Last Sunday at Grace Church, we launched a new sermon series called “Level Up.” This has to do with our ability to reach out to others in Jesus Name… Evangelism. This is very scary for most of us, but scripture does mandate that we need to be sharing our faith on a regular basis. This is the main purpose for the church as well as individual followers of Jesus. So if you are like me, you need to pray that your temperature for outreach increases each and every day. We are so busy and this gets squeezed out very easily. We also, do not want to talk about evangelism because it really puts us outside our comfort zone. We believe it is important. We believe it should be done. BUT we believe other people should do it. Well, that is just a cop out. We need to start our outreach efforts on our knees. We need to ask Christ for a heart that is one degree warmer toward outreach and evangelism. We can pray specifically for:

1. Open Eyes: we need to ask Christ to give us eyes to see. That we may see all the people around us the way He sees them. Jesus told His disciple’s “The Harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Ask, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to sen out laborers int His harvest.” (Matthew 9: 37-38 and Luke 10:2)
2. Open Hearts: when Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion on them. Our hearts need to have compassion for those around us. In Matthew 9, Jesus had compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd. People all around us do not follow the true shepherd Jesus Christ, thus not having hope. So we need to ask Jesus to give us  larger heart for people around us.
3. Open Schedules: we all live very busy lives. We miss opportunities all the time to share God’s love or to serve in Jesus name. We need to ask that our schedules are open to make a phone call, text that person, have a cup of coffee, or spend some time with those who are disconnected from Jesus and His Body (the church). Are you willing to allow distractions in your life become mission opportunities for Jesus Christ?
4. Open Mouths: yes we need to use words. A lot of times we just want to serve and hope people will bow their knees to Jesus because of our good deeds. The reality is that our good deeds only opens the door for a conversation. We need to open our mouths and share our story, but more importantly share Jesus and His Good News. A word of caution here. We can act very disrespectful to others if we barge into their lives and demand they follow Jesus. Unfortunately, there are millions of people on this earth and through history have rejected Jesus Christ because of this idiotic behavior. We are to share Jesus with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3: 15), not like a bull in a china shop. If we don’t share in love, we are just making noise and giving people a headache and this does not give glory and honor to Jesus Christ. Make sure that people are nearer to Jesus because of you, not further away.

That’s a lot. But very crucial as we share the love of Jesus Christ to a world in desperate need of hope. This has just been a highlight to the sermon, you can watch the whole thing here: