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So let's focus our attention today on Colossians chapter 4, verses 5 and 6.

You might have heard of this name Mahatma Gandhi, he's the famous Indian leader that led India to independence from the British some time ago. And when asked this question, why did you reject Christianity, even though he professed admiration for the Person of Jesus Christ, he answered, I like your Christ, but I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are very unlike your Christ. Gandhi highlighted the importance of Christian testimony.

Someone said this, be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some person ever reads. Now let's be clear, nobody is saved just by watching someone's life. They need to hear the Gospel. But for many, they don't even get to read nor hear the Gospel because they are so stumbled by the lives of Christians or self-professing Christians around them.

We are reminded about the need for evangelism and good testimony and witness in Colossians chapter 4 today. Paul says, "walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person" (Colossians 4:5-6).

Here the emphasis switches to a witness before a watching world. Paul says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, people who are out of the faith, people who are not Christians, people who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus. And you should know how to answer each person. This is logical, especially last week we saw how Paul asked the church to pray for him that there will be the advancement of the Gospel.

So he now applies it to them. This is how you should live. This is how you should witness. We know this is about witness before a watching world, not so much about life with Christians because in chapter 3 we have already spoken about the relationships in the church. So here Paul is saying, be a good witness in your life and in your speech.

I want to remind all of you, this all flows from chapter 3 and verse 1. Paul had been saying that if you have been raised with Christ, if you are so united with Jesus that you died with Him in His death and you are raised with Him in new life, in light of the new position He has called you to, then you should also seek the things that are above. Walk according to your position. Be in practice who you are in position. So seek the things that are above.

That means that you are to seek obedience to Christ in everyday life. And just in case you think this is so abstract or mystical, he tells us exactly what it means to seek things above, to seek obedience to Christ in everyday life. Subsequent to verse 1 he tells us, this means that we are to pursue purity in our personal life. It means that we are to pursue or preserve the unity in the church. It means that we are to be a people who would observe the order in the household. And as we learned last week, we should be a people who are faithful in prayer.

Today, the fifth and last aspect of seeking things above is to have that wisdom and graciousness in testimony before a watching world. Or if I may put it in another way so that it can be a title for you, is Gospel Light Shine.

That's a tagline, a phrase we use in our church. And by the way, that's how our auditoriums are named here in this building. Er, we are in Shine Auditorium. Level 2, that auditorium is called Gospel Auditorium. Level 3 where our children are, is called the Light Auditorium. Why didn't we call it Paul Auditorium or Fred Auditorium or Jason Auditorium? Because it's disgusting, huh huh, huh. If we call it according to our names, who are we? But we want people to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We want our church to be a people that represents Christ and to preach His Gospel. So Gospel Light Shine. And that's the sermon for today.

It's vital that we do so. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to be the salt and light. He tells us in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, we are to go and make disciples. The early church obeyed that because they became witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the world. And if you think about it, if this is not what we are supposed to do, then the moment we believe in Jesus, it would be almost perfect if we should die and go to heaven straight away. Because everything you can do in this world can be done a lot better in heaven. I think we'll sing better, we'll worship better, we will obey better, we will obey perfectly there. But the only thing we can't do in heaven that we must do here is to be a Christian witness before a watching world.

1. Gospel-Centered Life

So Gospel light shine is really critical. How, how can you and I be an effective witness for the Gospel today? I think Paul gives us the instructions in these two verses. The first thing I'd like us to observe in Paul's words here is that in order for us to be shining as Gospel lights, we've got to get this right. We've got to have Gospel-centered lives. He says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders.

I'd like us to break this down word by word. It says, walk. The word there in Greek is peripateō, which means literally, to walk around. And in Singapore vernacular, we have the word, kia-lai kia-ke. Actually, I think Hokkien and Greek are quite similar leh, over the years we have found. So peripateō means to walk around, or Hokkien, kia-lai kia-ke, zou-lai zou-chi. But it is a figurative way of referring to life.

So walk is a picture of living, that's all. So live in wisdom, that's the idea. Paul has invoked this word, walk, a few times in Colossians, and it's useful for us to be mindful of them. He says in chapter 1, "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord" (Colossians 1:9). And that means you walk in a way that is fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, and so on and so forth, as we've learned in a sermon in chapter 1. How should you live your life? Live your life in a manner worthy of the Lord.

