Standing for the reading of God's Word as we look this morning in the 16th chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, verses 9 through 20, reading from the English Standard Version this morning. Note, some of the earliest manuscripts do not include these verses. Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who were with him as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After these things, he appeared in another form to two of them as they were walking in the country. And they went back and told the rest, and they did not believe them. Afterward, he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover. So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. This is the living word of God. Please be seated. Let us pray together. Father, we pray that you would give us insight this morning into your heart, insight into our own hearts. We pray that you would touch our hearts, that you would open our eyes, that you would grant us ears to hear, that you indeed would be glorified, not just in what is spoken or even just in what is heard, but in our lives and what is taken from here. Father, guard our hearts. Change our minds. Be glorified in all. In Jesus' name, Amen. The passage we just read is the end of the Gospel according to Mark. And there is strong evidence that this is more of a supplement than the ending penned by Mark himself. So what do we do with passages like this, which are not included in the earliest manuscripts? Even as I ended my reading, as I always try to do, with a reminder that this is indeed the living and enduring Word of God, there's a doubt in my mind, is it indeed the living and enduring Word of God? If it wasn't there in the earliest manuscripts, it would certainly seem like it was added after the earliest inspired writings that Mark had given. Some manuscripts end the book with verse 8. Others include verses 9 to 20 immediately after that. And at least one manuscript actually inserts other material after verse 8 with the following, but they're reported briefly to Peter and those with him, all that they have been told. And after this, Jesus himself sent them out by means of them from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation. And then these manuscripts continue with the verses we read this morning. Now, this passage has been designated the longer ending of Mark. And it summarizes the risen Jesus' dealings with his disciples as narrated in the other canonical gospels. Based on manuscript evidence, it probably was a later edition intended to harmonize Mark's gospel Mark's account, if you will, with those of Matthew, Luke, and John. Now the statement concerning casting out demons or devils and speaking with new tongues could well have reference to the early church in the book of Acts. And even the words about taking up serpents may be an allusion to Paul's experience in Acts 28 verses 1 to 6 when he reached his hand into a fire and a serpent attached itself to his hand and he shook it off and had no ill effects. The New Testament contains no other passage that I could find dealing with drinking poison or any other deadly thing. And even if this passage were unquestionably genuine, it could not reasonably be used as a basis for deliberate and presumptuous handling of snakes and drinking of poison, which are practiced by some extreme religious sects. Yet, canonical or not, There are things we can learn from this passage, and it does provide a challenging conclusion to the study of this gospel, which we began about two years ago. We're going to look at three things from this passage this morning, in good Presbyterian fashion. First, we're going to look at belief, unbelief, and hardness of heart in verses 11 to 14. Then the gospel it saves in verses 15 to 16. And finally, the evidence of that salvation in verses 17 to 20. So first of all, let's look at the belief, unbelief, and hardness of heart. It's interesting, in verses 11 to 14, we see that repeated phrase, they didn't believe. When Mary Magdalene told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn't believe her. When Jesus had appeared to two of his followers and they rushed back to tell the others, no one believed them. And still later, when they were gathered together and eating, he appeared to them and rebuked them for what? For their stubborn unbelief and because they refused to believe those who had seen him. Jesus had told them that he was going to do this. He had told them that he was going to suffer and die and then rise again from the dead. Back in chapter 9 verse 24, we read a prayer that we all pray, Lord, I do believe, help me in my unbelief. We do believe, but do we really believe what we believe we believe? Does it really make a difference in our lives? You know, many of us have heard stories of one particular one from the Evangelism Explosion about the man who was tight-roping over the Niagara Falls and asked the people, do you believe I can do this? Yeah, yeah, we believe you can do that. And so he goes over and back with his wheelbarrow and then he says, do you believe I could take somebody in the wheelbarrow? Yeah, we believe it. Well, who will get in the wheelbarrow? I don't think so, Tim. I'd love to see you do it with some... well, I'm not even sure I'd like to see you do it with somebody else. It'd be kind of nerve-wracking, wouldn't it? We do things by faith on a daily basis, don't we? I shared with you not long ago how when we get in the car, we believe, we