The Power of Personal Example in Preaching the Gospel

Thanks again, Mark and Jim. Happy Sabbath to all of you today, once again. I have a question to start out the sermon today. Here's the question, what's the most powerful tool God's Church has to preach the gospel? You might think, well, we're on television, and that's a powerful tool. In much of the United States, we have television programs, parts of the world. We have radio programs. We've got a bi-monthly magazine, well over 350,000 subscribers. We have lots of booklets. We are very prominent in social media for an organization our size. We have a pretty powerful social media influence. We are all over YouTube with a number of daily videos and sermons and just all kinds of ways that indeed we do make an effort to preach the gospel, including a lot of booklets. We have a number of our booklets out there in the rack in the hallway.

But what's the most powerful tool God's Church has to preach the gospel? Because none of those are it. The most powerful tool God has to preach the gospel is you.

You are the most powerful tool God has to preach the gospel. And I'd like to talk about that today. It's something we're going to do next spring that we've never done before in an effort to preach the gospel in a little more of a powerful way. I'd like to talk about something that a term that may seem strange to some of us because we don't use it very often. The term is called personal evangelism. Now, for many, that may sound wild. That sounds like a pretty Protestant term to me, Mr. Thomas. So allow me to define it. Have an open mind. Hear me out. Allow me to define what this term means of personal evangelism. First, let me explain what it is not. It is not about carrying signs around proclaiming the gospel. The end is near. Repent and be baptized. That's not about what it's about at all. It's not about going door to door preaching Christ, as some organizations do. That's not personal evangelism. It is about proudly demonstrating a life filled with purpose and conviction.

It is about a life filled with dynamic energy, excited about our calling, excited about the gifts and the wonderful things that God has given us. Many people are confused by the term personal evangelism, and it may bother them because of the phrase, but it's just a modern term for what the original act of Christianity was in the primitive church, the authentic church of God, in the New Testament. Let's take a look at something that Jesus told each and every one of us. This is expected of us to whom much is given, much is expected. So let's read out what Jesus said in Matthew 5 and verse 13, if you will kindly turn there with me. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13.

Matthew was inspired to write, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? If it's no longer salty, how are you going to get that salt back? If it's salty to begin with, and it loses its ability to be salty, and all the aspects of salty, and we'll talk about that in a minute, how do you get that back? Well, the answer is you don't. You can't.

It's almost impossible. Jesus says, It is then good for nothing, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. So that's one metaphor he uses. You are the salt of the earth. Another metaphor. Let's continue. He says, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket. But on a lampstand, you don't take something that's intended to light the way and put it under a basket. The basket would mask the light. It won't be able to be seen by anyone. No, when you have a powerful light, you put it high so that it can reach the greatest area possible because it's high in the air. In this case, a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men. They may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. First, let's talk about salt a little bit. Salt, first and foremost, is a preservative from corruption. From ancient times, people would take meat and other things and they would immerse it in salt, and salt would preserve it. So that, at a much later date, it would still be edible. It's something that could still be digested. Salt gives flavor and distinction from blandness. You take food that's bland, that has no taste, and I'm sure you've discovered this yourself. Put a little salt on it, and ooh la la! That's pretty good stuff! That tastes pretty good. So it gives distinction and flavor to bland food. Salt also creates thirst, doesn't it? Jesus said in Matthew 5 and verse 6, Jesus said, "...blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." So we want to be filled. We want to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God, and that's part of being the salt of the earth. Our constant desire to be more like God, to drink in of the Word of God, to be filled with the Spirit of God, trying to quench that thirst that we have for God's way of life.

Salt also cleanses. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John chapter 1 and verse 7, "...but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin." And in many ancient cultures, if someone was wounded, they put a little salt on it, or a little salt water, and that would cleanse the wound, kind of like being antiseptic, so the wound wouldn't fester, so there wouldn't be a problem with it. So these are some of the things, the metaphors, that Jesus uses of the importance of our example to the world, our example to our families, our example to each other, that he emphasizes are all part of people seeing our good works, and glorifying your Father in heaven, saying, that person's different.

