Ve y Cuéntalo | Cómo compartir Tu Historia Puede Matar Dragones

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- Come on, come on.

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Hey, I'm gonna be there. Who's gonna be there?

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Who's gonna be there?

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It's going to be a powerful experience,

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and you need to be there.

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Revival is happening next weekend,

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and I've got an announcement.

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This is literally hot off the presses.

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So, how many guys were at Man Camp again in this room?

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All right, come on. One, two, three.

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Ah-ooh! - Ah-ooh!

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-You know you were at Man Camp if you know what that is.

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Hey, one of the things that was different at Man Camp

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this year is a guy named Dante Bowe,

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who is an incredible singer worship leader was with us.

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Wasn't that amazing and powerful to have him there?

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This is a guy who God has given a special gifting to.

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When he opens his mouth, you can tell.

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And he's coming to Revival next weekend.

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He's going to be with us.

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And here's the amazing thing.

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Yes, he is gifted.

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And yes, you're going to be blessed.

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He's going to take our worship to a whole new level.

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And he asked to come.

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He asked to come because

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he sees something is going on around here.

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And I gotta tell you, something is going on around here.

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If we've never met. I'm Chuck,

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I'm one of the teaching pastors here.

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And I'm pretty excited,

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so if you feel my excitement, that's what it is.

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And let me tell you some of the things that are happening.

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Any Batavia High School alumni in here?

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Anybody went to Batavia High School?

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I think most of those folks are at the East Side.

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That makes sense. That makes sense.

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But man, something special happened there

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that I want to share with you.

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So we've got a team of students that are committed

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to each of the high schools.

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And at East Side, a team of students who go to Batavia

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have just been praying and asking God, like,

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"God, we want You to do something in our high school.

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We want people to know You

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in our high school the way that we do."

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And so a couple weeks ago, they got permission

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to host a gathering and they had 100 students in a room.

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And in that room, maybe an auditorium that looks like this,

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one of those students stood up

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and shared her story about what Jesus had done in her life.

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And then after she shared her Heard her story

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another student got up, and I don't know this kid,

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but this kid is probably going to be a pastor someday.

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Because what he did is he said, "Hey,

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if there's anybody in here

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who wants to know Jesus like she does,

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I'm going to ask you to come up and receive Him right now."

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Ten students got up and received Jesus right in that moment.

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Something is happening.

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And this is how I know this dude

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is definitely going to be a pastor,

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because he did what every good pastor does.

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He then said, "Now maybe you had a relationship with Jesus,

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but you've walked away from that and you want to rededicate."

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Another 30 students stood up and said,

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"I want to come back into relationship with Jesus."

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I'm not a mathlete. I'm not a math major.

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But a 40% response rate is pretty darn good.

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It tells me God is doing something.

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And it happened because those students opened their mouth.

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I really was blessed by that story

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because that's part of my story.

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It was actually in an auditorium at a school,

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my high school, Central High School in Philadelphia,

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was the first place that I heard the gospel

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from a peer of mine in a way that I could hear it.

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Fresh from what -- I mean I grew up in church,

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been around church a lot, but my friend Omar

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had the courage to share with me

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what Jesus was doing in his life.

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Probably 16 years old.

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And I remember the impact that Omar had on me

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and continues to have on me to this day,

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one of my oldest friends.

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We've been friends for a long time.

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And I am so glad that he had the courage, the desire,

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the love for me to open his mouth and share his story.

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We're in a series called Go Reach Your People

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where we're talking about what does it look like

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for us, everyday folks to be a part of the life change

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that happens in someone's life

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because we open our mouth

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and we share what God is doing in our lives.

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And so I want to tell you today, I got a challenge for you.

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I got a challenge for you today.

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And it is this: go tell it.

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Go tell it. I want you to go and tell your story.

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So maybe you're in here and you don't yet

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have a relationship with Jesus.

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You wouldn't say, "Hey, I'm a follower of Jesus."

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Well, I have a hope for you today.

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And my hope is that as you hear the stories

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of how Jesus has impacted people,

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and you're gonna hear a lot of stories today,

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I pray that it awakens something in you.

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I want you to know if you're here,

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you're not here by accident.

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And I believe that something special

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can happen for you today.

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Now, if you've received Jesus,

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then I want you to embrace this challenge.

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Because guess what? You've got a story.

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And when you tell it, it helps other people become free.

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So let's pray as we get started.

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God, I thank You that You have a story.

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And I thank You, God, that part of Your story

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is found in John 3:16, that You so loved the world

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that You gave us Your only Son, Jesus,

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that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.

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And God, there are people in here

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who have tasted this everlasting life,

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who've received this everlasting life.

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And I pray that we would feel encouraged and empowered

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to go tell it so that others can know You the way that we do.

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So God use this time for that end,

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and may it bless You and make You smile.

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I pray this in Your Name. Amen.

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Romans 10:14 says this:

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How then will they call on Him (Jesus)

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in whom they have not believed?

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And how are they to believe in Him

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of whom they have not heard?

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And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

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And I want you to know that that verse

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is not only applicable to pastors.

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It's not only applicable to people like me

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who have amplification and stand on stages

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and talk about the Bible. No.

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In fact, those words were written

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to everyday followers of Jesus.

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Everyday followers of Jesus were called to go tell it.

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And in fact, it's so important that you share your story

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that we have a spiritual enemy and his big bet

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is that you and I won't do that.

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His big bet is that you and I will actually keep quiet.

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And honestly, it's working far too often.

