Good morning. It's good to see all of you and has been such a blessing to be back in Long Island and catching up with other friends during the week and then being able to see you all today. I can speak on behalf of myself and as well as Liz and the three kids, Russell, Emmy and Rosie. We miss you all very much and we don't miss the traffic. But we we miss you all and the family is doing well. I'll just say that out front. I know many of you would be asking so the kids are doing well. And yes, Russell is almost 10. So growing up way too fast and. The Lord has been blessing us, but we recognize some things never change, right? I've been gone for two years and I come back into New York and there's still bad traffic, right? The other night I went into Rite Aid and there was no register open and I couldn't find a worker, right? Some things never change. Another thing that does not change, sadly though, is the Christian struggle with being bold in evangelism. As we look at the beginning of the church and at the end of Christ's life and the beginning of the church, we have the disciples, as Jesus is being arrested, run away and flee. As Jesus is being questioned and going through a mock trial, we have Peter denying that he even knows Jesus three times. And then as Jesus is crucified or the crucifixion is finished and he's buried, the disciples seem to be hiding and just waiting to see, not knowing what will happen, going back to their old lives. But then, of course, we see the resurrection and it's after the resurrection and the pouring out of the spirit at Pentecost that then we see The disciples were what we could call the apostles going out boldly and proclaiming the gospel. But we, after the apostles, we continue to struggle like they did, pre-resurrection. We know we should, we know we won't regret it, and yet we don't share the gospel when the Lord gives us opportunities very often. We're really good at making excuses, aren't we? Our hearts and our minds are excuse factories, we could say. If it's not one excuse, like this isn't the perfect time, it's, well, I don't know the person. Or it's, well, there's another person that might be listening in and think we're weird. Or it's, well, this is just not the right moment, and so on and so on. And we make excuse after excuse after excuse of why we shouldn't take the step in sharing the gospel and fulfilling the Great Commission in evangelism. So what I want to do this morning, by God's grace, is lay down four foundational truths for us to help spur us on and to build a foundation for being bold in evangelism to the lost world around us. I'm the visitor now, so I don't probably need to share these statistics with you, but it's a good reminder, and I've shared them in the past. Here, we live in Nassau County, a couple million people, and there was a survey done a number of years ago that brought out about 2.4% of people professing to be Christians, and less than half of that percentage said they attended church regularly. And then, of course, we have many people within that that just think they're Christian, but obviously don't believe the gospel. They have no idea what true Christianity is. You live in a lost area. You live in an unreached people group. And God has, in his sovereignty, placed you here to be able to be a witness amidst the darkness. So we want to discuss four main truths, just four foundations of having boldness, things that we need to remember in sharing the gospel. But let's begin by opening in prayer. Father, I rejoice in the opportunity to be able to see my dear church family here, how I miss them. Lord, I thank you that you are continuing to build your church We thank you for the gathering this morning of the saints to sing your praises, to hear the reading of your word, and to listen to the preaching of your word. I pray that this time would be an encouragement to us, that we would be spurred on by these truths, that they would be transforming to our hearts, that we would look at your word and walk away changed, that we would leave this building as the church and be eager to share with others the good news of Jesus Christ. Pray that this time would be an encouragement that you would hide me and glorify yourself. We pray through Jesus's name. Amen. The first point that I want us to point out that we must remember And evangelism, I believe, is vital, and it's simply this, that our evangelism must be moved by compassion. And this is something that is very easily missed in our day and age, that there is a compassion that we are not simply sharing the gospel because we're called to obey God. Though we do, right? We want to obey God and we want to obey the Great Commission. But if it's simply out of obedience and not compassion for the lost, then we're really missing the heart of God behind the Great Commission. And let me point that out quite simply. God was moved with compassion to send the Savior. Right? Now, we understand that God planned salvation. He planned the gospel, sending his son to die on the cross, that he might be glorified. That's like, that's the umbrella, right? Of the whole Bible, that God would be glorified. But one of the moving factors that we can see in God's character and Jesus, as we'll look at in a moment, is simply this, that God has compassion