with your people that are not yet your people. I want to meet those people. And I want to be the ones who I get a little greedy when I hear stuff like this, because I think, dude, if there's people in Huntington Beach who are going to get saved, I want to go and talk to him. That's how I think. I mean, sure, I'll share some of them with you guys, but I think I want to go and talk to him. I mean, I don't know if you've ever had the experience before that every Christian person should want and desire to actually have a conversation where by the end of it, you lay out the gospel, you gospel lies somebody. Let's just use that word because it doesn't feel stiff, like what we think about evangelism.

[00:32:55] Let's just say you gospel guys, somebody you invite somebody over, you have a great conversation. All of a sudden, the Bible gets opened. All of a sudden you're explaining to them that Jesus is the Christ, that he died for their sins and he rose again. They've never comprehended this before.

[00:33:11] And by the end of it, they say, I want to put my faith in that Jesus right now. I want to leave my sin behind right now. And what you're talking about. I want to right now. Have you ever experienced that before? Because I have. And you know what I've figured out after I had that experience? I wanted it again. That's what I figured out. I want many people to know the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ. I want more people worshiping him. I want more people going out and telling others. That's the point here. It's supposed to be a chain reaction. It's supposed to have this ripple effect. God chose you. You know what that means.

[00:33:46] He may have chosen somebody else that, you know, let's keep knocking on that door until we find that person.

[00:33:54] Go back to First Thessalonians, Chapter one, and let's get to our second conversation. Now, hopefully we've gotten you geared up for it. Now we're going to start talking about actually talking to people about the gospel. And look what Paul says, hearing in verse five. He says this versus lenience. Chapter one, verse five. Because our gospel, when it came to you not only in word, but it wasn't just like we were speaking. No, it had power to it. And in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction on the first time I read that, maybe some you guys you're reading that maybe this isn't a familiar passage and you're reading that and especially that that part full conviction. The first thing I, I thought when I first came across this passage is, oh, that that's probably talking about the people when they heard the word they were convicted. That's usually what I think of when I hear the phrase full conviction. So he spoke to them the word. But then he saw this powerful work in them, the Holy Spirit, convicting them. And he thought, oh, this isn't just going out. There's really power to it. I don't think that's actually what it's saying here. I don't think he's moved to talking about them yet. I think he's talking about himself, himself. Silas and Timothy, the the coauthors of this letter read verse five, go back to it. It says, The Power, Holy Spirit and full conviction. Then look what it says.

[00:35:12] You know what kind of men who we prove to be among you.

[00:35:17] He's talking about himself and he is saying, I knew God chose you and loved you because when I was speaking to you, I knew as I was speaking that this wasn't just words going out. There was power to this. The Holy Spirit was speaking through me in this and the full conviction here. That means I had 100 percent assurance and confidence as I was speaking to you that God was going to save people. He's not saying, hey, you guys really proved that there was something to it when you responded. He's saying, here's how much confidence I have in the power of God's word.

[00:35:53] As I was speaking, I knew that God was in it and I knew that some of you were going to get saved.

