Personal Evangelism in Biblical Perspective:
iShare–Why?–Motivations

I Thessalonians 2:1-8

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

We are in I Thessalonians 2 and this is kind of the whole text of where we get our series iShare from. In our study this evening we get back to our Route 66 series and we are in the 39 books of the Old Testament which is the journey to Christ. We will be looking at Jeremiah, the weeping prophet this evening. We will look at how Jeremiah points us to Jesus as well as the basic content of that book. Let's look at our text. This is the Word of God, it is the truth.

I Thessalonians 2:1-8 says

[1] For you yourselves (all the Jews and Gentiles that had been converted at Thessalonica) know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. [2] But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. [3] For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, [4] but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. [5] For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. [6] Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. [7] But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. [8] So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

The grass withers, the flower fades, God's Word abides forever and by His grace and mercy may it be preached for you.

Our theme and focus this year, asking God to build this into the life of our congregation, is iShare which stands for I personally share the Gospel. We are going through a series of sermons to try and put our arms around that. The normal course of ministry is what we call expository preaching that is preaching through books of the Bible or large texts of the Bible systematically. We just finished Nehemiah. We had been doing Matthew and we'll get back to Matthew but I'm also going to start a series this year on the book of James, the great prayer warrior and fountain of wisdom in the New Testament. On Sunday nights we have been looking at the whole Bible taking each book and looking at what each book is saying to us.

This series on iShare that is personal evangelism is what we call topical expository where we are taking the topic of personal evangelism and we're looking at sections of Scriptures to get our arms around it. In the last sermon we looked at why we believe personal evangelism is important and we looked at Acts 1 where when the persecution hit Jerusalem it said the Apostles stayed in Jerusalem but everyone else got scattered preaching and sharing the Gospel. So people in Judea, Antioch, and Samaria all started becoming Christians. Why? It was because God's people were sharing. We share because God commands us and God sends us. Sometimes we go on our own volition and the sometimes it happens providentially like when the persecution got them out there.

Wherever they went they didn't drown in self pity but they went sharing the Good News of the Gospel with everyone they could.

How about motivation? That is what we will cover in this study. iShare why? The Lord has commanded me, He's given me this opportunity but what about motivation. Motivations are important. It's important to stay motivated in the Gospel. Have you ever noticed how the best evangelists, the best sharers of the Gospel are all new Christians? Do you know why that is? It is because they are still motivated. I've been saved. I was blind, now I see. I'm still amazed at grace. So it just kind of flows right out of them and they start sharing the Gospel with people. Then a little while after we become a Christian we're not amazed at grace as we used to be. We need to stay amazed. We actually start losing contacts with unbelievers because in our fellowship we get kind of segregated from unbelievers.

What is it that will motivate us to seek the lost? What is it that will motivate us to share the Gospel particularly when you run the risk of being rejected, ridiculed or losing your job over your sharing? I'm not talking about not doing your job and sharing the Gospel but I'm talking about while you're doing your job you're just confessing Christ in conversation like you would anywhere else. You might be made fun of in your classroom or on the ball field if I confess and share Christ with others. I think there are actually multiple motivations and from this passage of Scripture which is really the basis for this entire series because it talks not only about sharing the Gospel but ourselves, there are multiple motivations we can gather from it.

In just a moment I will run through the text very briefly and give you the five motivations that kept Paul on track and sharing the Gospel even in the midst of affliction and rejections. There are five motivations that are either explicit or implicit in this text of Scripture. Hopefully they are encouraging to you and the Lord might use them in motivation in your life as He does in mine when I begin to lose contact or focus or not seeking the lost or not sharing the Gospel in the opportunities that are there before me. Then at the conclusion I will give you the motivation of all motivations which ties the other five motivations together. So you will actually get six and I won't charge anything extra for the last one. Beyond that I will tell you what not to do in motivating. In fact there is something I could do today to motivate you that would immediately be effective but long term would not be and I need to stay away from that. It's hard for preachers to stay away from that particular motivation. I'll tell you what it is in a moment.