In chapter 2, he also invokes the word, walk, when he says, 'therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" (Colossians 2:6). The idea here is just as you have believed in Jesus alone for justification, continue to look to Him, trust in Him, and nothing else.

In chapter 3, it's interesting, one walk in every chapter. He says, "in these you too once walked" (Colossians 4:7). In what? In these sins that were mentioned in verses 1 to 6. Stop living in sexual immorality, in covetousness, filthy speaking. Stop living in these things. You once lived in these sins, but now don't do it.

So now in chapter 4, he says, walk, live in wisdom towards outsiders. The focus now is with regards to how people see you. He says live in wisdom. The word wisdom we have looked at is the word sophia, which refers to intelligence or skill in applying to life.

But I would want to very quickly say, the wisdom here is not about worldly wisdom. There are people today who are worldly wise, very street smart, savvy. That's not the idea I think Paul has in mind, because we understand the word wisdom from how it has been used in Colossians. The sophia that is mentioned is a spiritual wisdom, a wisdom according to God. This wisdom is that which is able to help us mature in Christ. So it's a Christ-centered wisdom. It's a wisdom that brings us to crystal conformity, to Christ-likeness.

And he says in chapter 2, this wisdom is all found in Christ. So when he says walk in wisdom, it means walk in that wisdom that is found in Jesus and that wisdom that leads you to be like Jesus. It's a Christ-centered wisdom. It's a Gospel-centered wisdom. It's a Gospel-centered life that Paul is talking about right here.

So take a step back. We're looking at this with regards to what it means to be a Christian witness. To be a Christian witness, it does not begin with memorizing a script on how to share the Gospel, because it starts way before that. It starts with your life. To have your Gospel light shine, it's got to start with your life, to walk in this Christ Gospel-centered wisdom, that the Gospel is applied to your life in such a way, it is transformative. And it begins right there.

In other words, our witness before the world often begins with our walk with the Lord. And you cannot forget or neglect this.

I was speaking to a brother recently. He had been away from the faith for a long time, wasting his life. He's filled with deep regret. But in recent months, he has since come back to the Lord. His life has changed. And he doesn't say this in arrogant pride, but he mentioned that the people around him, his friends, have noticed the change and have asked him of the reason why there is a change in his life.

And I think that's what Christian witness is all about. Your life shines obviously before a watching world, and they inquire of you the reason of the hope that is in you. Have you ever wondered? I have wondered, so I wonder if you wonder. When I read about Jesus and the Great Commission, to me it's a very clear marching order. Go and make disciples. I mean it's the last words in Matthew as a King, He gives this edict to His disciples, this is what you should do, go and make disciples, go and preach the Gospel.

But when I read the epistles, epistles are the letters in the New Testament, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians and so on, I don't really see a lot of emphasis by the epistle writers to say, go and preach the Gospel. Not much. Some, but quite surprisingly to me, few. You try to think of some of the clear commands to go and preach the Gospel in epistles, not easy to find.

I have always wondered why. My thinking at this stage is, I think I understand why. Yes, we are to go and preach the Gospel, but we cannot really preach the Gospel if we do not realize witness begins with our walk. And so the epistles really focus a lot on what God has done in the Gospel and how you need to live in response to how God has blessed you in the Gospel.

In other words, get your life right. Live out holy, Christ-like, God-honoring lives. And in so doing, it opens the path subsequently for you to share the Gospel effectively. So training for evangelism is not just going for a class and memorizing three points or a bunch of Scriptural verses. Whilst that can be helpful, don't get me wrong, if we think that's all there is to training for evangelism, we've got it wrong.

Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. The critical thing to effective witness and evangelism is discipleship to Jesus, growing in likeness to Jesus. That is fundamental. There are people today who are afraid of sharing the Gospel in the office. You know why? There are people today who are afraid of sharing the Gospel in a class. You know why? There are people today who are afraid to share the Gospel even with their kids. You know why? Because they know their life is in a mess. They've just scolded their colleague, been rude to their superior, and so they, they paiseh. They don't have the courage to say, I'm a Christian because they know that if they say so, people say, hah, like that also can ah. And that happens in homes. Now, I do not say that to guilt any one of us, but to realise the importance of testimony and how we can all strive to do better.