have faith that our car is going to steer and stop. And now Cheryl and I at one point were driving in her father's camper van at 50 miles an hour and the van started to curve off to the left and I spun the wheel and nothing happened. I believed it would turn, but it didn't turn. Obviously God had mercy on us and we survived to tell you that story today, but we do all kinds of things by faith, don't we? How many of you, when you came in here before you sat in your chair, checked to make sure it wasn't broken? They do break. It was only a couple weeks ago I sat in my chair and almost fell through because the bottom had broken. We do all kinds of things by faith. And we define faith, when we looked at this passage, as a confidence that something which was said is true, a confidence that includes an act of the will in addition to the act of understanding. It's a confidence that expresses itself not just in words or thought, talk is cheap, but in action, in choices. What we believe is seen not by what we say, but what we do. And the basis and the foundation of that confidence is the reliability of God Himself. In Hebrews 11.1, the English Standard Version translates that faith is the assurance of things to hope for and the conviction of things not seen. The New International Version translates that it's being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, or you might say we do not yet see. in that passage in Mark 9, 24 and following, where the man says to Jesus, I do believe, help me unbelief, Jesus had just rebuked the people for their unbelief. It was the passage where Jesus had been up on the Mount of Transfiguration with three of the disciples, and he had come down, and his disciples had been unable to cast out a particular demon, and Jesus rebuked them at that point for their unbelief. And yet, When the man expressed, Lord, I do believe, help me unbelief, he healed as requested. Here he rebukes his disciples for their unbelief in verse 14, attributing that unbelief to a hardness of heart. In Luke 24, 25, we read about that little bit more expanded account of those two who had met Jesus in the road. And it tells us that he rebuked them saying to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken. Before they recognized Jesus as the risen Lord, as they told him, don't you know about this? Jesus was crucified. He rebuked them and said, the scriptures told you this would happen. And Jesus might well have gone on here to say, I told you repeatedly, I'm going to suffer and die, and then I'm going to rise. He said it was going to happen. It did happen. Others saw it and told them that it had happened, and they still didn't believe it. But he doesn't give up on us, does he? My passage of the year so far has been Psalm 103, 13 and 14. You've heard me quote it before, you'll hear me quote it again, I'm sure. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. By way of application here again, it's not uncommon for people to refuse the truth. We do it all the time. Even the disciples, you might say, had wax in their ears and cotton in their heads, didn't they? So we should not get angry or offended when listeners today turn a deaf ear. Rather, we should persist in loving and sharing. It is natural for us not to believe what we're told. Isn't it interesting that Jesus comes to them and rebukes them for their hardness of heart, for not listening, and then tells them to go out and tell others? I always think of the task that he gave Jeremiah. When he told Jeremiah, I want you to go tell these people, but they're not going to listen to you. You notice he doesn't tell us to tell people who will listen. In fact, he tells us to tell people who will not listen, just as the disciples found it difficult to listen. Without getting into debates about speaking in tongues this morning, we need to focus on the main point of passage that God by His Spirit enables ordinary men and women to do and say things beyond their ordinary natural abilities. You might say we become supernaturally endowed by the Spirit when He is given to us. In the book of Acts there was no human explanation for what was taking place there. As one commentator said, in the face of remarkable unwillingness to believe in the disciples as well as those to whom they went, the commission is to take the good news of what God has done in Jesus, of all that God has done in Jesus. He doesn't tell us to tell this to people who will listen. He tells us to tell it. Now, one important warning here. We need to be careful of pseudo-faith in our own hearts in this process. The Gospels speak numerous times about people who are only fooling themselves when they profess faith in Christ, while in reality they have no faith. It is important for us to examine our own hearts, to ask the Spirit of God to examine our hearts. A.W. Tozer wrote that the man of pseudo-faith will fight for his verbal creed but refuse flatly to allow himself to get into a predicament where his future must depend on that creed being true. He always provides himself with secondary ways of escape so that he will have a way out if the roof caves in. He goes on to say, what we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know they must do at the last day. I want to run that by you again. That's a real challenging quote. What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they know they must do at the last day. we all struggle with unbelief. We've talked a lot about that, and we recognize again