Before I do any of this I have to go back and remind you of a couple of things. This is the review part of the sermon which is difficult for some because some have already heard it but Peter says it's no trouble for me to remind you of these things. There are a couple of things you need to know, nail down, and don't lose for it will guide us through all of this. The first thing is why are we doing this series? The reason we have adopted this theme (iShare) is that we are prayerfully pursing an intentional and responsive culture of personal evangelism in the life and ministry of Briarwood Presbyterian Church. Great things such as getting the Gospel to people so they can come to Christ has to be undergirded, penetrated, permeated, and covered with prayer constantly. So we have to prayerfully pursue this culture.

What do I mean by intentional and responsive culture? Our sharing the Gospel of Christ with other people has to be intentional. Jesus told us to seek the lost but we also have to be responsive. There are many times where you will seek opportunities and bridges like the Sportsman's Banquet which is another tool in the tool box for you where you will intentionally bring them there and share Christ. Then you will intentionally ask them afterwards, "What did you think about that?" Then you have to be responsive. Sometimes people will come up to you and say "Do you think there's a God?" I want to be ready when someone asks me that even though I didn't seek them but they came to me. When I hear a question like that I think of a hook in the mouth and I need to get a line on that thing. I just want to fish for that man and bring them into the Lord. Behold the Lord has already brought me one with a hook already there. I just need to start reeling. So we want to have a culture of intentional and responsive personal evangelism where we personally are sharing Christ with everyone.

Culture means how you're doing business. We want every congregational community, small group and even a discipleship group to be doing evangelism. We want every member to do evangelism. We want new and old Christians, everybody sharing Christ, planting the seed, cultivating, watering and reaping it with others. We want to be constantly engaged with this matter of sharing the Gospel. As we meet as a large group here on Sundays we'll put the invitation out as well as when we do visitation on a Wednesday night. We want to be intentional, responsive and every member and ministry has this matter of personal evangelism just woven into it like a tapestry. That's why iShare but I want to remind you of two things.

Don't forget these two things. One is no one can or will come to Christ as Lord and Savior apart from God's sovereign, searching, saving and sufficient grace. Why? It is because to come to Christ you have to come from death to life. You don't come from death to life and get saved. Jesus comes to you to bring you from death to life that you come to the Savior. The second thing is God's sovereign, searching, saving and sufficient grace is designed by God to go through people to people. In other words, if I'm talking to someone who doesn't know Christ they are dead in their sins but the very thing I'm sharing (the Gospel Message) is what God uses to bring them from death to life. The Holy Spirit uses the Gospel words. So I pray for the Holy Spirit to give them eyes to see and ears to hear by His grace and I bring them the Word that the Holy Spirit uses to bring them from death unto life.

I will be preaching on the parable of the sower in this series and where do you sow the seed? You sow the seed everywhere but where does lasting fruit come up? It comes up from good ground but all the ground looks the same on the top. What happens is that God has done something underneath in the soil. The soil represents the hearts of men and women. Sometimes you're sharing the Gospel and you think its good ground but it's thorny ground or sometimes you think it's hard ground but it's good ground and do you know why? The Holy Spirit is underneath the soil, in their heart, where you can't see and He's monkeying with the soil. He is actually using what you're saying to get it ready.

Those are the two reminders so now I want to go to the passage in I Thessalonians 2 where Paul is writing back. I want to walk you through this and then pull out these five motivations very quickly for you. Then I will give the motivation of all motivations that tie them together. Where is Paul when he writes this letter? He is in Corinth and he will be there for eighteen months doing ministry. He is getting beat to death down there. As he is there doing ministry he gets a letter from the church at Thessalonica telling him that a lot of their people are being killed saying "Paul you know how they ran you out because of sharing the Gospel they are actually killing those who became Christians. Paul, can you tell us what happened to them because Jesus hasn't come back yet?" So Paul writes them a letter from Corinth and this is probably the first letter Paul ever wrote of the thirteen epistles he penned. He wrote this letter to tell them what happens when a believer dies. He gets to that in I Thessalonians 4 and 5 but before he gets there he starts reminding them of some of the basics of the Christian life that they had exemplified when they were there.