on sinners. God has compassion on his creation. We see it through all of the Old Testament. People want to divide the Old Testament and the New Testament and say, oh, the God of the Old Testament is all what? Judgments. And God of the New Testament is God of love. They don't understand their Bible if they're saying that. Quite simply, no, all through the Old Testament we see compassion. We see him being compassionate to Adam and Eve when they first sin. And he sends them, he's sending them out of the garden and saying this relationship is now broken. And you can no longer be in my presence. In the very same breath that he breathes out condemnation on Adam and Eve, sending them out of the garden, he includes a what? He includes a what? Are we all awake this morning? He includes a promise of salvation. Listen, Eve, you will have a seed and the seed will crush the serpent's head. Compassion. As they find themselves in that awkward situation, their eyes are open to their nakedness. God comes and it says he kills an animal and he clothes them. Could that maybe be a picture of a sacrificial lamb in the future that would clothe us in righteousness? God had compassion. We see it with Jonah. God takes one of his prophets, and he sends him to a place called Nineveh, a dirty, rotten, sinful city. And we, of course, know the story. Jonah doesn't want to go to the point where he's swallowed by a fish and spit up on land. And then he's like, OK, finally, yeah, I'll go, all right? I don't want that experience again. So he goes to Nineveh and he preaches a simple message, right? Just like, repent or die. No, he doesn't even say, or you'll die. He says, listen, you're gonna be overthrown. It's not really a message of hope, but God works in his compassion, and they repent, and then Jonah goes up to the hillside. He's waiting to see God's judgment, and he starts throwing a fit, and he says to God, this is why I didn't wanna go, because you are compassionate. Jonah knew that God would show compassion to the Ninevites. As we look at Jesus's life, when he looks at the crowds, he's moved with compassion. In Matthew chapter 9, verse 36, it says, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. In Mark chapter 6, 34, when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them. Luke 7.13, and when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. We consider the account of the woman at the well. We all, again, hopefully know the story. Jesus has someplace to go and it was the cultural standard to do what? Pass through Samaria or go around it? To go around it. But Jesus says we must go through. And as the disciples are off away from Jesus, he comes to this lady at the well, a sinner. We find out that she had many husbands and the one whom she's with now isn't even her husband. We find out that the town that she lives in wants nothing to do with her. She's sinner of the sinners. We know from the culture that the men and women would not have mixed, nevermind a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman, especially a Jewish rabbi with the Samaritan woman. And yet he comes to her and he breaks all social norms and barriers because he was compassionate towards her. Brothers and sisters, the moment we begin having a mindset that the world is our enemy instead of our mission field is the moment that we lose the battle of evangelism. The moment we begin allowing the mindset that the world is our enemy instead of our mission field is the moment we lose the battle of evangelism. Your difficult neighbor, your difficult coworker, they're not your enemy. They're your mission field. That person whose lifestyle is completely contradictory to what the Bible teaches is not your enemy. They're your mission field. Your brother or sister-in-law that drives you nuts is not your enemy. They're your mission field. See, brothers and sisters, if we want to reflect the heart of God in evangelism, the heart of God, the Son, Jesus, in reaching people, the very motivation behind the gospel, yes, is God's glory, but also is God's compassion. And again, if you need one more argument for it, when Moses asks that he might know God and see him, and God comes and he declares who he is to Moses, You know what he emphasizes? His compassion and his mercy, forgiving the iniquities of individuals. God is compassionate. Well, how can we be moved with compassion? We can recognize the seriousness of God's wrath. Yes, we're moved with compassion because God is compassionate, but we can also know the flip side of that coin. When God reveals his character, says who he is to Moses, he doesn't stop there. He says, I'm merciful, I'm compassionate, I forgive sins. But then he says, but I will by no means clear the, not hold to judgment the guilty. I'll even visit the sins of the fathers upon the third and the fourth generation. Now he's not saying he's going to punish great-grandkids for the great-grandparents' sin. What he's pointing out is what? As much as sin passes from the grandparents to the kids to the grandkids, and they are a generation of sinners after sinners after sinners, he will do what? He will continue to judge. So this drives compassion for us as well, because as we recognize the seriousness of God's wrath, we want others to be saved from it. Jesus said, he