That person is refreshing. They're not like everyone else.

They're not like the skunks and the hypocrites I deal with all day. Their word is their bond. They're people of kindness, integrity, peace, joy, long suffering. Of course, you know all the fruit of the Spirit. We talk about that quite a bit here. So if we become like everyone else in the world, we lose our saltiness. We lose our ability to stand out from everyone else in a corrupt world in a positive way. And we've been called to stand out in this world in a very positive way. People should be able to see a difference in us.

The ancient pagan historians in Rome wrote about the first second century when they moved the marching Christians into the arena to be torn apart by lions. They wrote how they couldn't understand why the Christians had big smiles in their faces when they were being marched in to be torn apart by wild animals. They weren't covering in fear like everyone else. They weren't angry screaming at the officials. This is, I'm getting a raw deal, this isn't fair! Like everyone else, they patiently, quietly, in dignity, with a big smile on their face, went in and met their fate in a positive way, setting themselves apart from everyone else who was being executed at that time.

Jesus, of course, uses the metaphor of light. Light illuminates the darkness and it displaces darkness. So if you've ever turned light on in a very dark room, the light displaces the darkness, makes it possible for us to see. Light reveals a safe path in a world of danger. Flashlight leads the way as we walk through a dark room. You may have heard the saying, why did God create us with big toes? That's to find furniture in the dark. That's why we were created with big toes. Not really. But you take a flashlight and you shine that flashlight in there and it provides a path. It gives us direction so we know which way we're supposed to be able to go. The purpose of a light is to shine brightly, not to make an irritating noise.

So what kind of light are we? The purpose of a light is to shine consistently and not flicker on and off in an aggravating way.

How's our light been lately? You know, about a month ago, in that part of the room back there, that last fluorescent light flickered on and off all the time.

The people sitting around it and Sabbath services come in to me. They weren't really happy about it. They thought I looked a lot better when it was off, but they didn't comment about me. But it was irritating because the light was defective.

We had to throw that light bulb out because, as Jesus said here, it's good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. So we got rid of that light bulb and we put a new one in and it works. So let me ask the question again. How is our light to the world? Does it shine brightly? Or is there too much irritating noise associated with it? Is it shining consistently? Or does it flicker on and off? On Sabbath days, it's real bright. But then we go home and it kind of goes off for six days. Is that how our light is? Or is it consistent? Shining brightly all the time. You see, brethren, the power of personal example is the core of our lives. And it also happens to be the core of that phrase called personal evangelism. Our lifestyles are to show good works towards God and others so that people see that we are distinctive and they glorify God because of our incredible positive example towards life and the way that we treat other people.

It's the first step in opening friendships and building credibility. With Christ in us, many of the unconverted can ultimately be inspired to want to change their ways and their lives. If we live the right kind of lives in a positive way, some people will want what you've got.

If you're standing out and you're different and it's positive and it's attractive and people can look in your eyes and see a peace that surpasses all understanding, a purpose in your life that's energetic, that's attractive. And people will want what we've got.

Allow me to give a little history about preaching the gospel and talking about how the gospel and preaching the gospel and the tools of preaching the gospel have changed. And how maybe, because of the fact that we're being censored in social media, maybe we're going to end up going all the way back around to the way it had to be done in Acts, in the book of Acts. So let's start out. Number one. You can begin turning to Acts 16 if you'd like. Number one, early Christians were outgoing. They were zealous for their faith. They were on fire. They were excited. They didn't shy away from discussing their personal beliefs. Now, they weren't in your face, as unfortunately a lot of religious people are today. And frankly, most people define that as creepy. When someone gets in your face, I've had a few situations. Do you believe in Jesus?

I find that rather creepy. I'm sorry. I just do.

My faith is very strong, and I know what I believe. But I don't like to be put on the spot by people asking me a question like that.