The Apostle Paul had been on a second missionary journey and he had gone back to the churches he had planted on the first missionary journey. He had gone back to evangelize and revitalize those churches and when he finished he was getting ready to go back to Jerusalem or back to Antioch and the Holy Spirit said "no." In fact, Paul had a vision and in the vision he was to cross the Adriatic Sea to Europe and Macedonia. He knew he couldn't go back home with that Macedonian call – come over and help us. So he braved that treacherous sea and landed in a place called Philippi. When he got there, there was a demon possessed girl that tried to stop him. He was arrested and put in jail. There were all kinds of people there and a Jewish business woman comes to Christ. Her name was Lydia. She and her household came to Christ. The demons were cast out of that possessed girl and then she became in her right mind. Paul and Silas were in jail and the Lord knocked the jail down. The Philippian jailer was about to kill himself and Paul said "We're still here." The jailer said "why are you still here?" Paul says "Let me share with you." They shared the Gospel and the Philippian jailer and his household came to know Christ.

All these people are coming to Christ and coming to this church Paul has planted yet Paul said "The whole time they treated us shamefully at Philippi." They attacked him constantly, throwing him into jail, threatening him and trying to intimidate him. Finally he was kind of ushered out of the city but that church was left back there. Go read the book of Philippians because it's a great book about what happens with that church but then he goes a hundred miles south and lands in a city of 200,000 people called Thessalonica and as he arrives there he begins to minister. The Lord begins to bless again to the Jew and the Gentile. In I Thessalonians he said "You left your pagan idols to come to Christ." The Jewish people became hungry for God's Word. Jew and Gentile came together in Christ and planted this church all the while they are persecuting him at Thessalonica. In fact, they end up running him out and he goes on to Athens and then on to Corinth. Here is this amazing ministry that is fruitful yet constantly under assault. It is honoring the Lord and yet the assault of the kingdom of darkness is consistently coming against him.

What is it that kept him motivated? It says in the text that I just read for you that "we were bold yet gentle like a nursing mother." Sometimes when things come against us we just say "I'll be bold and just hammer back at them" but he doesn't respond and return evil for evil. He is bold yet there is humility and gentleness. Yet his humility and gentleness didn't cause him to retreat. If you want to throw me in jail, here I am. If you want to throw me over the wall, here I am but I'm going to proclaim the Gospel. I'm going to share Christ with you.

What are the five motivations from the text? You can see the first one very quickly. I Thessalonians 2:4a says [4] but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel... So what kept Paul continually sharing the Gospel in these times of difficulty? Look how far he is away from home. Look how isolated, opposed and afflicted he is. He gets arrested. He is being rejected and what kept him there? One of the things that kept him there was that he had been entrusted with the Gospel. He has a Gospel stewardship. The Gospel that saved me was entrusted to me and now I am sent to proclaim it so I want to be faithful to the Lord.

What is required of a steward according to the Bible? It is that he would be faithful. I know I am not, won't be, ever will be, the greatest preacher in the world or greatest daddy or greatest husband. I'll be the best one I can be but I know I won't be the greatest but when I get to heaven here is what I'd like to hear, "Well done thou good and faithful steward." There is a world out here that is lost. There is only one message that can save them and it has been given to you. He has entrusted to us the Gospel Mission to go and preach the Gospel to all the nations. Begin in your Jerusalem, go to your Judea, go to your Samaria and to the utter most parts of the world. He has entrusted that Gospel to you. He has entrusted the message and the mission to you and to me.

God what is Your plan to win the people that You have chosen to spend all eternity with Yourself? That plan is you. You are that plan. By the way, the plan has been working because if you're a Christian today somebody was a good steward, weren't they? In fact, my guess is that more than one person was a good steward that shared with you that Jesus saves. They shared that with you so we have a Gospel stewardship. That's the reward in heaven that we're looking forward to – "Well done." There is another reward and I really believe this is going to happen that when we get there the people we shared with will welcome us. They will praise the Lord but thank us. You may not have time for that because you'll be looking for the people He used to save you to thank them. Can you imagine that moment? We have that stewardship. Don't take this treasure and bury it in the embarrassment of silence. Ask God that you would take this stewardship and give it away and be faithful with the mission and the message.

