Note: This is the final lesson in the series “A Living Church.” You can find the first four sermons in this series by clicking on the links below:
- Warmer through Fellowship
- Deeper through Discipleship
- Stronger through Worship
- Broader through Ministry
Jesus designed the church to grow through “evangelism.” But what is evangelism exactly? In this lesson, Mike explores the role that evangelism plays in creating “a living church.”
When you’re struggling through life, the one person you want to see is the person who can help. In this lesson, Mike challenges the listener to identify his/her place spiritually in a simple real-world illustration: an automobile accident. Are you the person hurting? Are you a spectator? Are you the legalist, judging right and wrong? Or are you the person who arrives on-scene to provide help?
Key Take-Away:
We will be more evangelistic when we learn to see as Jesus sees…
Action Steps This Week:
- Pray for those in need (see the “prayer wall”)
- Pray for opportunity to help others
TEXTS:
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:1-10 (NIV)
When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:16-17 (NIV)
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