[00:36:01] Now, I don't know if you've ever had that kind of electrifying feeling that I'm trying to show you is awesome when you realize that you're not just saying things, but God is speaking. Through you, have you ever experienced the joy and wonder of that? Like, all of a sudden you're the Bible answer, man. You're memorizing verses from way back in the Awana days like you're pulling out things to say. And it's like, how did I answer all of this? Well, the Holy Spirit is speaking through me. Have you ever even gone and talked to somebody and been so sure that they were gonna get saved? Have you ever had that kind of confidence? That's what it's talking about here, talking about not this response in the person hearing it, but a confidence in the messenger. Let's get that down for four point number to our two conversations. One is to pray. The other is to speak. Number two, we want to speak and we want to speak with confidence in God's power to save. So, point number one, we want to pray. God will show goodness to save. Now we have confidence in point number two, are speaking with confidence in God's power to save. Because I believe that when I come up here and we open up our Bibles and I speak, I'm not just offering you guys words, see, but there's power. There's Holy Spirit. I have assurance from the scriptures that what I am saying is from God. And that's really exciting. If you've ever experienced that before, people look at me and they're like, wow, you seem like the guy. You've got the gift of gab. That's what people say. Cheesy stuff like that. Well, you really not a talking point to people. You should be a game show host or one thing focal point. A pastor, Mike's Radio Ministry Pastor Mike, he's the pastor of Compass Alley. So he's got a radio ministry. They always have me coming to their live auction because I like. You can talk. You can get people fired up. I hate doing that live auction. Can we say that now that we're over here at this church? Can we get real? Okay, now, listen, if I'm coming up and arms, if I'm speaking to people and it's like, be funny right now. Hey, keep people entertained right now. Get money from these people right now. I feel very weak doing stuff like that. But when I come up in front of you right now and I've studied the word and I know what the word says and I'm speaking to you right now, see, there's a confidence that I have is speaking here right now. This is and if you don't like what I'm saying up here, I didn't come up with it.

[00:38:15] I'm just telling you what it says right now. All right. I'm just giving it to you. Man, there's a lot of power in that.

[00:38:22] This is way above me. This isn't me saying something here, trying to impress people. This is the word of the Lord. Come through me to you. I'm just the guy standing upfront. God is speaking to you right now. Say, once you've done that, telling people jokes just doesn't really cut it anymore. Say you want the power of the Lord. You want the Holy Spirit. You want the assurance that you know, what you're saying is what God intended to be said to his people. We need that confidence in the scriptures. Do you have confidence like that that when you speak the gospel, the power of God to salvation, man, that's going to have an effect?

[00:39:02] Do you know the word well enough that you think you could say it? And are you bold enough to open your mouth and give it to people? Go to Second Thessalonians, just turn over a couple of pages to Second Thessalonians, Chapter two. And he refers again to this same idea in Second Thessalonians, chapter two, verse 13. He talks about how it was when he spoke to them. But we are always to give thanks to God for you brothers beloved by the Lord because God chose you. Here there is that idea again as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth. Yes, you had the right response to this. He called you. And how did you get this through? Ah, gospel.

[00:39:47] So that you may have attained the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:39:51] So then, brother, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter C. Paul here. He's so personal with it. He's so confident in it. He calls it our gospel. Well, wait a minute, Paul. This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the gospel of grace. And yet he's so personally tied to it that he says, here's how you guys got saved when our gospel came to you. That's how he thought about it. Like the gospel. Just delivering the gospel to someone is so much power.

[00:40:21] And I know the gospel and I'm ready to give it to somebody. And I believe that when I speak the gospel, God speaks through me. And there's power in that. And I've got confidence. Paul says, As I was speaking to you, I already knew what God was going to do because of the confidence that I have in God's word. Do we have that kind of confidence in the Bible or do we apologize for the Bible these days? Have we kind of given people the ground that they don't really believe in the in the Bible? And so we just kind of cut him some slack? Or do we speak it boldly like it's the truth, like it's the power to change people's lives right in front of us? Go back to Isaiah 55. I said we would be going back there again and look at Isaiah 55. Turn back to the Old Testament with me, everybody. And let's look at Isaiah, Chapter 55. We look diverse. Eight and nine, which told us, hey, God's ways are too high for us. But. But here's something. Isaiah, 55, verse 10 and 11, here's something we can do. We can't figure God out, but we can repeat his message.

[00:41:26] Isaiah, 55, first 10, says for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there. But water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So show my word. Be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. OK, so here's the sovereign and the sovereign can do whatever he wants in the sovereign. What we already learned that he wants to do is choose to love people like you, people like me. And now what he's saying is not only can I decide what I want to do, but my word when I send it to do something.

[00:42:13] It does it.

[00:42:15] There's no way that my word can be stopped from accomplishing my purpose. So when I send a group of people to Huntington Beach and they're going to go and Goss' belies that area and they're going to start knocking on doors and they're going to spread the good news. No one can stop me from saving the people.