that God understands that we struggle with that. We do have unbelief, but do we cry out for God to help us in that unbelief, to walk in obedience, to obey Him? This morning in my devotions, I was just reading again how some passages in scripture are so difficult to understand And I always go back to Deuteronomy 29, 29, that the things revealed belong to us and our children, but the things that are hidden belong to God. God calls us to obey what He has made clear to us, and He tells us that we must not allow that which is not clear to be justification to not obey what is clear. Secondly, in this passage, we see the gospel that saves in verses 15 and 16. He gives them what we call the Great Commission. Go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone. Anyone who believes and baptize will be saved, but anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. The gospel doesn't end here, does it? You might say, as Luke said, this is the beginning of the acts. This is the beginning. The gospel story is about Jesus' death and resurrection, but it continues in our lives, in the lives of those who understand what Jesus did for them, and those who surrender and acknowledge their need to embrace Jesus Christ as their only hope. Why do we find sharing our faith so difficult, most of us at least? I know some of you are very bold in sharing your faith, but I suspect that probably most of us are not as bold. Why do we find it so difficult? Well, partly because we have experienced, haven't we, those who will not listen. those who get angry with us. I was just... Cheryl and I were talking about how difficult it is to bring even to a friend's attention an area that we see them missing the point or fooling themselves. Why do we find it difficult to talk to somebody and something that we see... they're really missing something here, but we find it hard because we're afraid that it will damage the friendship. We're afraid that it will somehow alienate We fear for ourselves. We don't want to be alienated. We don't want to be marginalized. And we do not like to bring out Jesus' words of condemnation. The task that Jesus had given them was to go and tell people that if you believe what Jesus did for you, you'll be saved, but if you refuse to believe, you'll be condemned. We don't like to tell people that they'll be condemned. People don't like to be told that they'll be condemned. We like John 3.16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. We like that. but we forget that Jesus himself followed that verse up two verses later in verse 18, whoever believes is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Jesus made it clear that belief in Him is not a matter of individual preference or personal choice. Instead, belief in Him is a matter of life and death. It's a decision that has eternal consequences. In our smorgasbord culture, where we pick and choose among brands and features, the tendency is to treat Christianity like that, as a life enhancer, or rather than the source of life itself, as an added feature, so to speak. And many of you have heard about a thing called reverse culture shock. And one of the ways reverse culture shock, it talks about people who have gone and experienced life in other cultures, particularly third world cultures, cultures which have much less than we in America enjoy in the way of the creature comforts. And one of the things I've heard time and again is that people coming to this country are overwhelmed by the choices we have. You go into the grocery store and you have 50 different brands that you can choose from of cereals. You have a dozen different brands of juice or soup or anything. And we take into our Christianity and we figure it's just a matter of personal preference. But do we really believe what we believe we believe to be true? You see, if we really believe this gospel, if we really believed that those who have trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are facing an eternity of pleasure and joy in the presence of God, if we really believe that, we also believe the opposite. That those who do not believe, those who refuse, those who reject Jesus Christ are heading for an eternity of hell. Now, we don't know exactly what hell is. The Bible gives us pictures of burning without relief. The Bible tells us that not only Christians but non-Christians will receive resurrection bodies. We'll spend eternity in indestructible bodies. And we've talked about how this life here and now is the closest thing to hell that we will ever experience if we know Jesus Christ, while at the same time being the closest thing to heaven that those who reject Jesus Christ will ever experience. Johnny Erickson Tata wrote, God has brought the nations to our doorstep. Gas station attendants, repairmen, dry cleaners, maitre d's, waitresses, She says, I know an Armenian gentleman who runs a shoe repair shop and three Iranians who run a nearby gas station. She says, these people are intrigued by the smile I offer them from my wheelchair. Despite their limited English, she writes, I try my best to share Christ with them. And these are just a few of the people that God has placed in my life, folks in my community I see all the time. I could tell you about more of them. The Japanese gardener in our neighborhood, the Chinese owners of the Lotus Inn, the Mexican guys who clean our office, the Nicaraguan girl at the supermarket. How amazing that God has given humans, not angels, the privilege