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I came across this research from Barna that says that

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almost half of practicing Christian millennials

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say evangelism is wrong.

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Now, let me dig into this a bit

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because there's a conflict in the data.

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94-97% of these same people say that

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meeting Jesus is the best thing

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that can happen in someone's life.

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So they've tasted the life that Jesus has.

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And yet almost half of them say,

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"But I think it's wrong to share your faith."

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This tells me a couple things.

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Number one, it tells me that talking about faith is hard.

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It's hard, especially in a culture

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that chooses tolerance over truth,

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where you just don't want to rock the boat.

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I don't want to offend anybody, and I get that, I get that,

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but I also recognize this, it's hard,

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but also it's a massive opportunity.

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It's a massive opportunity because

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think about the resources we have.

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Think about the opportunities we have,

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the access we have through all kinds of means

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to share stories of what God has done in our life.

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And let me tell you something.

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In a world where everybody likes to argue,

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no one can argue with your story.

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No one can argue with what you've experienced of God.

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And so I want to encourage you today to share your story.

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And I want to give you a way to do that.

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Last week Alli talked about the fact

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that this is kind of a two parter.

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Her message and mine are kind of a two parter.

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So last week Alli talked about

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what does it mean to share the gospel.

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What does that word mean? That word means good news.

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And that word gospel was a word

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that was a common word in Jesus's time.

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There were all kinds of people sharing good news.

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In fact, when a new conqueror would take over a land,

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they would send ahead of them

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people that they called evangelists,

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not just a churchy word that was a social word.

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And that evangelist would go from town to town and say,

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"A new king has come

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and life is going to be better with this king.

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I am announcing the good news

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of the Kingdom of King," you name it,

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you know King so and so and so.

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Alli talked about the good news of Jesus, of King Jesus.

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I love how she narrowed it down to ten words:

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Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead.

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That is the gospel.

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So when we talk about sharing the gospel of Jesus,

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we're talking about the fact that Jesus literally

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and physically came in a human body,

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that he died a physical death on a Cross,

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and three days later He rose from the dead.

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And because of that, it changed our lives as we come into faith.

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And I love what she said next, that the gospel is about Jesus.

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The gospel, not about me and how I fixed myself.

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Gospel is not about how I made myself better.

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No, the gospel is about Jesus.

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Second, the gospel is about sin.

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That there are things in me that don't line up

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with the way that God intended my life to go.

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And all of those costly choices don't just harm me,

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they harm others.

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The gospel is about the collective sin

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that we all commit and have.

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But thank God the gospel is also about resurrection.

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Jesus didn't just die, He rose again.

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And that means that we can rise again.

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Anybody experienced the resurrection in their lives?

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You know, we can think about that word and say,

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"Oh, man. Yeah. I've never I've never seen somebody dead

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that, like, came back to life." That happens too.

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But how many people in here say I have a resurrected purpose

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out of my relationship with Jesus?

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I have resurrected relationship out of my love for Jesus.

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I've got a resurrected ability to deal with life

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as it is because of my relationship with Jesus.

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There's resurrections happening all the time.

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And finally, the gospel is about grace.

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Gospel is about the fact that we do not get what we deserve.

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That's mercy.

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And we get what we don't deserve.

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And that is grace.

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Adopted into the family of God,

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God's very Holy Spirit living inside of us.

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Like, there are these things that are gifts

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and that is the gospel.

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And so this week I want to talk about how you share your story,

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your encounter with Jesus and His gospel.

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And let me say this right up front, because I know

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that there are people in here who would doubt it.

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You have a story to tell.

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I think it's easy for us to say,

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"Well, I don't have like one of those stories.

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I've heard some of these amazing stories.

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I don't have a story like that."

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Let me tell you something, you have a story to tell.

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Maybe it's the story of how you had peace in a hard season.

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Somebody needs to hear that story.

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Maybe it's the story of how you were addicted

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or anxious or angry and Jesus changed your heart.

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Someone needs to hear your story.

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Maybe your story is still being written.

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Someone needs to hear that story.

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You have a story to tell and it can free people.

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So today is kind of a two part message.

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The first part, I want to talk about a simple framework

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for how to share your Jesus story.

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And so for the next few minutes,

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if it feels like you're in a training seminar,

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I'm doing it right.

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Because I want to give you a skill.

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And then I'm going to ask you to apply that skill after today.

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So it should feel that way.

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Simple framework that's going to help.

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But then we're going to spend the rest of the time

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doubling down on why share your story.

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Because here's what I know about me, I know it's true about you.

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If you don't understand or believe in the why to,

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the how to doesn't matter.

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And so what I want you to leave today with is the inspiration,

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the encouragement, and the confidence

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to simply share your story of Jesus.

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So here's a simple framework we're going to use,

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not rocket science.

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Before Jesus what was your life like?

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Meeting Jesus, what was that experience like?

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And then life now on the other side of meeting Jesus.

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Not rocket science at all.

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Let me get into this and break it down.

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So we got up here life before Jesus.

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So as you think about life before Jesus,

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you're asking yourself questions like,

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"Hey, what was going on in my life before I met Jesus?"

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What are you thinking or feeling?

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Maybe what were you wrestling with?

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What were you oblivious to?

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All those kinds of pre-meeting Jesus,

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here was my life as I was living it out.

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And some of that might be difficult things.

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Some of it be like, "Man, I was high on the hog, I was.

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I was leaning into this pleasurable thing."

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All of those things could be true.

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But what was your life like before Jesus?