The second motivation was a passionate love for the lost. I Thessalonians 2:7-8 says [7] But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. [8] So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. We have a passionate love for the lost. We see the lost and we want them to come to Christ. We want to love them. He said "When I came I was desirous of you. I had affection for you. I had a deep love for you." So no matter what was trying to stop me, because I loved you, I wanted to get you. Lost Jews, lost Gentiles, I wanted to get to you that God would rescue from the emptiness of sin and idolatry and bring you to the fullness of Christ.

Why would we have a passion for the lost? There are multiple reasons. I'd like to give you a couple. Number one, the people I'm looking at that don't know Christ are facing an eternity of separation under an irrevocable judgment and it's a place called hell. Honestly, I don't want family, friends, neighbors or anybody to go there. I want them to come to Christ. I'm desirous of that. May God never let me lose that sensitivity. These people are going somewhere for eternity and You have given me the message to lead them to life. It's not only eternity but it's right now.

I was sharing this at a funeral yesterday when someone has asked me "Pastor, have you ever been around those death bed conversions?" I said "I haven't had many and there's only one in the Bible which was the thief on the cross. There is only one deathbed conversion so that none of us would be presumptuous but there is one so that we don't lose hope." He said, "When someone has kind of lived it up all their life and somehow toward the end of your life come to Jesus, doesn't that make you mad?" I said "Actually no, it makes me sad just to think of what they could have had their whole life instead of drinking from the swamp of sin. They could have drunk from the rivers of life."

Somewhere theologically this is probably wrong and I'll probably get disciplined for this but even if the Gospel wasn't true I'd want to live the way I'm living now but I live the way I live now because the Gospel is true and Jesus Christ is enough. Loving and serving Him with all the frailties, failures and everything that comes with a sinner saved by grace which I sure manifest that is glorious to know Him and grow in grace until you go to be with the Lord of glory. Jesus looked at the sheep that didn't know Him or had the wrong shepherds and He felt compassion for them for they were helpless and harassed. We feel that for them. That is what Paul said "I was desirous and affectionate for you. I had the passion of love that you would be saved from your sins to Christ."

Here is a third motivation. Not only is there a Gospel stewardship and a passionate love for the lost but thirdly there is an unbridled confidence in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I Thessalonians 2:3-5 says [3] For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, [4] but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. [5] For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. It is God who has helped us. Stop and think about that. If God has helped you who is the helper according to the Bible? It is the Holy Spirit so there is an unbridled confidence in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit who is the Helper and He is with you.

When Jesus gives this unbelievable mission there at Jerusalem when He says "I want you to go and preach the Gospel to all the nations. Go and make disciples of all the nations" and as soon as He finishes He says in Matthew 28:18-20, [18] And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Question, if Jesus is at the right hand of the Father how is He with me? He has poured out His Spirit and that's why in Acts 1 He told them to go back to the upper room and pray. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you shall receive power to be My witnesses.

The amazing thing is I am so inadequate to share the Gospel but praise the Lord my confidence is not in me but it's in Him that is in me. Jesus said "When they deliver you up I will give you what to say and how to say it." The same Holy Spirit that is working in me starts to work on the people I'm sharing with. An unbridled confidence in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit who is moving through you is moving into the lives of others.

The fourth motivation is the praise of God. We do this for God. We're not seeking glory from men but we're seeking the glory of God. This is a big one. Do you know why we share the Gospel? We want lost people to be saved and to grow in grace. We want lost people to be saved from their sin, death and hell and come to Christ for eternal life. We want to be faithful with the Gospel that has been entrusted to us. We have compassion for the lost but the big reason is that we want the praise of God to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Worship doesn't happen until evangelism sets people free from idolatry to give praise to God. We want the whole earth to be covered with worship so Lord, let me start right here with my next door neighbor, my co-worker, my school mate, my friend. I want this place to be penetrated and permeated with worship.