When I was younger, I would do quite a bit of cold call evangelism, or if you may like, commando evangelism. That means going to someone you've never met before, you do not know, but you just go there and you want to tell them the Gospel of Jesus. So we do that, for example, in the, as I said many times, in the field at Orchard Road that is currently occupied by Ion Orchard, that huge, massive building. It was a beautiful knoll in time past. Many people gathered there for picnics and we would just go there and share the Gospel.

There would be days where we would, time, for years actually, we would go weekly to those one-room flats in Singapore and we'll go from door to door, knocking on the door and handing them Gospel tracts and saying, Hi auntie, uncle, ni yao ting fu yin ma? In other words, do you want to know about the Bible? Do you want to know about the Good News of Jesus? We would do that. Did that for years. But very little fruit, if I may say. I'm not saying those are not important. For some people, that may be your calling. For some people, that may be your gifting. For some people, this is what you're passionate to do and I say, if the Lord leads you so, go ahead.

But I'm saying, don't neglect relational evangelism. Don't go to strangers and neglect the people around you because I think it's really important that God wants us to have the right life so that we can be the salt and light to the people who know us. It is particularly relevant today in a world that is filled with scams. You know, if someone knocks on the door? If someone knocks on my door, I'll open the door and say, ni yao shen me.

Huh, I, I would kind of put up a strong front in case that person wants to take advantage of me. So many scams. So if if you imagine you go up to someone and say, hey, sir, can I have a minute of your time? They look at you. Because you're out to scam me. Now, if you want to share the Gospel, I'm sure you're not trying to scam anybody. You want to love the person. But that's not what people may perceive today.

So it's vitally important to realise, I think biblically, the best way to reach out to people is through your life testimony, through the relationships God has already given to you. And evangelism begins with knowing, growing, and going.

This is, today, a very church anniversary kind sermon ah. Gospel Light Shine. Know, Grow, Go. Very, very central to our philosophy here. We need to know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, that's the first step. But don't skip to the third step. When someone believes in a Christian, oftentimes, out of zeal and passion, they, they plunge themselves headlong into ministry. Great that you want to serve.

But please don't neglect the necessity for spiritual growth. Don't just serve, serve, serve, and you're not reading your Bible, you're not in Christian community, you're not growing with the church. Before long, you will burn out. And actually, you will not be very effective. Because you're not very much like Christ as yet. You're still a spiritual baby. So grow. Be like Jesus. That's my appeal to you.

Paul says, walk in wisdom. To obey Jesus means we will obey His call to be Christian witnesses. But that begins with the right kind of life, with a Gospel-centered life. So that's point number one. To be an effective witness, it begins with my life.

2. Grabbing In Love

A second thing Paul speaks about is I think, grabbing opportunities in love. That's the idea when he says, making the best use of the time. Now this concept, I'll explain what the words mean, but this concept essentially is being able to seize opportunities, to grab those moments and not let them slip by.

I recently learned what grabbing really looks like from this video. So take a look.

Video plays

I, I might see some Gospeliters there. I say that you guys are really, not you guys lah hah, hah. I say they are really passionate about Taylor Swift. In my mind, they are siao, but anyway. That's what seizing opportunity looks like. Because you know if you're not fast enough, if you do not react, if you do not fight for it, you will not have it. You will lose it.

The idea here is to make the best use. The, the word there is translated redeeming elsewhere. It's the word exagorazō which means to buy back. It's an idea of a shrewd businessman who sees a good deal and buys it up, for himself, he says it's a good deal. That's how I should use my time. That's how I should seize on the opportunity.
The word time is the word kairos. Kairos refers to a specific period, a situation, an occasion. So properly looked at, it's an opportunity. It is different from the word hora, which is an hour, or the word chronos, from which we get chronology. Chronos is about hours and days and months, but kairos is that specified period of time, that opportunity. Seize that opportunity. Redeem that opportunity. Do not let go of that opportunity.

What does that mean? Well, there is this soldier who got on a train together with his commanding officer, and they happened to sit opposite a very beautiful young lady and her grandmother. The young man, the young soldier, and the young lady exchanged gazes with each other. And then the train entered into a tunnel, and it became all dark. No one could see anything, and the next thing they knew, they heard two sounds. One is the smack of a kiss. The second is a, is a slap across the face, piak!
The grandma thought to herself, how dare the young man kiss my granddaughter, but I'm glad she gave him a tight slap. The young lady thought to herself, I'm glad he kissed me, but I hope, I'm so sad that my grandma had to give him a slap. And the commanding officer thought to himself, I knew he would kiss her, but it's so sad that she missed him and slapped me instead.