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You want to get into that in more detail.

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Before Jesus my life felt or my life was or I was experiencing.

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Next part, when Jesus entered my life.

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And here's what I want you to do with this one.

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You want to think about a moment, maybe moments,

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because it's not just one Jesus story.

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You have multiple Jesus stories.

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Hopefully, if you're following Jesus,

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He is entering your life in fresh ways right now.

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There's something new He's growing in you

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or teaching you or healing you from.

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And so in this one, what was that moment like?

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Where were you?

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What were the context or surrounding things

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happening in that moment?

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Were there other people that were part of that moment,

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and if so, what role did they play?

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So when Jesus entered your life,

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what was that moment like for you?

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And then thirdly, life with Jesus now.

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What do you understand in a different way

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than you did before Jesus?

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Or what are you now able to do that you couldn't before?

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What do you have that you didn't have before?

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So literally, I want you to take a picture of this.

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This is just a simple framework and a prompt

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of how you can share Jesus stories in your life.

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And why do I know this works?

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It works because meeting Jesus has some common threads to it.

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And here are the common threads.

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Meeting Jesus is about change.

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If you think that meeting Jesus means you have a moment

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and then you continue on with life as it was before,

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you have not met Jesus, my friend.

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One of the things that Jesus consistently does

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is He invites you to change.

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Somebody put it really well.

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Jesus loves you right where you are

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and loves you too much to keep you where you are.

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And so change is a part of our experience of Jesus.

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Jesus is about change.

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Jesus and meeting Him is also about challenge.

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Loving. There's a gentle voice.

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I'm learning this that the voice of Jesus is gentle.

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Jesus doesn't have a critical voice.

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Jesus isn't mean. Jesus isn't judgmental.

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But He doesn't have a problem saying,

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"Man, this thing right here, gosh,

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that's that's getting in the way.

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That's getting in the way of your freedom.

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That's getting in the way of who I've called you to be."

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He will challenge you.

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Meeting Jesus is about change.

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Meeting Jesus is about challenge.

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And finally, it's about new life.

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Thank God that there are things that He will resurrect

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that we thought were dead.

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And thank God there are new things

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He will birth that we didn't even know.

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And this is true of every person who's encountered Jesus.

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It's certainly true of every person in the Bible.

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So what I want to do is go through two stories in the Bible

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of people who met Jesus using this framework.

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Because you can tell almost the story

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of any person in the Bible this way.

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The first woman we're going to look at, she's --

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We don't get her name,

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but we know she's the woman at the well.

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This shows up in one of the biographies of Jesus's life,

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the Book of John chapter four.

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And here's what we know about this woman.

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We know that this is a woman of might, we say, ill repute.

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And the reason we know that is because she is getting

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water at a well in the heat of the day,

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and the only people in that time that would get water

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in the heat of the day, not in the cool of the day,

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are people who were social pariahs,

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people who others didn't want to associate with.

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And so this is a woman who was probably carrying

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so much social shame already.

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Now, on top of the social shame she had

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because she was a woman of ill repute,

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she was also, the Bible says, a Samaritan.

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And the Samaritans were the people

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that the Jews did not get along with.

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And the Samaritans didn't like the Jews either.

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It would be like me showing up in Pittsburgh

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with a Joe Burrow jersey on.

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Probably not going to be

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people's favorite person if I do that, right?

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And so this was like the way it was.

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And so we know this is a woman

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who was probably wallowing in shame.

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And I want you to know what her life was like before Jesus.

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Jesus knew her story, and this is what He said.

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Jesus said to her --

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well, she said to Jesus, "I have no husband."

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Jesus asked her that question.

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And Jesus said to her, "You were right in saying,

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'I have no husband, ' for you have had five husbands,

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and the one you now have is not your husband.

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What you said is true."

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I heard somebody say, whoo, right?

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Yeah. I mean, even in our day five husbands,

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you going to ask some questions.

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Right? You have some questions.

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You want to get underneath that story a little bit. Right?

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So we know this is a woman who had probably dealt with

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relational pain, probably dealt with rejection,

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and certainly was dealing with relational shame.

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And yet she met Jesus.

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And here's how she summarizes her meeting of Jesus.

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She says to the people in her community,

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"Come see a man who told me all that I ever did.

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Can this be the Christ?"

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Because you know what?

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Jesus knew everything she had ever did and loved her anyway.

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Jesus knew everything about her

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and still invited her to experience living water.

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Jesus talks about living water with this woman.

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Jesus, in meeting Him,

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she had an experience that changed her life.

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She felt received. She felt seen.

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She felt known. She felt loved. She didn't feel judged.

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And what was her life like after meeting Jesus?

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In John 4:39 it says many Samaritans from that town

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believed in Him because of this woman's testimony,

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because she shared her story.

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"He told me all that I ever did."

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Do you know she's the first recorded person

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in the New Testament

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to bring the message of Jesus to her community?

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There's a word for that: evangelist.

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The shameful woman of ill repute

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that nobody wanted to spend time to,

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not Peter, not James, not John,

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not the guys that we put a saint before.

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But this woman was

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the first evangelist of the good news of Jesus

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because of meeting Jesus and how it changed her life.

00:17:51

Again, you can see that flow in every story in the Bible.

00:17:54

Let me give you one more.

00:17:55

This is an Ethiopian official.

00:17:58

We know that because the Bible tells us

00:17:59

that he was an official.

00:18:00

So this is the story of a guy who had it all together.