Why do we do evangelism? There are many motivations and many reasons but not the least of which where we want the earth to be covered with His glory. We want the whole world to wake up and say "Awaken O dawn, awaken lyre and harp. Come and give praise to God who has saved you from your sins" and we get to pull the trigger when we share the Gospel with people. The Bible says you not only set off worship and evangelism here but you set it off in heaven as well. Luke 15 tells you three times that every time one sinner repents there is joy in heaven. Every time we share the Gospel and God uses what we are doing for people to come to Christ we just started a party in heaven, a party of praise to God, of giving glory to God.

Here is my fifth and final motivation. Throughout the entire book of Thessalonians Paul goes all out to say this. Here is the way Peter would say and that is to hasten the coming of the Lord. Has Jesus won the victory at the cross? Ex Baptists just said 'amen' and Presbyterians just nodded their heads right then. When a revival is coming to the Presbyterians they give two grunts – hmmm, hmmm. Jesus has won the victory at the cross. Has He risen? Yes. Has He ascended? Yes. Is He coming again? Yes. When? I'll tell you when because He told you when. Number one is when this Gospel has been shared with all the nations then the end shall come. Number two is when all of His people have been brought to saving faith in Christ. Jesus said "Father I lose not one." So when the last one of when God's sovereign, searching, sufficient, saving grace has laid hold of them the end shall come.

That is what Peter is talking about when he says God is not willing that any should perish. Who is he talking to? Go and check II Peter 3. He is saying that the Lord won't come until all (the beloved) have been saved. The Lord is not slow on His promise. He says "Beloved, (speaking to the people of God)" that He will not come until all of you have been brought to Himself. So evangelism hastens the coming of the Lord, doesn't it? Let me give you an example. This happens to me all the time whenever I have a chance to share the Gospel or the great privilege to pray with someone to commit their life to Christ.

Whenever I pray with someone who commits their life to Christ two things come to my mind. One is Lord, I pray this isn't just a moment but a true commitment to Christ but only You know the heart. Secondly, Lord, if this is a true commitment to Christ it crosses my mind that this may be the last one. Come quickly Lord Jesus because when all of them have been gathered in He comes in glory and we rise up to be with Him for eternity.

The other week I was at Campus Outreach and had the privilege to preach while I was there. A number of things happened when I came down after the talk. I talked with one lady and said "Is there any reason why you shouldn't commit your life to Christ?" She said "Yeah I got some." I said, "Do you want to talk about it?" She said, "No." I said "Would you talk with someone else about it?" She said "Okay" and so I got her hooked up with someone since she wouldn't talk to me. Another lady came up and said "Thank you for what you said. Can I commit my life to Jesus?" I said "Sure" and we prayed. I thought "Lord, I pray this is a true commitment but only You know so do Your work in her heart." Then I thought this could be it, come on Jesus. This hastens the coming of the Lord. When the praise of God covers the earth, the Gospel to all the nations and all of His people have been brought to Himself then shall the end come.

Here is my one takeaway. There is one motivation for all motivations and before I give it I want to say a couple of things first. There is a motivation I could use today but I can't use it. I could use it but I better not use it. Do you know what it is? How many of you are satisfied with your prayer life? None of you raised your hands. How many of you are satisfied with your personal evangelism? Here is great opportunity for me to reach into the preacher's bag of the gift of guilt. I could use the guilt thing right now by saying how dare you not talk to people about Christ, didn't somebody talk to you? I do believe there is a place for guilt so it is in my toolbox. Guilt gets our attention and brings conviction so that one we go back to Christ to remind ourselves that we're forgiven and then two we look to Christ to change that in our life so that we can put off and put on. That's what guilt does but it doesn't motivate.

It's the joy of the Lord that motivates. It's really important because we need motivation for we can be very susceptible to wrong motivations and they are manipulations. Paul knows there are wrong motivations. He says we didn't come for your money or for gain or for our own fame. One of the evidences when people get into evangelism from wrong motives is they will play with the message. Paul said we came for God and for you and not for ourselves, fame, money or reputation because we didn't come with impurity, deceit or a pretext. We came boldly with the truth and gently with love. That is how you know.

So the right motivations are there but there is a motivation above all motivations that ties all the motivations together. Do you know why Gospel stewardship can be important to you? Do you know why you can have a passionate love for the lost? Do you know why you want Jesus to come back again? Do you know why you want praise to God in the name of Christ to cover the earth? It's because of this takeaway. The motivation that wraps up all the motivations is the love of Christ compels us. The love of Christ constrains us.