who has the son has life, but he who does not obey the son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides where? On him. Does that move your heart? Does that help you see that difficult neighbor with some compassion? Does that help you see that difficult relative with compassion that if they've not trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior, the very wrath of God is abiding on them? And they hang but one moment from eternal damnation. That is recognizing the reality of hell as well. Hell is an eternal place where the worm does not even die. It's complete separation from God. It is gnashing of teeth. It is wailing. It's a place where thirst cannot be quenched. And it is eternal. And that neighbor, that co-worker, that relative who you've been not sharing the gospel with because you just don't like them very much, or because they might laugh at you, or because it might break your relationship, or it might make family gatherings awkward, or you might get reprimanded at work, or this, or that, or this, or that, and we make all these excuses, we forget the reality of hell. They could be hanging over eternity in hell by just one thread that at any moment could break. It is appointed once for man to die and after this comes the judgment. Reminds me of a story that I'm sure I've shared with the church family before, but as a young man, maybe 12 or 13, we went to a nursing home and we were doing a nursing home ministry. We'd do a little service, and afterwards I was talking with a lady and shared the gospel with her, and sadly she wasn't completely mentally there, but I know she heard the gospel, and I don't know what the Lord did inside of her heart, even though she wasn't able to communicate very clearly with me. But I spent time with her and shared the gospel with her, and I went home, and then I met my neighbor a few days later who organized the nursing home ministry, and he said, I want you to know something. That lady that you shared the gospel with died two hours after you left. By God's grace, she heard the gospel before that moment of death. But how many times, as we all get older, and our friends and our neighbors and our family are getting older as well, will you get the dreadful phone call that so-and-so has passed and you hadn't shared the gospel with them? Do not to go through life and get to the end of your life and regret looking back saying I should have shared, I should have shared, I should have shared, should have shared with him, I should have shared with her, but I didn't. No, brothers and sisters, view these people with the compassion of Christ. Recognize the seriousness of God's wrath, recognize the reality of hell that if you have been saved from God's wrath, you have been saved from an eternity in hell, you would want others to be saved too. I mean, isn't that just natural, how humans function, right? It seems so weird to me, and I understand it, because I need this too, but it seems so weird to me that we need to hear sermons preached to encourage us to go tell people how to be saved. Right? Like, it's the best news possible. It's like having a group of doctors that discover a cure all for cancer. And then the company hiring a motivational speaker to come in and encourage the doctors to go tell people that they found the cure all for cancer. Right? You'd be like, no. We're ready. We're excited. We've been working for this. It's the best news that we can tell anybody. That there's a cure. Brothers and sisters, we have the very best news ever, that one can be forgiven of their sins and dwell with God in perfect unity forever, just as Adam and Eve began dwelling with Him in perfect unity in the garden. And we should go out with joy, sharing this good news, moved by compassion. But number two, if we just simply, it's emotional or a conviction of compassion, We will fall short. Number two, our evangelism must be dependent on God. There are many people who are eager to go out and share the gospel, but they fail because they're dependent on who? On themselves. So they're compassionate, they have a passion, they go out and they share the gospel, and they share the gospel with one person, and what does the person do? They reject. So then they go, I'm gonna get the second person. 50% of the time, I'm sure, will happen. They go out and they share the gospel with the second person, and what does that person do? They reject. It's like, ah, 0 for 2. I'll go find a third person, maybe a friendlier looking person, and they share the gospel with the third person, and what happens? They reject, and all of a sudden, like, they're six, seven people in, and they're like, man, my batting average is starting to look like the MLB, right? I still can't believe that you have men paid millions of dollars to only have success like one-fifth of the time, right? That just doesn't make sense to me in the Major League Baseball. But we can expect low numbers like that, not because God is not powerful, but why? Because the world is rebellious and sinful. And so as we go out and evangelize, if we don't want to be discouraged, By not seeing fruit, we must go out dependent on God. And a few aspects of dependence on God, number one is this, dependent on His sovereignty. Dependent on His sovereignty. Very simply put, God