00:18:04

If he was an Ethiopian official

00:18:06

and he was a eunuch, the Bible says,

00:18:08

we know that he had high proximity and access

00:18:10

to the most powerful people in Ethiopia.

00:18:13

He's probably part of the royal party in Ethiopia,

00:18:16

not the family, but like a royal advisor.

00:18:18

And this is his story, Acts 8is where we see this story.

00:18:22

Before Jesus, it says, he rose and went.

00:18:24

And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch,

00:18:26

a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,

00:18:28

who was in charge of all her treasure.

00:18:30

He had come to Jerusalem to worship

00:18:32

and was returning seated in his chariot.

00:18:34

So he probably also had wealth and resources.

00:18:37

And he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

00:18:38

So this is a guy who was a spiritual seeker.

00:18:41

He was an intellectual.

00:18:43

So he's reading the prophets of the Jewish people, Isaiah,

00:18:46

and he's talking about this suffering servant,

00:18:48

but he's wrestling with it.

00:18:49

And the Spirit said to Philip,

00:18:51

which is one of Jesus's 12 disciples,

00:18:53

this is after Jesus left,

00:18:54

"Go over and join this chariot."

00:18:56

So Philip ran to him

00:18:57

and heard him reading from Isaiah the prophet

00:18:59

and asked him, and he invited Philip

00:19:00

to come up and sit with him.

00:19:01

So this is a guy who was intellectually wrestling.

00:19:04

Maybe you're in here today and you're intellectually wrestling.

00:19:06

In fact, you might hear some things, you might have

00:19:08

already heard some things about stories of healing

00:19:10

and those kinds of things.

00:19:12

You're like, "Man,

00:19:13

I'm just wrestling with that intellectually."

00:19:15

I want you to know you have a story.

00:19:16

You have a story with that.

00:19:18

What was his meeting Jesus moment?

00:19:21

Philip, the follower of Jesus, says to him,

00:19:23

"Do you understand what you're reading?"

00:19:25

And he said, "How can I unless someone guides me?"

00:19:27

And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

00:19:29

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture,

00:19:32

that scripture in Isaiah, he told him the good news,

00:19:35

the gospel about Jesus.

00:19:37

And as they were going along the road, they came to some water

00:19:40

and the eunuch said, "See, here is water.

00:19:42

What prevents me from being baptized?"

00:19:44

What I love about this guy is he goes from 0 to 60 real quick.

00:19:48

He goes from wrestling intellectually

00:19:50

to whatever that conversation was the penny dropped.

00:19:53

Dots started to connect and he's like, "Well,

00:19:55

if the response to following Jesus is I die to my old life

00:19:59

through this act of baptism, symbolically,

00:20:01

then I want to do that right now."

00:20:03

This is a guy who was ready to go all in for Jesus.

00:20:07

And so what was his life like after Jesus?

00:20:09

Acts 8:39 says when they came up out of the water,

00:20:12

the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away,

00:20:15

and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

00:20:20

I want you to know the power of your story.

00:20:24

The Christian Church in Ethiopia historically

00:20:27

is one of the oldest churches.

00:20:29

There are churches in Ethiopia that predate any other churches

00:20:33

anywhere else on the continent of Africa or other continents.

00:20:37

And I think it's because this guy went home

00:20:41

and used his influence to say, "I gotta tell you,

00:20:43

I was wrestling with some stuff. I met a guy.

00:20:45

And I've not just met this guy Philip,

00:20:47

but I met this guy Jesus,

00:20:48

and He changed my life."

00:20:50

And I think this guy's story made a difference.

00:20:53

You have a story to tell,

00:20:54

and when you tell it, it frees people.

00:20:56

I'm gonna share a couple other stories with you,

00:20:58

and we're gonna do this one guess whose style.

00:21:00

So I'm actually going to read the story.

00:21:02

These are more modern people,

00:21:03

and I want you to guess who I'm talking about.

00:21:05

See if you can connect these stories.

00:21:06

So here's the first person, they say this.

00:21:08

They're before Jesus is, "I had all these ambitions

00:21:11

and all these things I really wanted to do,

00:21:13

but I also was just dealing with like some dark stuff

00:21:16

that wasn't unboxed,

00:21:17

that I wasn't unboxing and trying to solve it.

00:21:19

I just knew something was wrong.

00:21:21

I was not fulfilled by life, even if I got an acting job,

00:21:25

was like, what's the next thing?

00:21:26

If I had money in my pocket I was like,

00:21:28

how much more money can I have?

00:21:30

What else can I get from this?

00:21:31

It's like nothing literally satisfied."

00:21:34

You ever been there?

00:21:36

Maybe someone in here can relate to that.

00:21:38

This person's meeting Jesus moment was this.

00:21:40

"My friend called me one day and he was just talking to me.

00:21:43

He's just like God told me to call you

00:21:45

and tell you that you're not in a good place.

00:21:47

I can tell you about Jesus. His Spirit set me free.

00:21:50

So I'm just sharing it with you."

00:21:52

And in that sentence, it was like the interest just clicked.

00:21:55

And he gave me Matthew 6:33 which says,

00:21:58

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

00:22:00

and all these things will be added to you."

00:22:03

And this person says their life now with Jesus is this.

00:22:06

You see a verse and it literally

00:22:08

brings your mind back into alignment

00:22:09

to what God wants you to be and who God wants you to be.

00:22:13

I knew something happened.

00:22:15

I knew there was something different in my Spirit.

00:22:18

I felt free and my mind wasn't tripping anymore.