But they were outgoing. They were energized. There was no media, originally in the book of Acts. There's no booklets. There are no TV programs. There's no YouTube back then. There's just one person talking to another person. The Gospel was preached by word of mouth and by personal example. Obviously, you have to have credibility, or no one cares what you're saying. So these were people whose lives had been changed. It was noticeable how much their lives had been changed. That's attractive. And through these discussions they had, people learned about Jesus Christ, and they learned about the Gospel message. Converts weren't directed to a headquarters. They weren't directed to move to Jerusalem, or to go to Jerusalem. They were directed to the group of people that were meeting in that particular city to fellowship and worship on the Sabbath with them. Now let's go to Acts 16 and verse 13. And let's see an example. This is a classic example of how the Gospel was preached. Acts 16 and verse 13. And on the Sabbath day, so obviously this is after the Jerusalem conference of Acts chapter 15, Paul is still observing the Sabbath. Luke is still writing about the Sabbath day. It's still in effect after the Jerusalem conference. And on the Sabbath day, they happen to be in Philippi, we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now this is not a religious service. This is Paul. Maybe I'm going to assume he went to synagogue earlier in the day. It's just a casual Sabbath walk. Picture a beautiful sunny day in Philippi. And the riverside, you can hear the water gurgling. It's park-like. People are out on this beautiful day chatting with one another. This is what's occurring here. And Paul decides, he knows that there are religious people there. Religious people usually are kind of one-up of people who have no understanding of religion or faith. So Paul, looking where the harvest is most ripe, decides to go out of the city to the riverside where people pray. People are religious. People express a religious perspective. He says, and we sat down. This is Luke writing. And spoke to the women who met there. And again, this is not a religious service. This is just a relaxed conversation. People are just talking. And Paul was a master at just initiating a conversation and then eventually leading it to his faith. And if they happened to be Jewish, he understood the prophets and he understood how to pull people in to understand more about Jesus Christ. And spoke to the women who met there. Verse 14, now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira who worshipped God. Bingo! That's the kind of harvest that Paul's looking for. Someone who's religious, someone who worships God has a religious sensibility. Believes in God? So Paul is going to initiate a conversation. Whether it's casual, he's not holding up signs. He's not holding a gun to her head to listen to him. He's not being creepy.

He's just engaging in a casual conversation about his faith and what he knows regarding Jesus Christ. Being the fulfillment of the prophets, being the Son of God, being the one who came down and gave up and sacrificed his life so that our sins could be forgiven and a particular woman there takes notice hears them and ultimately she's converted. Now the interesting thing about this, you may or may not know, is that if you read between the lines here, this woman's quite wealthy.

First of all, purple was a very rare color in the Roman Empire. And she's selling something that's very desirable because it's rare. She runs her own business and she's there worshiping God in that city. It said, The Lord opened her heart to heed to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, so one thing leads to another. And it doesn't tell us how long it took for Paul to get from an initial conversation to baptizing her and her household. My gut feeling is that her household isn't there when he first meets her, that he goes back to where she lives and meets her household. But whether it is or not, it says, and when she and her household were baptized, she begged us saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. So I want you to notice what he does here. The early Christians are engaged in conversations with others.

Casual, bonding relationships, they're building relationships with one another. And that leads to a discussion about their religious faith. I also want you to notice the family connection. It starts out with Lydia, and she obviously tells her whole household, and they get excited about it. And they also become part of the faith.

You know, in the early 70s in the Church of God, it was very common to see one spouse called, and then maybe six months, a year later, the other spouse came. And then other family members, maybe an uncle would show up, or a brother of the spouse. I mean, that was very common. We know from statistics in the 1980s that about 50% of new members came into the Church because of friends or relatives. It's a pretty high number. It doesn't happen much anymore. I realize the United States has changed. People aren't as religious as they used to be. People aren't as committed to their religious faith as they used to be. But point one that I wanted to bring out here is the earliest Christians were outgoing and zealous for their faith. And the way that they spread their faith— they didn't have all the other media tools— was to engage in conversation with people and ultimately to get to the point where they would talk about their faith and their religion with someone. In a way that didn't come across as creepy, as uncomfortable.