of sharing the gospel. Why not find a way to share with such thirsty people a drink of living water? How often do we look at these people who are not English speaking and resent the fact that they don't speak our language? Or perhaps that they are making a success of business that we feel maybe they're taking away from other Americans rather than thinking of them as people who are brought here by God, perhaps to hear the gospel. Hudson Russell Davis wrote, should the church become an exclusive neighborhood, a gated community limited only to the initiative, it will inevitably and imperceptibly become a ghetto of self-centered souls, no closer to the true gospel than to the heart of God. If we do not encounter those who disagree, those who disbelieve, those who are lost on a regular basis, we will soon be lost ourselves. We'll be lost in our own best self-interest, unaware that the noise we hear outside is not music at all but the gnashing of teeth, not an ode but a dirge. If drawing near to God does not press us outward to people, he writes, I fear we have prayed at the wrong altar and been answered by our own conceit. If we're feasting on the Word and coming to know God more, we'll be pressed, we'll be compelled to find those who are lost. starving, in need of the God we love. If we see others as God sees them, we will not be able to sit at his table without rising to offer our neighbors a seat. They may refuse us. They may grow angry and despise us. But this was the response to Christ's offer. And yet he rose and offered He goes on to write, safety and comfort are competitors with the gospel, soothing contenders for the throne of our hearts. They're often pursued and desired above our duty to love as we have been loved, to forgive as we have been forgiven, and to be reconciled as we have been reconciled. Did not our Lord Jesus Christ leave the throne room to suffer for our sake? Was it not in compassion that he came and shared in our tears? Was it not majesty he left and disgrace he took for our sake? Yes, indeed it was. Christ's closeness to the heart of God, His oneness with the purpose of God rendered inactivity in the face of need impossible for Him. I pray it is the same with us. Many of you remember a musician back in the 70s named Keith Green who was taken home to be with the Lord in his early 30s. And he wrote a song called, A Sleep in the Light. And one verse of that says, do you see? Do you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care? Don't you care? Are you going to let them drown? How can you be so numb not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job's done. William Carey, a pioneer missionary in India, wrote that we shall do well always to fix our minds that life is short and that people all around us are perishing and that we incur a dreadful woe if we proclaim not the great glad tidings of salvation. Ezekiel tells us that we're watchmen. And as watchmen, if we see a danger and we proclaim the danger is coming and people don't respond, That's on their heads. But if we see the danger coming and we don't proclaim it, it's on our heads. My friends, we see a danger coming. I remember sharing with, at one point, some unbelievers were really offended by Christians who were persistent in sharing their faith. feeling that that's the one unforgivable sin in our pluralistic society today, is to tell people that there's only one way to God. And I share this illustration. If you were given a supernatural ability to look into somebody's eyes and see that they had the HIV virus, and you were also given a cure, They could be cured of this as long as they acknowledged they had it and did an intentional cure for it. But it had to be done before the symptoms began to show themselves. Now, if you ever watched a person die of AIDS, which is the result of the HIV virus, it's a horrible thing to watch. I have experienced that. They lose all ability to fight any disease. They basically die of a variety of different diseases that ravage their body and tear them apart from the inside out. If you ever saw somebody die and you were given that ability to look into somebody's eyes and you saw they had this virus and you had the cure, but you thought, oh no, this is too embarrassing. They'd never believe me anyway. Why should I bother telling them? And we can look into people's eyes and see that they have something far worse than HIV. We all have it. It's another three-letter word, isn't it? It's called sin. And we are also given a cure if they will only acknowledge their need. See, the question should not be, do we share the gospel? The question should be, how can we do it in such a way that the people will hear and respond and accept the remedy that the gospel offers? Jim Cimbala, pastor of a church in Brooklyn, wrote that there are three wrong reactions that we as a church have to the world. One wrong reaction is running away from the world, circling our wagons, and saying, isn't it horrible the way people are living out there? While it might be true that the world is careening out of moral control, that misses the point concerning our calling to be salt and light. The second wrong reaction is making harsh and condemning statements about the world and its people, forgetting that they are not our enemy, but our mission field. Contrasting 1 Corinthians 5, 12, and 13, where Paul talks about how we should not be judging outsiders, but rather we are to be dealing with sin within our own walls, not