00:22:21

It was like I'm actually free.

00:22:25

Any guesses on who this is?

00:22:29

There she is, Letitia Wright.

00:22:30

What? Did they show it already?

00:22:32

It's supposed to be a reveal. Come on, video team.

00:22:35

Taking all my thunder.

00:22:37

It's supposed to get some good timing.

00:22:40

Everybody's like Leticia Wright. Yes, right there. I'm sorry.

00:22:43

Okay. It wasn't supposed to work that way, but anyway.

00:22:47

I want to share another one of those.

00:22:49

And instead of doing guess who,

00:22:50

we're just going to watch it straight from this guy's mouth.

00:22:54

- Y'all forgive me. Um, I'm -- I'm, one,

00:22:56

I'm not sure how much

00:22:58

I even belong speaking up here right now,

00:23:00

but, um, it's just, um.

00:23:03

And I'm nervous.

00:23:04

I ain't been this nervous since I went to criminal court, y'all.

00:23:07

This is a real thing for me. I mean, I'm sweaty palmed.

00:23:09

But, uh, I was listening to him, and I was thinking about Matthew

00:23:12

when he talks about the least, when he said,

00:23:15

"When I was hungry, you fed me.

00:23:16

When I was thirsty, you gave me water.

00:23:18

When I was in jail, you came and visited me."

00:23:22

And I realized that I'm standing here

00:23:24

because people took time with the least.

00:23:28

And I want to give this message as clear as I can right now.

00:23:32

The world is hearing about Jesus

00:23:34

like they haven't in decades right now.

00:23:38

There is a Revival happening in the United States of America

00:23:42

where you can't go on a corner

00:23:44

and not hear about Jesus right now.

00:23:46

And while we are hearing about Jesus,

00:23:48

I encourage you to put faith on your feet

00:23:52

and feet on your faith and walk out of this building

00:23:55

and go do for the least.

00:23:56

They've heard of Jesus. Now show them Jesus.

00:23:59

Go feed the poor. Go visit the ones in jail.

00:24:02

Go show them who Jesus was.

00:24:04

We're done talking. It's time to show.

00:24:06

- Come on, come on, come on, come on.

00:24:12

I tell you what I see, I see a guy whose life has been changed.

00:24:16

And I see a guy who wants

00:24:18

other people's lives to be changed too.

00:24:21

Read one more to you, this is a guess who.

00:24:23

And I'm trusting the video team to do this the right way.

00:24:26

All right. This person says, "Before I met Jesus,

00:24:30

I felt entitled to live however I wanted.

00:24:32

I was rebellious, totally selfish, and didn't care much

00:24:35

about what God wanted for my life.

00:24:37

And then I turned five.

00:24:39

Seriously, part of my story is realizing

00:24:41

that being born into a Christian family

00:24:43

doesn't make you a Christian.

00:24:44

I made a commitment

00:24:45

to follow Jesus when I was eight years old,

00:24:47

but my journey has been learning what it truly means

00:24:50

to be in relationship with Jesus,

00:24:51

rather than just playing church."

00:24:53

This person's meeting Jesus story is this.

00:24:55

"In my early 20s, I learned this lesson in a powerful way

00:24:58

in a dingy basement that forever changed me

00:25:00

and my relationship with God.

00:25:02

I had a hidden addiction that was getting worse.

00:25:05

And in a moment of desperation, I confessed something

00:25:07

utterly shameful to a friend.

00:25:09

Here I was, a so-called Christian

00:25:11

who had done this terrible thing.

00:25:13

I expected my friend, also a Christian, to chew me out

00:25:15

and tell me how bad I really was.

00:25:17

But that didn't happen.

00:25:19

Instead, my friend met me in my shame

00:25:21

and spoke to me about my true identity.

00:25:23

He told me that even though I had sinned,

00:25:25

when God looks at me,

00:25:26

He sees a son He loves. He sees someone He has forgiven.

00:25:29

And because He loves me and died for me, I can be set free

00:25:32

from the chains of that addiction."

00:25:34

And this is this person's life now.

00:25:36

"That was my turning point.

00:25:38

I now see that as the moment

00:25:39

when this Christian was really saved.

00:25:42

That moment freed me from believing that life with Jesus

00:25:44

was about religious striving in my own strength,

00:25:46

to knowing that following Jesus is about receiving grace

00:25:49

that transforms you by God's strength.

00:25:51

I'm a different person today,

00:25:53

freer, more grateful, more humble.

00:25:56

I'm not perfect, but I'm forever changed."

00:26:01

Anybody want to guess who that is?

00:26:03

That's me. That's me. That's my story.

00:26:09

So I know of what I speak.

00:26:11

This is coming from personal experience.

00:26:13

There is a life before Jesus that we all have.

00:26:16

Whether you grew up in the church like me,

00:26:17

or whether you were as far away from church as you could be.

00:26:20

And there's a moment when

00:26:21

you meet Jesus and everything change.

00:26:24

And that moment is freeing and powerful.

00:26:26

And your life now is different.

00:26:28

And when you open your mouth and share that with someone else,

00:26:31

you never know, you could be the one reason

00:26:33

why they nod and say, "You know what?

00:26:35

I want to know more about this Jesus you talk about."

00:26:38

Friends, you have a story to tell.

00:26:41

Simple framework: before Jesus, meeting Jesus, life now.

00:26:45

You got it, locked in?

00:26:47

All right, I'm gonna spend

00:26:48

the rest of our time talking about why.