And they soon emerged from the tunnel, and they, and they broke out into the light, and then the young soldier had a wide smile on his face and thought to himself, it is a great day. I kissed the young girl, and I slapped my commanding officer, and I got away with it.

He really knew how to make the best use of the opportunities, it's just that short period of time, but he seized it, carpe diem. I think that mindset, that intentionality is required to be effective witnesses. Because so often, we are lazy, we are passive. We almost think to ourselves, being a Christian witness is sitting there up on my throne and waiting for people to ask me, why did you become a Christian? What is the Gospel? You know, the chances of that happening, humanly speaking, not very high. It will be way easier and way more prevalent if we are to find opportunities to engage with people and to turn conversations into spiritual conversations.

It's not difficult. You can ask the person about, what's his goal in life, his philosophy, has he been to church? My favourite tactic is always to ask the person about, what's your job? Because inevitably, he will also ask me, what's your job? And I'll ask him, do you really want to know, hah, hah. But all of us will have our ways, favourite go-tos, to perhaps switch a secular conversation to a spiritual one. And please, let me say, when we talk about seizing the opportunity to preach the Gospel, I'm not saying that when you see someone eating char kway teow, you say, you know you eat char kway teow, you'll have heart attack, you'll die. Where will you go after you die? Hell, you know! No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying we, we bear down on people in such a harsh, imposing way.

But when we seize an opportunity, we can be friendly, we can be inquisitive, and we can just respectfully ask, would you want to find out more about what the Bible says? Would you be interested to know about Christianity? And let the person decide on whether he takes up or not your invitation. That's all there is. But you need to be intentional. You can't be passive.

You know, our Lord Jesus Christ is very intentional in soul winning. I mean, He went, He went to places far away to reach, I think, one person, and then come back. He's not passive. The Apostle Paul seizes upon opportunities to preach the Gospel. He's not passive. He works hard at it. And we as Christians would do a lot better. In our office, in our homes, in our schools, where we live, in Punggol, in Singapore. Oh, God be, I think, greatly glorified if we could just seize the opportunity.

Opportunity, it's an interesting word because it's the name of one of the Greek gods in Greek mythology. Opportunity is, is sculpted like this. It's pictured like this. And in one of the sculptures, there is an epigram, a simple statement to describe opportunity. It goes this way. Why do you stand on tiptoe, opportunity? Opportunity replies, I am ever running. Why do you have a pair of wings on your feet? Because I fly away swiftly with the wind. And why does your hair hang over your face? Right in front, of course, the sculpture here not so clear, but it's supposedly in front. For him to seize me by the forelock when I come. For people to grab me when I come towards them. Opportunity, why is the back of your head bald? Because when I'm gone, none can hold me or lay hold of me.

That's what opportunity is. It comes swiftly, it goes swiftly. You've got to grab it when it comes and when it is past you, it's too late. So to be an effective witness, we've got to make the best use of the time. We've got to grab opportunities in love. We are not grabbing Swifty tickets for our own consumption. We are grabbing opportunities to love them and to help them toward the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Gracious With Our Lips

Finally, to be an effective witness, to be a shining Gospel testimony. Not only must we be Gospel-centered in life, we must be grabbing in love. It's very clear in verse six, we've got to be gracious with our lips. He says, "let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6).

Now, I know that in the Bible, salt can be used for different things. It can be used for flavoring, for pleasure. It can be used for purification. There are purification rites that involve salt. It can be used for preservation. But I think because Paul has kind of linked this together, the idea is seasoning, to bring a kind of pleasure. And it, I think, ties in with the word gracious. Gracious can mean many things, but amongst the multitude of meanings, it could mean delight, or pleasure, or the potential to bring joy.

So Paul is saying, let your speech always be winsome. In other words, be nice when you talk to people about the Gospel. Don't be mean, don't be harsh, don't be judgmental, don't be arrogant, don't talk down to them. But be nice, because sometimes, when we share with people about the Gospel, we can be combative or militant about it. That's not helpful. Paul says, be nice, be gracious. Let your speech always be seasoned with salt. Kiam, kiam, shiok shiok, tasty. That's the idea.

