Last Saturday, Wake Forest was getting pounded for 3 quarters in football against Maryland, 24-3, but made a furious comeback to win the game in OT, 31-24.  I had turned the computer off because I was so sickened by the Wake Forest effort up to that point.  I tuned in after dinner, just to hear how bad it really got, and found out the game was tie and going into overtime.  When I heard the game was tied, I ran out to tell Daniel the good news– we wanted to see or hear about the overtime.  That was good news which I wanted Daniel to hear and revel in with me.  When you get great news, you want to share it with someone.  Ellen Guffey is a very proud grandma.  The whole office staff team knows how excited grandma Guffey is– we have all seen the pictures and rejoiced with her at the birth of EJ.  This was good news she couldn’t hold in– she had to share it with others!  This is what should happen when we receive good news! 

So, where is the disconnect for us when we call what Jesus did on the cross for us “good news”, but we are not excited to share it with anyone else?  We will explore this idea in the Scriptures today, trusting that the Lord will help us to be the ambassadors He is calling us to be.  This is the final sermon in our series on “Prayer Evangelism.”  Your elders believe the Lord is calling us to pastor those people whom God has placed around us– around us at work, in our neighborhood, in our favorite restaurant, in our favorite hang out.  When I say we are to pastor people around us, I don’t mean you are given a title, but that you are called on by your Lord to bless others, to fellowship with them, to look for ways to meet their needs, and then to love them enough, after we have developed a relationship with them on some level, to tell them about the best news we have ever heard.   Our theme is As we live in the presence of God, we can introduce others to Jesus and what it looks like to follow Him.

I. Abiding in the presence of God.
We have talked about this idea of walking daily in the presence of God in sermons before.  How do you do this?  Jesus said it this way when He called people to Himself, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  How did the disciples in Jesus’ day follow Him?  Let’s think about this for a few moments this morning.

The men Jesus called as His disciples left their work– fishing or tax collecting, and spent their full time following Jesus.  Where He went, they went.  They watched Jesus do ministry, they heard Him teach, and then Jesus would send them out to do the same.  This is easier to apply when Jesus walked the earth, but what does this look like today?  How are we to follow Jesus?

Let me begin by asking this question:  now that you know Jesus Christ, when is Jesus with you?  All the time, right?  When does He leave you?  He never leaves you.  In fact, the Spirit of God dwells inside of you, marking you as belonging to Him, but also is with you every moment of every day.  The key question then, is not whether Jesus is with us, because we know He is.  The key question is whether Jesus is in control of my life at any given moment, or whether I am in control of my life at any given moment.  If Bryan is in control– calling the shots, making the decisions– then there will be bad fruit, because it will come from my flesh.  If Jesus is in control of my life at any given moment, then there will be good fruit– the Spirit of God will use me to bear much fruit.  This is the simple, but crucial principle for us to embrace today!

I was speaking with a group of college freshmen I was discipling through a small group on campus.  We met for lunch each week, and one student shared with us that someone had made a statement in class which put down the Bible, but she did not know how to respond, so she didn’t say anything.  She asked what she should have said, or if she should have remained quiet.  I told her I wasn’t there, so can’t directly answer that question, but asked her a different question of her– “When the statement was made in class, were you thinking about yourself– “Oh, no, what will others think about me if I speak up?”– or were you asking the Lord to fill you with His Spirit and use you any way He would desire?  If the Spirit of God is in control of my life by faith, then what I say and do will yield good fruit.  How do I allow the Spirit to be in control of my life?  I ask, many times a day, but any time I go into a situation where I am confronted with any issue.  When one of you calls me on the phone, and say, “Bryan, I need some help in this area...”, my first response in my heart of hearts is to pray under my breath, “Lord, I need you to fill me with your wisdom and grace in this situation, to give me words to speak.”  I don’t have anything to give to you; but I know the One who does!  After all the Scriptures does tell us to always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us.  The reason we can do this is because we have the Word to study and the Spirit within us to empower us.
So, the issue is not whether Jesus is with you, Christian, the issue is whether you have asked the Spirit of Jesus who dwells in you, to have His way in and through you, to have control of your life.  You give up control of your life as you ask in faith, again, many times a day, for the Spirit of God who is in you to fill you and use you.  As you learn to walk in the Spirit like this, the Lord will use you marvelously, in ways you never thought possible. 