00:26:49

Why should you share your story?

00:26:51

If this is true, this is how.

00:26:52

Like I said, if you don't believe in the why,

00:26:54

you're not going to do this.

00:26:56

And so I want to really encourage you with the why.

00:26:58

Revelation 12:11 says this. It says:

00:27:00

And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb,

00:27:03

and by the word of their testimony.

00:27:05

For they loved not their lives, even unto death.

00:27:09

Now I gotta be -- I gotta tell you the truth,

00:27:11

we have a spiritual enemy. His name is Satan.

00:27:14

And he's depicted in many ways in Scripture,

00:27:15

and he's given many names. Here's a couple of his names.

00:27:18

He's called the serpent, but he's also called the accuser.

00:27:22

That voice that tells you you'll never measure up,

00:27:24

that voice that tells you

00:27:25

this may be for people around you, but not for you.

00:27:27

There is a spiritual being speaking that lie over you.

00:27:30

In fact, one of the other names he has is the Father of Lies.

00:27:34

He has so many of these names throughout the Bible.

00:27:37

But in the book of Revelation, he's depicted yet another way.

00:27:41

And I gotta tell you, there's some trippy stuff

00:27:43

in the Book of Revelations if you've not opened that book.

00:27:46

And to understand the context of the words I just read,

00:27:49

we got to get into some of the trippy.

00:27:51

We got to get into some stuff that,

00:27:53

wow, is going to be intense.

00:27:55

So fair warning, it's about to get weird in here,

00:27:58

but trust me, I'm going somewhere with this.

00:28:09

Revelation 12:3 says: Then another sign appeared in heaven,

00:28:14

behold a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns,

00:28:20

and on his head seven diadems.

00:28:29

And it continues.

00:28:30

Now war arose in heaven.

00:28:33

Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.

00:28:36

And the dragon and his angels fought back,

00:28:38

but he was defeated.

00:28:40

And there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

00:28:43

And the great dragon was thrown down,

00:28:45

that ancient serpent who is called the devil,

00:28:48

and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

00:28:50

He was thrown down to the earth

00:28:52

and his angels were thrown down with him.

00:28:56

And then it says this.

00:28:59

Then I heard a loud voice from heaven saying,

00:29:02

"Now the salvation and the power,

00:29:04

and the kingdom of our God,

00:29:06

and the authority of His Christ have come.

00:29:09

For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down,

00:29:12

who accuses them day and night before God."

00:29:16

And that's where we find these words:

00:29:17

And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb,

00:29:21

and by the word of their testimony.

00:29:23

For they loved not their lives, even unto death.

00:29:27

Why share your story? You know why?

00:29:31

Because your story has the power

00:29:32

to silence lies and slay dragons.

00:29:35

Your story silences the lies,

00:29:38

that voice in people's heads that says it's not for me.

00:29:41

That voice in your own head that says

00:29:43

this hasn't really happened.

00:29:45

When you tell your story, it is powerful.

00:29:47

I love this verse because it says we overcome by two things.

00:29:50

The first is the blood of the lamb.

00:29:52

What is that, the blood of the lamb?

00:29:53

Again, Jesus is presented as the sacrificial lamb.

00:29:57

So when it says we overcome by the blood of the lamb,

00:30:00

it's the gospel,

00:30:01

we overcome because Jesus died for our sins

00:30:04

and rose from the dead.

00:30:06

That's the blood of the lamb, and it washes us clean.

00:30:09

He died in our place.

00:30:10

He took all the blame, all the sin, all the consequences

00:30:13

were put on Him and not on us,

00:30:15

so that we can have freedom because of that.

00:30:17

And that makes sense.

00:30:19

Jesus is the most powerful being in the universe,

00:30:22

so it makes sense to me that

00:30:23

He can defeat a seven headed dragon.

00:30:25

But what? You mean to tell me, Chuck, when I open my mouth

00:30:28

and share my story,

00:30:29

God uses that to silence lies and defeat the enemy?

00:30:33

Yes He does. Yes He does.

00:30:36

You and I have a story to tell.

00:30:42

And when you tell your story, you're reminding yourself

00:30:45

that God's grace is enough.

00:30:48

When you tell your story, I want you to think about this.

00:30:51

Life and death are in the power of the tongue.

00:30:53

That's what the Bible says in Proverbs 18:21.

00:30:56

And if the gospel is about us coming to new life,

00:30:59

when you tell your story,

00:31:00

you're telling the dragon, "I got the receipts.

00:31:02

I got the receipts for my freedom.

00:31:04

I got the receipts for this hope that I have.

00:31:06

I've got the receipt

00:31:07

for the love that I'm able to live in now.

00:31:09

I've got the receipts and the receipt is that

00:31:12

Jesus died for my sins and He rose from the dead."

00:31:16

So why share your story?

00:31:17

Friend, because you are saved. You've been saved.

00:31:20

That's a churchy word, but it is an accurate word.

00:31:23

You've been saved.

00:31:25

Ephesians 2 says it this way.

00:31:26

It says that you and I were dead in our sins, dead in our sins.

00:31:30

And let me tell you, that's true for the drug dealer,

00:31:33

and that's true for the stay at home mom.

00:31:35

That's true for the grandparent, and that's true for a gamer.

00:31:38

We all need the same grace because we are spiritually dead.

00:31:42

But I love how that verse finishes.

00:31:43

It says: By grace you have been saved.

00:31:46

So share your story because you've been saved.

00:31:49

But also share your story because you have been sent.

00:31:52

You have been sent.