Now, that is not saying we need to compromise on the Gospel. We shouldn't. The Gospel in and of itself already has offense. Galatians speaks about the offense of the Gospel. It is offensive to sinners to be told that they are sinful and they are helpless. Nobody likes to hear that, that I'm rotten in sin and I cannot save myself. But that's what the Gospel requires people to know.

That kind of offense, it has to stay. But the way we deliver doesn't need to be offensive. We can be nice about it. We can be humble about it. I think that's what Peter would have meant when he said, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. Be nice about it. Don't have to be mean. Don't have to be harsh. Don't have to present yourself as if you know it all and he doesn't know anything at all.

So if we can do this, gracious with our lips, we would help people more so than if we are harsh and arrogant.

I'd like to focus on this last part, that you may know how to answer each person. I love this. Because sharing the Gospel is helping people with the questions that they have. We often think about evangelism as memorizing a script and then just blasting it to people, regardless of what they ask. Don't care, don't bother. I just want you to hear my three things.

It's important to help people know the important things of the Gospel. It is. But I also think it's very important to help answer the people, the questions they have, to remove, as best as we can, obstacles to faith. And this means we've got to customize. We've got to be individualized. We've got to be personalizing our sharing of the Gospel.

Now, many people today think that sharing the Gospel or being an effective witness is seeing a friend and inviting him to church. Maybe some of you are here today because your friends invited you. Let me say this, I'm thankful that you are here. We are very grateful you are here. We welcome you. But I'm saying that if all the evangelism we do and the only kind of evangelism we do is to bring them to church service so that pastor can preach to them, I say we are not very effective.

Why? Because the sermons here on Sunday mornings are not always going to be totally relevant to an unbeliever. I mean, for so long I've been speaking to Christians to be a Christian witness. I'm not telling you as a guest or visitor what it means to believe in Jesus as yet. So bring them to church if they want to, that's fine. But please don't let that be a substitute to your necessary answering of the questions that they may have in their minds.

I was recently, actually for the past few weeks, months, I go to Kovan MRT station. Not very far from here. One thing I find remarkable in Kovan MRT station is that when you exit the station and as you take the escalator, there will be those announcements, please hold on to the handrails, mind the, mind the whatever, you may fall. I don't quite understand or I don't listen to all.

But what caught my attention is that the broadcast was not only in English, but also in... No one stays Kovan ah? It's also in... Dialect, what dialect? Teochew. Wow! Wow, because I don't hear Teochew anywhere else, no? Why Teochew in Kovan MRT? Anybody? Because Hougang, Kovan is where all the Teochews used to stay. It's a very Teochew populated area. I thought SMRT very takong. Very good! Because they are very personalised. They understand the crowd and they communicate to the crowd accordingly.

Maybe you go Red Hill, a lot of Cantonese, I don't know. But or Tiong Bahru, more Cantonese people there. But I love it. And I think our church can do better if we understand this. It's not bringing them to church service that is the best strategy. I think the best strategy is you. Really, it's you. When your life shines for Jesus and when you are someone who is conversant in the Gospel, you read the Bible, you share the Gospel, you answer His questions, I think we will serve more people that way.

One thing I love about the church in the book of Acts is that people were added to the church daily. I think they have worship services weekly. But it doesn't matter. They are, they are reaching people daily because everybody is going out, sharing and witnessing and answering everyone according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the kind of church we want to be. So I said, this is a very anniversary sermon ah. Gospel Light Shine, Know, Grow, Go, Acts Church for today. I hope we will be a church like this more and more.

I remind you, this is all about seeking things above. It's all about worship. It's all about submission to Jesus, obedience to Him. It will be expressed very concretely in your life, in the church, in your family, in your prayer, and in your witness before a watching world. That's what Christianity should be like. These are not things we do in order to be saved. No. But these are things we would want to do because we are saved, because we are joined with Jesus, because we have been given this new life and salvation, salvation. Now I present myself a living sacrifice. Not that I die, literally, but that I would give up what I want to do what God wants in all these five areas in particular here.