Being a witness for Jesus, which many Christians refuse to do because they “don’t have that gift”, is the same thing as walking in the Spirit.  It is who you are, Christian.  Living each moment of each day allowing the Spirit of God to be in control, and then speaking to others as the Lord gives you the chance has nothing to do with giftedness or personality.  Jesus wants you to be yourself, but to allow His Spirit to fill you so you get the joy of participating with Him in blessing someone else!  You don’t have to do this; but you get to do this, and participate with Jesus to build His Kingdom!
One of our members commented to me last week that he had been afraid to witness in the past, but now that Bill Fuller gave him a way to bless others, he was having fun looking for people he could bless and pray for.  That is the right spirit, a heart which pleases Jesus, but also blesses this brother.

II. Being like Jesus.

A true disciple is not one who knows what Jesus taught, but one who does what Jesus did!  I am not knocking knowledge.  But, knowledge without action is as useless as faith without works.  A disciple, by definition, means a follower.  And a follower means you do what your teacher/leader/Lord did or does.

Look at the description again from Acts 4:12-14.  The context for this passage is these disciples have been dragged before the Sanhedrin for preaching about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  This is roughly equivalent to being dragged before the Supreme Court in the USA.  They are asked by what power or what Name they have authority to preach.  The text says that Peter is filled with the Spirit and begins to preach to those sitting in judgement on them.  Can you see yourself having the boldness to preach to the Supreme Court?  After Peter finishes this powerful sermon, the Sanhedrin is dumbfounded.  Look at their response in verse 13– they saw the courage of Peter and John.  Where does such courage come from?  It comes from conviction that you are doing what God has called or asked you to do, and it comes from the Holy Spirit within you.  I don’t see much conviction from Christians today.  I see very few Christians who are willing to stand up for truth and justice, no matter what the cost, and very few Christians who re bold in their faith.  The early church prayed for boldness– look at the church’s response to the threats against them in the end of this chapter– Acts 4:29‑30, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  Our young people have very few models today of what it looks like to take a radical stand for Jesus.  I believe they are struggling with their identity, because they see no conviction in those who are supposed to be their models.  In radical Islam, there are young men who are dying for a lie!  But they believe it to be true because they are blinded to the truth, but also they see others around them who are radically living for Mohamad and Islam.  They have such a deep conviction about the lie, that they are willing to sacrifice their lives.  What are you convicted about?  What are you willing to sacrifice for your convictions?  Your reputation?  Your promotion?  What price are you willing to pay?

Second, the Sanhedrin noticed that these men had not been trained in any school.  They are called “unschooled, ordinary men.”  These are the kind of people the Lord loves to use– those who are simply living a lifestyle which is sold out to Jesus.  You and I both have much to learn, to be sure, but the Lord wants to use you now– His Spirit can fill you now so you are available to be used!  And finally, they notice that these men had been with Jesus!  They now reflected Jesus’ priorities and Jesus’ life.  They preached with authority, which had been given to them by Jesus Himself, and by the Spirit of God dwelling within them. 

Being with Jesus as He walked the earth is not ultimately what made the difference for these men.  If you look at Jesus’ interaction with His disciples in the gospels, what you mostly see is Jesus correcting their self-centeredness or wanting to be first or arguing about how to cast out demons with the Pharisees.  The real difference came with these men when they were filled with the Spirit at Pentecost.  If you know Christ today, you have His Spirit in you, the same as Jesus’ first disciples.  You have His Word before you.  You have a body of Christ who loves you around you.  God has given us everything we need to grow in Christ and to make a difference in this world.  He speaks to us through His Word and works by His Spirit to sanctify us.  What do we still need to do what Jesus has asked us to do?  Anything you can think of? 
As I have reflected on these questions in my own life, I have come to the conclusion that we do not really believe Jesus’ Word.  We don’t really believe He will use us as we step out in faith and do what He has asked us to do.  One of the huge issues for Christians in our day is believing Jesus at His Word, and doing, by faith what He has asked us to do.