00:31:53

Remember that verse I read earlier,

00:31:55

that it's not just for pastors.

00:31:56

I love what it says in Romans 10:15.

00:31:58

How are they to preach unless they have been sent?

00:32:01

You know what? I'm thankful because Omar was sent.

00:32:05

That person that invited you to church, they've been sent.

00:32:08

Mom and dad, when you model your faith for your kids,

00:32:10

you are sent.

00:32:12

Friends, you are sent to your neighbors, not someone else.

00:32:14

You are sent to your coworkers, not someone else.

00:32:17

You are sent to your neighborhood and your community,

00:32:19

not someone else. You have been sent.

00:32:22

The verse goes on to say: how beautiful are the feet

00:32:25

of those that carry the good news.

00:32:27

Oh my goodness! If you could understand the beauty

00:32:30

and the power of your story.

00:32:32

I'll put it to you this way.

00:32:34

You are someone's only sermon.

00:32:38

I gotta say that again. You need to hear this.

00:32:41

You are someone's only sermon.

00:32:44

For someone this week you're going to be

00:32:47

the only access they have to the message of Jesus.

00:32:51

For someone this week you're going to be the only person

00:32:53

who's going to be able to communicate

00:32:55

a life of hope and joy

00:32:56

that's going to help them see that there's a different way

00:32:58

from the life they've been living.

00:33:00

Friends, for someone, I don't know who it is,

00:33:02

but for someone you are their only sermon.

00:33:07

And so I think about what Kyle said on week one of this series,

00:33:10

that if we were going to have a team mantra or a team sign,

00:33:13

it would be this: here I am, Lord. Send me.

00:33:17

And I'm praying that you'll go tell it.

00:33:21

I'm praying that that song that we sung or sing around here,

00:33:24

that it wouldn't just be a song for you, but you would say,

00:33:27

"Jesus, count me in, count me in.

00:33:28

If You want to reach my family through me, count me in.

00:33:31

If You want to reach my neighbor through me, count me in.

00:33:33

If You want to reach my ex-spouse through me,

00:33:35

count me in.

00:33:36

If You want to reach my children through me, count me in.

00:33:39

I'm in to share my story."

00:33:40

Because when you share your story,

00:33:42

it isn't boring and it frees people.

00:33:45

Alli Patterson, said that and I said,

00:33:47

man, I'm using that. That'll preach.

00:33:49

So here's my challenge for you.

00:33:50

I got a challenge for you, like I said, and it's this:

00:33:52

today, sometime in the next 24 hours,

00:33:55

I want you to write out your story.

00:33:58

I want you to use those three prompts

00:33:59

and write out your story.

00:34:01

And let me tell you, you're not writing a 50 minute speech.

00:34:04

3 to 5 minutes, a couple sentences,

00:34:07

maybe a couple paragraphs on life before Jesus,

00:34:09

a couple sentences, a couple paragraphs

00:34:11

on what was the moment of meeting Jesus like for you?

00:34:14

A couple sentences, couple paragraphs

00:34:15

on what your life's like now.

00:34:17

I want you to write it out,

00:34:19

because then the next challenge is

00:34:21

I'm going to ask you to share it this week

00:34:23

with someone that you invite to revival.

00:34:27

Just want to say again,

00:34:29

we're not going to be here next weekend.

00:34:31

If you come, you're going to be here by yourself.

00:34:35

But we want you to be with us at 700 acres of camp land

00:34:39

that's just 45 minutes east of here,

00:34:42

because there's going to be something going on.

00:34:44

Like I said earlier, something is up.

00:34:46

I have to tell you,

00:34:47

we have been seeing some remarkable things around here.

00:34:50

There have been regular stories of people coming to faith.

00:34:52

I told you the Batavia story.

00:34:54

I could tell you ten other stories,

00:34:56

20 other stories, 30 other stories.

00:34:57

God is doing something unique in this moment.

00:35:00

We have had these healing stories,

00:35:02

people telling us that after prayer, pain is going away.

00:35:06

We've had people who couldn't walk, who now are walking again.

00:35:09

I'm telling you guys, something is going on

00:35:13

and I believe God is inviting us to be a part of it.

00:35:15

I too was at Man Camp this past weekend

00:35:18

and that was another place where it was going on.

00:35:20

God was moving in some powerful ways.

00:35:22

1700 men were prayed for this weekend at Man Camp, 1700.

00:35:28

124 guys gave their lives to Jesus at Man Camp last weekend

00:35:33

for the first time. [applause]

00:35:36

70 guys got baptized.

00:35:38

Listen to this 211 documented physical healings

00:35:43

just happened last weekend at Man Camp,

00:35:47

including a man who had not been able to hear

00:35:50

out of one of his ears for 34 years.

00:35:53

And under that tent, boom! He's able to hear again today.

00:35:57

God is doing something in our midst and it is amazing to see.

00:36:02

Another guy shows up on Friday night before any message,

00:36:05

before any preaching, he says, "I want to receive Jesus."

00:36:08

The guy receives Jesus, goes into the pond to get baptized.

00:36:12

Five other guys follow him and get baptized too.

00:36:15

Guys, something is going on. God is doing something.

00:36:20

And I'll just be honest with you, I have great expectations

00:36:22

for what God's going to do at Revival.

00:36:24

I've got great expectations.

00:36:25

Listen, we can't manufacture anything.

00:36:28

It's God's work, not ours.

00:36:29

But I tell you what, if God's going to show up at Base Camp,

00:36:34

Chuck Mingo is going to be there.