[00:42:31] I want to save through my word. That's what God's saying right here. The rain's going to come down eventually here in California and it's going to get everywhere that it's supposed to go, God saying here's what we're waiting for. We're waiting for the word to get everywhere that it's supposed to go. That's why you see little weird phrases in the Bible like when the day of the Lord is gonna come and that you and I could do something to hasten the day. You ever read that that phrase before scripter Peter Chapter three that you and I. What could we do to hasten the day of the Lord? What could we do to help usher in the end of all things, when we get to see God in all of his glory and worship Jesus face to face? What could we? Well, here's what we can do. We can spread the word of the Lord so that it will accomplish accomplish all of the purpose that God has planned so that everyone will be saved, that he is planned. That's what we're here to do. Do you have confidence that if we go out and preach the gospel, people will get saved? Is that what you believe? Because if you don't believe that planning a church is probably going to be a very frustrating experience. All right. Because I'm crazy enough to think that I don't think anybody's gonna be impressed by our easy ups here at this church or our air conditioning. I think there's one thing that we've got that's going to revolutionize people's lives is the word of God. That's what we've got. And I'm going to speak it here. And you anybody you bring here? I will gospel that person.

[00:44:00] And then you know what I want to do? I want to send him to your house or a house where a bunch of you guys are gathering. And I want you guys, when somebody comes to our house, to gospels, that person. And then, you know what I think we should do? I don't think we should just keep this among us. I think we should start walking down the streets and go into the beach and striking up conversations with other people out in public that are near by us and tell them the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I'm confident that if the word of the Lord sounds forth from us, we will see people get saved. Can I get a man from anybody on that? That's how God works. That's what he does. OK.

[00:44:35] And I want to be a part of it. That's why I'm here. That's what I'm doing. What I'm doing. I hope that's why you're here. Because you want to you don't just want to celebrate God's amazing love for you, which we will do for all of eternity.

[00:44:48] But you want to take that love and you want to share it with other people.

[00:44:52] You want to say, this is so good, you got to know this and you want to go and you want to tell people the good news that how odd that a God like him would choose people like us.

[00:45:04] And you want to spread that around.

[00:45:06] And I had this kind of experience already in the brief history of our church working on work week three right now. The first week when we set it up, we had a lot of friends here from Aliso Viejo. We had a great turnout the first week. It was just like, wow, we did it, you know?

[00:45:22] And I went home after that. And I was exhausted, as many of us were, who were setting up. And I thought to myself, you know, the point wasn't just to come and do church. The point was to come and see people get saved. That's why we're doing this. And I would sit there and I just got this burden like. And actually, the college kids, they come over to our house on Sunday nights and we do some fellowship and we talk through the sermon and some of them are serving in kids ministry. So they get to hear the sermon for the first time. And so the college kids were coming over on Sunday night. And I just had this burden, like somebody needs to get saved here tonight. We're not here to do services. We're here to see God save. And I started to pray about it. And it was like all of a sudden there was just one thought that I could think about. Someone was going to get saved at my house that night. And people came and I immediately started identifying who are the people who could get saved here? Right. I mean, they had big old targets on their forehands. Right. And I gave them the biggest slike, handshake and smile and welcome. Right. Because I don't know who God is going to save here. So I'm trying to be friendly to them all. And we preach the message. And I might be looking at some people more than other people, maybe while I'm preaching in the words going out. And we get into a conversation right there at my house.

[00:46:37] It ended up being in my own garage at my house and the door just opens up and the guy just says, yeah, I didn't know that gospel. And I don't even I don't even do anything. I'm just there and I'm like, well, do you know the gospel now? Guys like I get it now. And I want it. I want to put my faith. I want to really know. Jesus Christ.

[00:47:01] We've already had somebody get saved here at our church. And I'm already hearing reports of other people now professing and faith. I don't want to point anybody out, but there's people here among us who have already been saved in three weeks of this church. Let's praise the Lord for that.

[00:47:16] That's awesome.