III. Introducing others to Jesus.

The message Jesus gave to His followers to pass on to others was to tell those they met– those whom they had spoken peace over, those with whom they had fellowshipped, those who they had prayed over to meet their needs– those are the people they were to tell about the Kingdom of God.  In fact, Jesus made it more specific in Luke 10:9: tell them “the Kingdom of God is near them.”  The Kingdom of God speaks about the rule of Jesus as King.  Wherever Jesus rules as King, the Kingdom of God has come to that place.  When you share the gospel with a person, and he or she says ‘yes’ to Jesus, the Kingdom of God has come in a heart.  When you look at the things in your life which are out of biblical order, and by God’s grace, you are able to put them back into order, the Kingdom of God is coming in that area of your life.  Our job on earth is not to make Trinity EPC bigger or better.  That isn’t what the Bible tells us.  Our job is to tell people about the King and His Kingdom, so they can enter it.  If that means they go to church at King of Kings church, with whom we partnered this summer, because the person lives closer to that church and they would fit better there, then praise be to God when they join our sister church and begin to grow in Christ there!  Everyone needs to belong to a church, because this is your family, this is the means Christ uses to bless His people.  But it isn’t about Trinity or about any person here!  Our role is to build the Kingdom of God however we can do that!

Jesus has called us His ambassadors.  Listen to 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.”  Jesus has not changed His mind about this.  He has asked us to tell others about the good news of the gospel!  As His followers, we are to do what Jesus did and what Jesus asked us to do.  But keep the right perspective here!  This isn’t about guilting you into doing something.  Remember, we get the blessing of participating with the Lord to build His Kingdom.  The greatest blessing comes from obedience in this and every area!  As you are filled with the Spirit of Christ, and you change your perspective so that you are looking for ways to pastor those around you; opportunities will come up all the time.   Usually, I have to take a step of faith through the thin membrane of fear before I see and experience the love of God in a powerful way.  His love will work through you as you step out in faith!

Let me tell you about a former neighbor of my parents who was a self declared agnostic.  I had been seeking to get to know people in the neighborhood where my parents had moved in Florida.  As I spoke with one neighbor, I asked him about his relationship with the Lord, and he puffed up and declared that he was an elder in his Presbyterian church.  To which I said, “Fantastic!  Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?”  You can be an elder in some Presbyterian churches and not know Jesus.  He was a little surprised by the question, but quickly declared that of course he knew Jesus.  I asked him about his neighbor, and he said, “Don’t speak with him!  He is an atheist.”  I was too stunned to respond, so I said goodbye and saw the neighbor out working in his yard so introduced myself as a neighbor and told him I was trying to get to know my neighbors a little, and was especially interested in their religious beliefs, if they had any.  He invited me in and we talked for a good while.  He was very honest about his doubts about God.  Almost mid-sentence he stopped and said, “Wait a minute.  Let me get my daughter.  She is struggling right now, so maybe this would be something good for her.”  A few minutes later a high school age young woman came out.  As we talked she was very open to the gospel.  My friend who was with me and I shared the gospel with her and she prayed to receive Christ that night.  My friend followed up with her to make sure she got plugged into the local church which I was attending during the summer.  I was trying to meet people and get to know them a little, and yes I was looking to see if there was an open door for the gospel.  That is one of many examples we could give about how God opens up doors when you are praying for them and looking for them.  The young woman’s heart was ready, was open!  Her dad, the agnostic, wanted us to share with her, because this was a divine appointment.