00:36:35

Let me be selfish for a minute. I'll be selfish.

00:36:37

I don't know what you're going to do next weekend.

00:36:39

I don't know if you got something better going on

00:36:42

than being in a place where Jesus is setting people free.

00:36:44

I don't. I'm going to be there next weekend.

00:36:47

And I hope you will too. I hope you will too.

00:36:51

And I hope you'll invite someone to come with you.

00:36:56

I found this, my friend Brody Schrader,

00:36:59

who's launching Uptown,

00:37:01

Crossroads Uptown is going to be launching in January.

00:37:03

Brody Schrader is the new Community Pastor.

00:37:06

And he showed this statistic, and I said, wow.

00:37:10

80% of non-churchgoers say they would go if invited.

00:37:14

So why don't we invite?

00:37:19

I'm going to ask you to do something,

00:37:21

and let's take this card and then you're like,

00:37:23

"What about this card? I've had this card the whole time."

00:37:25

I want you take it out now. Here's what I want you to do.

00:37:32

Take a pen, and I want you to write the name of someone

00:37:37

on this card that you know and that you will invite to Revival.

00:37:45

And that's the person that

00:37:46

I'm going to ask you to go tell it this week.

00:37:49

And maybe part of that invitation to Revival is,

00:37:51

"Hey, man, I just want you to know

00:37:53

some of the ways that Jesus has changed my life.

00:37:56

I just want to tell you a little bit of my own story

00:37:59

and why I'm excited about Revival,

00:38:01

and why I want you to be there with me."

00:38:02

So I want you to go ahead and write a name on here.

00:38:04

And I'm talking about somebody

00:38:06

that you're really going to invite.

00:38:07

And here's what I want you to do, I want you to pray for them.

00:38:10

I want you to tell your story and invite them.

00:38:13

And I want you to trust that God's going to use that

00:38:15

the way He wants to use it.

00:38:18

There's someone this week who will be at Revival next weekend

00:38:22

because you invited them.

00:38:25

So I want you to take that name.

00:38:26

And hey, if you're watching online,

00:38:28

you can be a part of this.

00:38:29

Maybe take out your note app,

00:38:31

and you can write that name in your phone's note app.

00:38:33

Or how about this? If you know this person,

00:38:34

it's likely that you actually have their contact information.

00:38:37

Just pull up their contact information,

00:38:38

just have it in front of you.

00:38:40

I just want you to have that name in front of you right now.

00:38:42

For everybody who's writing on the card,

00:38:44

I just want you to have that name in front of you right now.

00:38:47

And again, we're not doing

00:38:48

services in the building next weekend.

00:38:50

We're going to be there 45 minutes east of here.

00:38:53

Come as you are. Fireworks, hayrides, over the top worship.

00:38:57

Dante Bowe's going to be there, y'all.

00:39:00

And powerful prayer and powerful teaching.

00:39:04

I hope I see you at Revival, and I hope that when I see you,

00:39:08

you say, "And Chuck, I want you to meet my friend,

00:39:12

my brother, my uncle, my sister, my grandmother,

00:39:15

my neighbor, my enemy."

00:39:18

I don't know, whoever God calls you to invite,

00:39:21

I want you to do it.

00:39:23

So here's what I want to do, I want to join our faith together

00:39:25

as we close our time now.

00:39:27

And here's how we're going to join our faith together.

00:39:29

I'm going to ask you that name on the card.

00:39:31

I'm ask you to just hold it up and have it face me.

00:39:33

Just hold the card up like this and have that name facing me.

00:39:37

Uh, no, I'm not going to be able to read it,

00:39:39

unless a miracle happens.

00:39:40

That could happen.

00:39:42

I need readers to even read the one on mine. I'm at that age.

00:39:45

But anyway, no, I'm not going to read it.

00:39:46

But here's what I'm going to do, we're going to agree in faith.

00:39:49

And I just want to pray over the name on your card.

00:39:51

Guess what? You know what? God can read it.

00:39:53

God knows that name.

00:39:55

God knows the opportunity this week He's going to give you.

00:39:57

And I just want to pray and agree in faith that

00:39:59

that invitation is going to go somewhere.

00:40:02

Hey, you got an 80% chance

00:40:04

that they're going to say yes if you ask them.

00:40:07

So let's pray. Father God, I just pray

00:40:09

and bless all of us in here to know, first and foremost,

00:40:11

God, we have a story.

00:40:13

And maybe for some of us, our story is about

00:40:15

how today we're wrestling with

00:40:17

whether or not we want to follow You.

00:40:20

And God right after this,

00:40:21

there's going to be people up front.

00:40:23

And if you're wrestling with that,

00:40:24

your story with Jesus could begin today.

00:40:26

You're meeting with Jesus story could be tonight,

00:40:28

and we would love to celebrate that with you.

00:40:30

For others of us in here, we've had that moment, God.

00:40:33

But there's someone on that card that you've put on our heart,

00:40:35

not by accident, but because you're calling us to invite them

00:40:38

to a place where they can find You, where they can meet You,

00:40:43

maybe where they can experience healing,

00:40:44

or just experience fun and joy and a connection

00:40:48

in a positive environment and they need that.

00:40:50

God, would you give us the boldness this week

00:40:53

to be like my friend Omar and to share our story,

00:40:57

knowing that our stories have power

00:40:59

and can help set people free.

00:41:01

I pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. Amen.

00:41:04

See you guys at Revival next weekend.

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