is the one who does what? He does the saving. We are called to share, not to save. We can't save. We could just as soon resurrect a dead person A physically dead person as we can save someone from their sins. See, brothers and sisters, as we share the gospel of somebody for them to be saved, they must be what? John chapter three, Nicodemus asks Jesus, what must a man do to see the kingdom of God? And Jesus says what? They must be born again. You do not have the power to give somebody new birth. Only God does, by his spirit. We must trust that God will convict people of their sin and draw them to the Savior and give them new life. If you're dependent upon yourself, your own argument, your own winsomeness, your own cleverness, then you will be sadly disappointed and discouraged and stop evangelizing. Because you won't see any fruit. We don't choose who will be saved. We're called to share with anyone and everyone indiscriminately trusting that God can and will save. So look at your Bibles with me in Acts chapter 18, I want us to see this. Acts chapter 18, verses 5 through 11. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am clean from now on, I will go to the Gentiles. Then he left there and he went to the house of a man named Titus Justice, a worshiper of God whose house was next to the synagogue. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, when they heard, were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in the night, by a vision, do not be afraid. any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city. And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Brothers and sisters, as Paul heard about God's sovereignty and that God had chosen and would save work salvation in people's hearts, there in Corinth, what was Paul's response? Well, if they're going to be saved, I might as well just head on out, right? No, that's not what we read. What did he do? It says he settled in. He settled there for a year and six months. I might be off on this, so I hesitate to say it, but I think that was a pretty long time for Paul to stay someplace. If I'm remembering correctly, he typically did not stay in places that long. He would continue to move on to the next place and continue to preach the gospel. But he stayed a decent amount of time, a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them. And an encouragement was this, God had people there whom he would save. He was dependent on that truth. that God is and was and is sovereign. He takes courage and he keeps sharing the gospel, knowing that there are people that God will save. Brothers and sisters, God has promised that he desires people to be saved and that people will be saved from every tongue, tribe, and nation. Do you believe that? Then you must believe then that there are people in Port Washington In Manhasset, in Sands Point, in Nassau County, in Long Island, in New York City, that God is planning on doing what? Saving. And you have the privilege and the opportunity to be a part of it by sharing the gospel. Take courage that God is sovereign. So he must be dependent upon his sovereignty, but also under this main point, our evangelism must be dependent on God and on his power. on the power of God. You see, the Great Commission seemed impossible until Jesus said, I'm with you to the ends of the earth. Put yourselves in the shoes of the disciples. They follow Jesus for three years. They see him interacting with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They see them continuing to try to trip him up and plot. One of their very own, they only have 12, and one of their very own who walks with them, talks with them, eats with them, laughs with them, learns with them, betrays their teacher, betrays their savior, and sells out to the religious elite. They come and they arrest him at night. They take him and as Pastor Nathan was talking about on Wednesday, they had an unlawful court. They blaspheme against him. They mock him, they scourge him, they beat him and they crucify him. The hands of the Romans, the ones who had all the power. And then Jesus rises from the dead and he comes to his disciples and he says, hey guys, I've got a mission for you. I want you to go out to everybody you can, and I want you to teach them to be followers of me. What just happened to Jesus, like 43 days earlier? He was crucified. And now he's telling these few men, fishermen, tax collector, to go out and change the world? To preach? Jesus crucified and risen from the dead? What do you think the Romans are going to do? How do you think the Pharisees are going to react? But Jesus says this, I am with you. His power would continue on working through them. I believe this is why Paul was able to say in Romans 118, I'm not ashamed of the gospel as the power of God unto salvation. They continued to see Jesus with them how, because people were believing and their lives are being transformed, and they were seeing the power of Christ continue to work in the establishment of the church, and we continue to see it to this day. We go out dependent upon the power of God. If the gospel has changed your life, it can change others' lives. Much more miraculous than the blind seeing and the lame walking and the lepers being healed is the salvation that God has worked in your life and he