outside of our walls. Many other verses, 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 10, Hebrews 3, Revelation 3, they're in your outline, I won't take time to look at them this morning. And thirdly, he says the third wrong reaction is we let the world evangelize us without our even realizing it. We're shockingly similar to the populace at large in any number of ways, he writes, from buying lottery tickets to watching PG-13 or R-rated movies, divorce, etc. This is in a book he wrote called Fresh Power, an interesting and challenging book. We're not all called to be cross-cultural missionaries. Most of us are not given a spiritual gift of evangelism. However, comma, even if we're not called to go, We are called to be his witnesses. And although not all of us are called to go, all of us are called to be senders, to enable those, to help those, to partner with those who are called to go. The Great Commission applies every bit as much to us today, no matter who we are, as it did to the apostles on the day that Jesus spoke it to them. We are called to be his witnesses. And many of you have heard me share the story of a little boy, a young teenager with cerebral palsy who with a painful witness of his love for Jesus caused a transformation in the camp to which he had been tasked with giving the final devotional. And finally this morning we see the evidence of the salvation in this passage in verses 17 to 20 with various miraculous signs And it says that the Lord worked through them confirming, that's easy for me to say, what they said by many miraculous signs. Now, I'd like to read you a humorous story of what happens with this. It's called a recall notice. The maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured regardless of make or year due to the serious defect in the primary and central components of the heart. This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units, codenamed Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been technically termed Subsequential Internal Non-Morality, or more commonly known as SIN. as it is primarily expressed. Some other symptoms of this include loss of direction, amnesia of origin, selfish or violent behavior, depression or confusion in the mental component, and I didn't put these in the right order, did I? Foul vocal emissions, lack of peace and joy, fearfulness, idolatry, and rebellion. There you go, Paul. You can just put them all up there and you can see. We can relate to these things. These are the symptoms of this sin. The manufacturer who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect is providing factory authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this sin defect. The repair technician, Jesus, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required. The toll-free number to call for repairs in all areas is P-R-A-Y-E-R. Once connected, please upload your burden of sin through repentance procedure. Next, download atonement from the repair technician Jesus in the heart component. No matter how big or small the sin defect is, Jesus will replace it with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Please see the operating manual, Holy Bible, for further details on the use of these fixes. As an added upgrade, the manufacturer has made available to all repaired units a faculty facility enabling direct monitoring and assistance from a resident maintenance technician, the Holy Spirit. Repaired units need only make him welcome and he will take up permanent residence on the premises. Warning, continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids the manufacturer's warranty, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded. For free emergency service, call on Jesus. Galatians 5, 23 and 24 speak of the fruit of the spirit. The fruit is that which is produced by the Holy Spirit. And if you read in that context, you see the contrast between those who have those loss of direction, foul vocal emissions, amnesia of origin, lack of peace and joy, selfish or violent behavior, depression, confusion, fearfulness, idolatry and rebellion, versus those who have the love, joy, peace, patience. In other words, as the Holy Spirit is at work in a person's life, these things will become increasingly evident. They are the things that He desires to work in our hearts. Matthew 7, 15 to 20 tells us that we will know people by their fruit. We talked about pseudo-faith. We need to ask the question, are these fruits manifesting themselves in our lives? Are they evident? Are we seeing these things increasingly grow as a part of our life? And if not, we need to ask the question, God, why? Where am I missing the boat here? Somebody once wrote, when I say I'm a Christian, I'm not shouting, I'm saved. I'm whispering, I get lost. That's why I chose this way. When I say I'm a Christian, I don't speak with pride. I confess that I stumble and I need someone to be my guide. When I say I'm a Christian, I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak and pray for the strength to carry on. When I say I'm a Christian, I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting that I failed and cannot ever pay the debt. When I say I'm a Christian, I'm not claiming to be perfect. My flaws are too visible, but God believes I'm worth it. When I say I'm a Christian, I still feel the sting of pain I have, my share of heartaches, which is why I seek his name. When I say I'm a Christian, I do not wish to judge. I have no authority. I only