[00:47:19] And I would think, wow, if God chose that guy, maybe he chose the guy next to him. And once I get that thought in my head. See, I want to go and find these people that I know were waiting for. That God has already chosen his people here in this city. I want to find them.

[00:47:37] And if you flip your hand out over, you can see we got a couple of ways that you can help us find these people. First of all, if you're struggling with the theology of this message that we're given right now, I want to recommend a book. You can get it right after the service. If you're like I'm not feeling that they Antin themi that you're talking about here. I'm not feeling how God can choose and people can have personal responsibility. Here's a book, Evangelism in the Sovereignty of God by J. Packer. OK. This is a book that will before you give up on this issue, please at least read this book or come sit down and have a conversation with me if you're confused about the theology. But if you're feeling the theology and you're like, this is why we evangelize, because we believe in God's love and we believe in the power of his word and we want to save him, save more people. Well, then here's some things you can do. One, every Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m., we meet at the church office and we go out and we knock on people's doors and we invite them to church. And we have a secret weapon that we pull out of our back pocket or more like the back parking lot. We have an ice cream truck. My friends. And it says CompassHB Bible Church on it. And we take it out on Saturday mornings and we win people over with free ice cream and we invite them to church. And maybe that's why you're sitting here right now. We've had people so far every service come. Why are you here? Because the ice cream truck. Aymen. Welcome. Right. We go out and we invite people. Let me just tell you, the first two Saturdays we've done this after we've started our church. The crowd has been a little skimpy. And then I realized, oh, I know why people aren't coming. I never told them about it. Now you guys know. All right. Saturday mornings, if you're free at 10 o'clock, if you've never done something like this, we will teach you how to do it. It's actually a lot of fun. It's actually you get a lot of positive responses. You would be surprised if you've never done it before. So I would encourage you to go out with us. The other thing is we've got this preaching series coming up, the three most important words in the English language. And look, three weeks in a row there in October. Gospel, repentance and faith. I mean, three weeks in a row where the sermon is just going to be gospel ising evangelizing coming right at you. So if you could help bring some more people here to this church, you've got a neighbor, you've got a friend. Maybe you don't feel like you're totally equipped yet to talk to him. We'll bring him here. We got I mean, all October, we're gonna be trying to spread this gospel. So there's a lot that we can do to go and find out the Lord's people that he's got in this city. And we can see many souls saved in Huntington Beach. I hope this motivates you to evangelize. Let me pray as we're going to continue now with some worship. We actually have a song of response, somebody from our church, Alicia. She's gonna be up here. She wrote a spa, a song inspired by this idea of carrying the name of Jesus Christ. That's what we want to do when we come in here to this city. It's like we want to add another flag down there by the beach. So we want to carry the name of Jesus like a banner of love just waving. We have confidence in our flag flying of of Jesus Christ. So we're gonna sing that. Let me pray and then we'll get back to worship. God, we thank you so much for your love.

[00:50:38] God and I pray that we would appreciate it for what it is, according to the scripture, that you would choose to love people like us, not because of any goodness that we have, but because of your great goodness, God, that you, the sovereign lord who we worship here this morning, that you could do whatever you want to do. And yet you would love people like us. God, I pray that that would never be old news or that would never be like just kind of some some head knowledge about the Bible. God, I pray that that would always be personal. And if you look down the line and you saw that guy there at the end. You picked us to be on your team. God, let us responded in worship and let us be motivated to see your great goodness and your great love to see the power of the gospel that changed our lives. Even the power of the gospel that we can speak to other people. And God let that be a motive for us. Let everybody here be motivated to be a part of our team of evangelism so that we can get out there, whether it's people we know, friends, neighbors or even people we don't know. God use us to get this good news out on the streets in HP. Guy, we believe you have more people in this city. That's why you sent us here. And God send us out to find them and save them. Draw them to yourself. Use us. May we see many, many souls saved? How we thank you already for the people who are professing faith here among us. And we pray for many more like them. God. Thank you for your great goodness with which you would save us. And let us be bold with your word. We pray this in Jesus name a man.

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