wants you to share this message that he can raise others from spiritual death to. We go dependent on the gospel, the simplicity of it, In Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10, believe in your heart, confess with your mouth that Christ Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead and you shall be saved. For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. It's not complicated. Go out and share it dependent upon the fact that God uses this message to save people. It's the same message that you heard that saved you. Romans 10 continues on later, right? How can they call upon Him unless they've, what, believed on Him? And how can they believe on Him unless they hear about Him? Faith comes by hearing. Salvation is not in our power. The power comes in the message that we preach. And we go dependent that God will work. We also go dependent on his wisdom, on God's wisdom. Turn a few pages to the right from Acts in 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1, 18 through 30, it says this, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever, I will set aside. Where's the wise man? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To Jews, a stumbling block, and to Gentiles, foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. And the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen. the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by his doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, just as it is written, let him who boasts boast in who? The Lord. How many times have you allowed the excuse to come up, I'm not smart enough, or I've not gotten an education like Pastor Nathan? Or, you know, I'm just not as cool as so-and-so who goes and just seems to have a knack at connecting with people and having easy conversations, and so on, and so on, and so on. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have a goal of being equipped to give an answer, right? for the hope that's within us. But I will say this, if you're using it as an excuse to not share the gospel, you're missing the point. We go out and we share the gospel dependent on God's wisdom. The whole point is this. Yeah, you're weak. Yeah, you're not super smart. Yeah, you might be a bit of a social outcast. But you know what, that's the plan of God. Those are the people God chooses and uses that he might be glorified through your weakness. So go out unashamed and boldly because the hope isn't in your winsomeness or cleverness or your ability at connecting with people or your standing in this culture or this community. No, the hope lies in the message of Jesus Christ and the wisdom of God. It is foolishness to the world. And that's okay. That's actually God's design. Don't be ashamed of it. Teach your kids to be a bold witness in school. Don't be scared that they might be made fun of. That's part of the Christian life. If they're a true follower of Christ, we go, yes, make fun of me all you want. I want to glorify Christ. I want to preach the gospel because you know what? This message is foolishness to the world. It is a stumbling block, but it's the only means of salvation, period. We go dependent on God, on His sovereignty, on His power, and on His wisdom. But again, if maybe we have compassion on people, we go dependent on the power of God, our evangelism will still fall short. without number three, and it's this, our evangelism must be to Jesus's glory and his glory alone. Brothers and sisters, fulfilling the Great Commission is not about us. We are going out to build whose kingdom? God's kingdom, not our own. That is the mission. John the Baptist said it well. He said what? Jesus must increase, I must decrease. May that be our heart. May we go out spreading the gospel, seeking to build the kingdom of Christ and never our kingdom. You know what? Do each of you desire to see the Bible church grow and have these seats full? Are you awake this morning? Do each of you want to see that? Yes. But do you recognize that you don't share the gospel, that the Bible church might be bigger? If that's your goal, What will happen five years down the road if the Bible church is the same size? Has the gospel failed you? Surely not. But rather we go out sharing the gospel that Christ's kingdom might increase. And if God sees fit to give fruit, evidential fruit, and see people saved and baptized and added to the church, then one of the outflows of that will be what? The Bible church growing. But we go out that Christ might be glorified, not that the church might grow numerically. Pastor Nathan continues to preach the gospel and put evangelistic events and opportunities for you to share the gospel. Yes, to reach people. And that the church might grow, yes, but ultimately and only for the glory of Christ. It is never that our own kingdom might be built. We have a book, a series of books that our family loves and we started listening to them for the kids and we kept listening to them for me. I enjoy them so much. But it's this, a Christian book that is similar to like Chronicles of Narnia. There's spiritual allusion to it and allegory to it. And there is a family, there's a story in there of these two young rabbits. Their last name, they find out, is Long Treader. And they find out through this series of events that their