So, I can't be here on Anniversary Sunday. I hope this kind of makes up for it. May I encourage us in the new year to come as a church, let us aspire to have Gospel-centered lives. Study the Bible, join a care group, a discipleship group, and don't just join because of the sake of it. But join it because you want to grow, because you want to be mature, because you want to see the Gospel applied in your life, that God would transform you to be a better worker, a father, a husband, a wife, a better minister for Jesus' sake. Know, Grow, Go. Your witness often will begin with your walk.

I pray that as a church we will not be passive. I hope individually we will not be passive and congregationally we will not be passive, but we will be actively grabbing opportunities in love. If we pass through a dark tunnel, let us give a kiss and a slap, because very soon you can't do it anymore. And if God has given us this lifetime, let us use it well for His glory.

And finally, let us be a people who will cultivate this graciousness in the way we evangelize. Don't be harsh, judgmental, arrogant, but be nice, be winsome, helping people one by one. You know, if each one of us would just win or lead someone in the Gospel in one year, we will be a totally different church by next year. That's all it takes. And that's all there is for us to have Gospel Light Shine! May God bless this church, not for our sakes, but for the Name of Jesus. Let's bow for a word of prayer together.

I remember the words of Jesus when He said, follow Me and I will make you fishes of men. You know, the acid test to your Christianity is not the amount of knowledge you have. It's not just seeing in how accurately you can exegete a text. It's not how many verses you have memorized. Let me tell you the acid test. Are you effective as a fisher of men? Are you faithful in sharing the Gospel? I'm not saying how many converts you have had in your life because salvation is of the Lord. It's not up to us to determine. But have you been faithfully, sacrificially, looking out for opportunities to share the Gospel?

For a long time in my life, I satisfy myself with just the preaching of the Gospel on Sunday services. And I think by the grace of God, He has caused me to repent of that false dependence, that false security. And I've rejoiced in the wonderful opportunity and privilege to look out for people who may not know Jesus and joyfully just walk with them in the Bible to find Jesus.

That's the kind of joy I wish all of you would experience constantly in your pilgrimage here on earth. And it all begins with the right walk, a Gospel-centered life. And if you're following Jesus, I think your heart will be to seek and save that which is lost. You will be looking out to grab opportunities for witness in love. And if God has changed your heart and mind, I think like Jesus, you'll be meek and lowly, you'll be gracious with your lips.

You know how wonderful it would be if Gospel Light we all, would just seek God and do these things. We will have little light bulbs in Sumang, in Coral Edge, in Edgefield, in Pasir Ris, in Bukit Panjang, in Singapore, in Philippines, to the uttermost parts of the world. Every Sunday, we would see a gathering of these light bulbs so that we, in a sense, may be recharged and, and then we will be sent out to shine that light again. Oh may the light of the Gospel shine far and wide and bright in a darkened world.

And if you are here today, you do not know Jesus, allow me to just say to you, the Bible speaks about God's holiness. God is holy and we are sinful. And the holy God will not dwell with sinful men and He must judge sin, He must punish sin. And the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. It's separation from God, it's in this lake of fire with everlasting darkness and we will be banished from the loving presence of God forevermore.

The scary thing about this place called hell is that there is no U-turn. But that's where sinners go because God is holy. None of us is exempt from sin. We are born sinners and by choice, we are also sinners. Once you break one law, you break the whole law according to God because God's standard is just perfect and high.

So my friends, the Bible gives this offence that you are sinful and you'll be damned. But God is also a God of love. And this love is so concrete and so amazing that when we are yet sinners, enemies of God, He chose to send His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross and to rise again to save you and I from our sins. So when we cannot save ourselves, there's nothing we can do to earn righteousness. God sent His Son to live that perfect life and to credit to you His perfect righteousness when He died and rose again and when you repent and believe.

So the call of the Christian Bible is this. Jesus paid it all. He paid for all your sins. And the promise is that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Would you, today, consider these things and if you are stirred in your heart to find out more, hey, let us know. Let me know. Write into our church and we will be sure to have someone, just one, lovingly, graciously, faithfully point you to the message of the Bible from the pages of the Bible.

It may take you a few weeks, it may take you a few months, it may take you a few years, whatever it takes, we want to help you know Jesus and be gloriously saved because this is what we exist for, to serve Him in the ministry of the Gospel.

So Father, thank You again for Your Word. Thank You at the end of it all, we remember how Jesus is that ultimate Gospel light. We pray as His followers, we would do likewise. Bless each one. We thank You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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