Harry, where does the love of Christ lay hold of us? It is when we know He first loved us. Why do I do the Gospel? It is because I want to obey Jesus. Why? If you love Me you'll keep My commandments. I want to obey. I want to keep the Gospel stewardship. I want the praise of God. Out of love to Christ you want to do what He has called you to do. You love Christ because He first loved you. When you love Christ you'll love what He loves. He loved the glory of the Father. No wonder we won't worship because we love Jesus and Jesus wanted glory to the Father. We love the lost. Why? It is because Jesus loved the lost. He came to seek and to save the lost. So we want to love those whom Jesus loves. We want to love the lost, worship and the Gospel. We want to be faithful stewards of the Gospel. We want Him to come again in glory.

When the love of Christ compels us we love Him. When you love somebody you talk about them. I love my wife, my family and you and if people are around me for any length of time I'm going to start talking about you. I'll start talking about my wife, Cindy. Those whom we love we talk about. If we love Jesus we talk about Him. When we love Him we love what He loves which is the glory of the Father and He loves the lost. When we love we love like He loves – bold and gentle. That's the motivation that ties all of this together.

How do you know when it's there? There is an attentiveness of affection to those whom were sharing. There's a boldness to share even though you know there's going to be rejection, persecution, affliction, crossing seas, building bridges and places where it's not going to be comfortable but that motivation of the love of Christ and all those other motivations at work God sends you there to love like He loves. You show up boldly and gently in truth and love and then you just put it all in God's hands. Lord, I'm sharing, You convert and bring them to glory. Bring Your own to Yourself.

I'm going to give you an illustration in closing. One of our own members went to be with the Lord this past week and Frank Barker and I had the privilege to do the funeral service yesterday along with Benny and Mark. Bill Price one of our elders was one of the men that made sure our Lord's Supper was handled here. It wasn't long before one found out that Bill was an engineer. We had the Lord's Supper down pat. Everyone knew where they were supposed to be and go. Then there is the 'Bill Price Lobby' which is not officially the 'Bill Price Lobby' but we call it that because it was functionally the 'Bill Price Lobby.' When you showed up there on Sunday morning Bill was there and that's how it got to be known as the 'Bill Price Lobby.' That's just where he was every Sunday. Now Bill has gone to glory. He is absent from the body and present with the Lord. Those whom He foreknew He predestined and those whom He predestined He called. Those whom He called He justified and those whom He justified He glorified. Now Bill is with the Lord.

Mark Cushman said "I used to think when I go to heaven I'm going to go through the Pearly Gates and by the time I get there I think they will call them the 'Bill Price Gates.'" Bill will probably be setting up the Marriage Feast while we're there as well. Bill Price when he died did not change vocation but he changed location. There is one thing that Bill is not doing today. He is not sharing the Gospel with lost people. You can't do that in heaven but we can here because the love of Christ compels us. Let's pray.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the time we could be together. I thank You so much for the wonderful way You work in and through our lives. Father, we confess that we are so easily distracted, discouraged, assaulted, faint, fatigued and fearful so we need all of those motivations. Thank You that we can sense it when people are manipulating but Father I thank You for the motivation of all motivations – the love of Christ that has laid hold of us and that compels us to take the Good News so that the praise of God would ascend to the heavens because the name of the Lord has been declared and shared by those who know the Lord. If you're reading this and you want to share Christ but you haven't yet come to Him then come today. Simply say "Jesus, thank You for Your sovereign, searching, sufficient, and saving grace in Christ. My soul was dead and I now see and hear. I come O Lord to You alone for salvation." If you have just prayed that prayer and want to talk with someone it would be our great joy to get you started in the journey of forever life in Christ. Father, free us so that we might boldly and gently proclaim 'Jesus saves' because the love of Christ has been poured out upon us and we have been saved therefore we share Him with others all for Your praise and our unbridled joy, unashamed courage, relentless love, Jesus saves. I pray this in Your Name, Amen.