uncle was a traitor. And that is why they were somewhat in hiding. He betrayed the king. And there's an opportunity for one of the young rabbits to look at another uncle, the good uncle, And she asks her uncle about her bad uncle, Garton Long-Treader. And she says, was he a bad rabbit? Was he always bad? Why did he betray the king? And after a pause, her uncle responds, I don't exactly know what happened, but I can say this. Garton began to think more about his place in the kingdom. than about the greater cause. Garten began to think more about what he accomplished rather than how he accomplished it. And as I listened to that statement, it hit home to me the second time I heard it more than the first, and it was just an immediate parallel. My, is that not the same exact downfall that we can fall into? We begin in our ministry and our evangelism and our ministry at church to begin to think more about what we accomplish than how we accomplish it. We begin to think more about our place in the church or the community and our position rather than the glory of Christ and advancing his kingdom. May we never fall into that trap as we share the gospel. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, again, we see an example given by Paul. In the Corinthian church, there began divisions. Right? And some people are saying, I'm of Paul, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Christ. And in verse 13, he asks the question, has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except for Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. Well, I guess I did baptize also the house of Stephanus, but beyond that, I don't know whether I baptized any other. Christ didn't send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. Not in cleverness of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. In other words, what is Paul saying? Listen, I wasn't among you ministering to build a following of my own. I wasn't there among you preaching the gospel that I might have disciples. No, I was there making disciples of who? Of Jesus. He knew his place in the kingdom. And it was a lowly servant of the king. It reminds me of another brief illustration. We could come up to three people laying bricks, working on a construction site. You could ask one worker and he might respond, I am, what are you doing? And he responds, I am laying bricks. And you come to the second person and you say, hey, what are you doing? And he says, I'm building a church. And you come to the third person and you ask, what are you doing? And his response is, I'm building the house of the Lord. Which bricklayer do you want to be? We are pointing people to the glory of Christ and building his kingdom. John 1 14, the word became flesh dwelt among us. We've seen his glory. Glory is of the only son of from the Father, full of grace and truth. We're calling people to behold the glory of Christ. We're not car salesmen trying to get people to sign on a dotted line. We're not Girl Scouts selling cookies to raise money. Not trying to convince people just intellectually of some argument. No, we're testifying of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ. God eternal planning before the foundation of the world to step down into this lowly world, the creator becoming creation, the holy one taking on human flesh, suffering loss and pain and sickness and sorrow and being tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, humbling himself unto death, even the death of the cross and drinking in the cup of God's wrath for every sin that you have ever committed, being separated and forsaken by God, Eloi, o Eloi, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is who we preach. That is what we preach. We must preach for the glory of Christ. The pure gospel. And lastly, very, very briefly, number four, we need to recognize just some flexibility. Flexibility, our evangelism must be flexible. Again, in 1 Corinthians, turn just a couple pages over to chapter nine. We mentioned this a little bit in Sunday School. Verse 19 says, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without law, As without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Very simply, be willing to contextualize. Be willing to contextualize. We very easily recognize this for our missionaries. Hudson Taylor went to China. And there were other missionaries in China, but they weren't reaching anybody, and they were living out very English lives. And there was this very strong distinction between them and the Chinese people and their culture. And for Chinese people to come to believe in the gospel, what they understood was this, I must become what? English, instead of Chinese. But Hudson Taylor shows up and he grows out his hair like a Chinese man. He gets rid of his English clothes and he puts on clothes that are Chinese. And he adopts their culture and he connects with them and he shows them that in order for you to become Christian, it is not you becoming English. No, it is believing on Jesus Christ and being forgiven of your sins. His desire was that he wanted the Chinese to come to believe the gospel. What I'm not saying is this. We're not adopting sinful worldly culture. Let me be very clear. Scripture is abundantly clear that we're not to be of this world and are to live