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Listen > Sermon Summary
 
"Introducing Your Closest Friend"
November 16, 2003
Pastor Cliffe Knechtle (50:58)
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Who influenced you to put your faith in Jesus Christ? When we put our faith in Christ, He calls us to communicate Christ to others in a relevant way. It's the Holy Spirit that drew us to Christ. We are responsible to communicate the love and truth of Christ in a compassionate, sincere and genuine way.
What motivates us to communicate Christ?
1. God's love. John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Mark 2 tells of a man whose friends went to great lengths to bring him to meet and learn about Jesus. We are called to introduce people to the closest friend we have, motivated by love and compassion for each other.
2. Christ's Truth. Belief doesn't determine reality; we can't create reality by what we believe; we must believe what |
Lew Bakes shared his testimony and encouraged support for Give Me An Answer ministry.
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is real and true. In John 14:6, Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Is He the only way? He is God in human form, He died on the cross to forgive us for our sins which alienate us from God and He rose from the dead. There are eternal consequences for believing this and there are eternal consequences for not believing this. Faith involves evidence of reliability plus commitment. The evidence is God exists and that Jesus Christ is reliable. That's why faith in Christ is wise. Relationships demand faith. We gather evidence that Christ is reliable and then take a step of faith and enter into a personal, spiritual relationship with Him. Because He is the truth, it motivates us to communicate Him to other people.
3. Anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit anoints, empowers, drives and motivates us to communicate our faith to others. Acts 8 and 9 tell of how the Holy Spirit led Philip and Ananias to communicate Christ to an Ethiopian eunuch and Saul of Tarsus and how their lives were radically changed as a result of their steps of faith.
4. Understanding of Christ's mission. Luke 19:10 says "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost". Jesus wants us to spend eternity with Him in heaven. We are to use our gifts, talents, occupations and professions to invest our lives in people in a way that has eternal consequences. We are to communicate Christ so that they may come to know Him.
5. People's needs. Understanding the deeper questions that people ask such as what is the meaning of human existence? What is the purpose of life? What are we living for? Christ wants to use us to connect with people during a transcendent moment and communicate His love and His truth for us.
Summary submitted by Karen Walsh
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