know I'm loved. C.S. Lewis wrote, I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions, but not hate the bad man. or as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner. Now for a long time, he writes, I thought of this as silly straw splitting distinction. How could you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later, he writes, it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I have been doing this all my life, namely myself. However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, he writes, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty in that. In fact, the very reason why I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was not, that I, excuse me, I was the sort of man who did these things. Consequently, Christianity does not want us to reduce by one iota the hatred we feel for cruelty and treachery. We ought to hate them. Not one word of what we have said about them needs to be unsaid, but it does want us to hate them in the same way in which we hate these things in ourselves. being sorry that the man should have done such things, and hoping, if there's any way possible, that somehow, sometime, somewhere, he can be cured and made human again. And what accomplishes that? The Gospel. Redemptive love. That which the New Testament calls agape is marked by a passionate and tender concern for the needs, physical as well as spiritual, of other people. And this love, which is the gift of Jesus Christ, is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, which invades our human selfishness with a power that wins self-centered men and women. as persons and in groups to find a new center in their lives and in their life for God. No other faith but Christianity has either magnified or practiced this love and the church has practiced it all too little, hasn't it? I shared with you last week how that was one thing that God convicted me of and changed me from a God-hater to a seeker. was the understanding of how selfish and how self-consumed I was, and a desire to know what it was to love God. A native of interior China wanted to become a Christian, but couldn't understand how Christianity wasn't in any way superior to Confucianism or Buddhism. And one morning he came to the missionary in a happy mood, saying, I dreamed last night, and now I understand. I dreamed that I had fallen into a deep pit where I lay helpless and despairing. And Confucius came and said, let me give you advice, my friend. If you get out of your trouble, never get in it again. And Buddha came and said, if you climb up to where I can reach you, I will help you. And then Christ came. and he climbed down into the pit and he carried me out. When the two disciples finally realized who Jesus was, they rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others, only when you know Christ will you be motivated to share with others what he has done for you. If you like me came to know Jesus Christ as an adult, then you probably remember that time, how excited you were. When I first came to know and understand the gospel, you couldn't shut me up. Some might say you still can't, but I was passionate. In the book of Revelation, Jesus tells us that we need to restore our first love. We need to return to our first love. We need to remember our first love. We need to remember what it was like when we were brought out of darkness into light. And if you are one who does not remember a time when you were a God-hater, you are truly blessed that you don't have that regret. And yet still, if you believe the gospel, you do believe that the gospel is the answer to all these struggles. Faith in Jesus Christ is not merely a matter of personal choice, my friends. It's a matter of life and death and eternity. And He has given us, His people, the privilege and the task of proclaiming that to a fallen world. So what concrete steps can we take in the days and weeks to come? Does it mean praying specifically for specific people? Does it mean asking when you get up in the morning, God, give me the opportunity today and the awareness to recognize the opportunity to share my faith with someone? Does it mean recognizing those store clerks, those people that you rub shoulders with on an everyday basis need to hear and may well want to hear? I'm going to close with one illustration. I used to work, as most of you know, in campus ministry. And I spent many an hour in college dorms. And if you can imagine a college dorm with hundreds of closed doors coming down to crunch time, finals and papers that need to be done. And behind one of those doors is a child who had gotten locked in and was terribly frightened, was terrified and not knowing how to get out. In all the other doors were angry college students who will be deeply offended if you knock on their door. Would you be willing to search the doors knowing that that child needed to be found? My friends, there are those out there who are just waiting for us to proclaim. Yes, many, perhaps even most, will resent your attempt. And we do not want to be the offense ourselves. but do we care? Let's pray. Father, thank you for giving us the gospel. Thank you for changing our hearts and our lives and giving us a confident expectation of eternity with you. Just a taste, a glimpse. Father, help us to really believe what we say we believe. And may it change the way we interact with all those around us. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Turn with me if you will in your hymnals