lives separate of sin. But nowhere does it say that we can't associate and connect with unbelievers. Nowhere does the Bible say, be weird. Amen? When in New York, cheer for the Mets. Seriously. In Wisconsin, you know who I cheer for? Not the Patriots. I cheer for the Cheeseheads. I know, oh no, right? Or the Jets, cheer for the Jets. Look normal in your clothing and style as long as you're being modest and don't make it an idol. If everyone wears jeans, then what should you wear? Wear modest jeans. Fit in, be a part of the culture. This is not a seeker-sensitive movement, may I be very, very clear. Let me show you the distinction. The seeker-sensitive movement is watering down church or the gospel that it might appeal to unbelievers. That is seeker-sensitive, understood? What I'm saying is you can yourself personally adapt to the culture that you live in, that you might build relationships and clearly share the gospel in that culture. Two very different things. Hudson Taylor was not being seeker-sensitive by adapting to the Chinese culture. No, he was caring and loving those people, caring for and loving those people and connecting with them. This is exactly what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, what he does. To the Jew, he becomes A Jew, he doesn't abandon God's law, the law of Christ, but he adapts to the people around him. Under this as well, again, I am wrapping up, I apologize. I know I think I'm going long, but I'm not sure. Pastor Nathan did not give me a time to close, so it's his fault, all right? And I've been waiting to come back for two years, so I'm making up for lost time. But under this, simply be known for the most important thing. Be flexible, be known for the most important thing, the gospel. When someone thinks about you, let me ask you this question. What is it that they think about you first? When somebody says Kevin Vigneault, do they think about my favorite sports team first? Do they think about my political party first? Do they think about some product that I sell first? Or do they think about the gospel of Jesus Christ first? Brothers and sisters, sadly, many professing Christians, when people hear their names, they first think of a product that that person sells and talks about all the time. or a political party that that person supports and talks about all the time, or a sports team that that person supports and talks about all the time. Brothers and sisters, may what we be known for is the gospel of Jesus Christ. May our interaction with people be so centered on the gospel that when they think about us, that's all they can think about. That's the most important thing. Be flexible by setting aside your opinions sometimes. And not going against your convictions, let me be clear, but setting aside some of your convictions. Be willing to not talk about some of your convictions sometimes so that you might do what? Reach people with the gospel. Now you might be going, that sounds radical. Wait a second, what do you mean set aside? Well, Paul gives us an example, a couple examples. One time when Paul is going into a town, he's being accused of just having no care for Jewish tradition and law. And so Paul takes an oath, right? And he spends money for other young men with him to take this oath as well. And he shows that he's not seeking to just go against any Jewish tradition or culture. And he adopts their culture and tradition. That's not contrary to the gospel, but he does it so that he might preach the gospel. Another example with Timothy, he goes into a town and there is a struggle with circumcision and an opportunity for Timothy to be able to reach these people. And you know what he says, what, Timothy, you ought to be circumcised so that you might be able to minister to these people. Now, does Paul know that it really doesn't matter? Absolutely. Paul is the clearest in teaching us what? That salvation is by faith in Christ alone. Period. But he also recognizes that to the Jew he becomes a Jew. To the Greek he becomes Greek. That some might be saved. So brothers and sisters, consider your culture and how to communicate with it. How do people build relationships here? Use that means. How do businesses reach people? Use those means. Are people receptive to door to door? Are they more relational? Are people on social media and reach that way? Are you in a community that loves sports? Then use sports. Does your culture beat around the bush or are they short and to the point? Fit in. Reach people the way they're going to be best reached. Be like Paul, be flexible. These are just some basic truths, very simple message that we might be faithful in evangelism. Number one, be moved by compassion. The world is not your enemy, it's your mission field. Number two, be dependent on God. He is the one who saves. You are the one who simply shares. Number three, do it to the glory of Christ alone. You're building his kingdom, not yours. And number four, be flexible. Be a missionary in your own home. Ask the question, how can I best reach these people with the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, I thank you for this church family. Thank you so much for this time together around your word. Would we come away better encouraged and equipped to share the good news of Jesus Christ. We pray