Pine Grove Community Church

November 03, 2010

PURSUIT OF HOLINESS
Matt spoke to us about the need for Christians to evangelize. That God did not call certain people to evangelize; He called all believers to evangelize. Matt laid out a pretty clear need for the Church to evangelize, stating that statistics show that 80% of people confess to be Christians while only 8% of those say they live a biblically based life. Just too make it clear; you are not a Christian if you are not striving to live according to the Bible. Matt gave us the illustration that if you stood people side by side, those who need salvation in Lewis County would make a line about 8 ½ miles long. I believe someone even wiser than Matt (I know that’s hard to believe) said something similar, Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."- Matthew 9:37-38 There is no doubt we have work to do.

Matt shared with us three things that we can be doing every day to evangelize. The first is to share the love of Jesus with people. How do we do that? By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.- 1 John 3:16 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.- John 15:12-13 It’s easy to talk love but are we really loving people anyway similar to how Jesus loved and continues to love? Are you willing to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ? This is done in practical ways such as serving people, meeting physical needs, and just being there for people. But loving people also includes telling them what Jesus did for them and showing them their need to repent and to be forgiven. Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. We need to love people in a way that deliberately presents the gospel of Jesus Christ. The second thing Matt shared is that we need to make known the promises of God. Again this is something that must be evidenced in our lives. We can list off all the promises we want but the fact is if we live like everyone else we are doing nothing other than giving God a bad name. Are you living like you are forgiven, do you have joy and peace? This is all part of the third point Matt made, that we need to bear fruit both publicly and in secret. There is no greater witness than a life that is full of the fruit of the Spirit. There is no greater display of the love of Jesus and the promises of God than the Holy Spirit at work in your life. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. - 1 John 4:11-13