Well, in the course of time, the invention of the printing press made the publishing of the Gospel possible by beginning to print Bibles and literature. Now, this was about 1,400 years later. This was a giant leap forward in proclaiming the Gospel when the printing press became available before the invention of the printing press around the year 1440. One particularly large church in Europe held a monopoly over religious expression. No one had Bibles.

As a matter of fact, most priests could not read. That was one of the things, by the way, that really bothered Martin Luther— was an uneducated priesthood who couldn't read the Bible themselves. All they did was memorize, shake it to the left and shake it to the right and hold your hand this way and utter these few Latin words. That's all they needed to do. They didn't know or could not read the Bible. But due to the printing press, the Bible slowly but surely became available to everyone. And not long after printing, the Bible were tracks, pamphlets, brochures that would explain something in the Bible. And this was a whole new tool. They could go beyond just having a one-on-one casual conversation to providing a form of media, a printed Bible for someone to read. And I might add that a lot of people gave up their lives printing the earliest Bibles. At England, some of the original men who printed the first Bibles were persecuted, executed by the English government, because they dared to make this book available to the common people. So that's what a revolution that was. Then, step three, by the 1800s, the Scattered Churches of God published many different magazines and tracks and newsletters to preach the Gospel. For example, the Sabbatarian Bible Advocate Magazine is one of the oldest religious magazines in America. It was founded continuously since 1863.

So it gives us an example of how that tool was added to just talking to people in a casual conversation to get their attention and to be able to preach the Gospel. About a hundred years ago, a man named Herbert Armstrong began his ministry in the 1920s through evangelistic tent meetings. But since it was only he and his wife and a handful of other people, it had a very limited effect. He knew that it was going to be a long, hard slog if he thought he was going to build a church through evangelistic tent meetings.

So he wisely shifted the primary method of preaching the Gospel to a new media that became available, called Radio. And he began to have sermons on the radio. He did that for about 50 to 60 years. At the same time, the Plain Truth Magazine and other literature was published. He published a magazine called the Plain Truth. Some people think this was very easy for him.

It was not easy for him. For a couple of decades, he felt like he was going nowhere. There were many months when he didn't have the money or the time to publish his magazine. Many months, the Good News Magazine wasn't even printed or sent out. It was hard and it was long to grow a church. Here's a trivia question for you. And I heard his son give this answer with my own ears. So I think it's a legitimate answer. How many members were there in the Radio Church of God in 1947? This was 14 years after he started his radio program. How many people do you think were members of the Radio Church of God after 14 years of work and effort? There were 100.

That's pretty small because it takes time. It takes a lot of work. Well, beginning in the late 1960s, the emphasis gravitated towards a television program. And we still have television programs today. We thought more was better and we measured success by the number of subscribers and viewers. And the way that we preached the gospel to attract people to harvest was this. It worked like this and it worked well for a time. Our media efforts led people to more media. One program, listen to the next program. Radio and TV led people to the Plain Truth magazine. Eventually, get the monthly magazine and begin reading it. That led to reading the Bible correspondence course to get more of a theological, doctrinal perspective. Then that led to more booklets because it suggested a lot of booklets. So that read the reading more booklets. And eventually, it led people to see a minister and visit a local church.

And that's the system that we have used to one degree or another for decades now. But there are weaknesses to using the emphasis of mass media to preach the gospel. And that's why I'm saying that ultimately we may be forced to go all the way back to the original way the disciples preached the gospel in 40 AD. The casual conversations with people that lead to an introduction of telling them about our faith. Here's the weakness of using mass media. Number one, it's very expensive. It costs millions and millions of dollars. First of all, you have to have millions and millions of dollars. And even if you do, that still becomes a big part of your budget. That's one weakness. It's impersonal. Electronic is sterile. You know, it's hard to draw deep affection with your TV set. It's hard to make a connection with a digital video or a booklet or something that is just media. There's not a personal relationship created between a magazine or digital media and a human being.

Number three, it oftentimes portrays a corporate image. It projects a corporate image rather than the fact that there's some place local that you can fellowship in, that you can go to. Things become centralized. It points people to a headquarters or home office instead of a local church. I've heard many people telling me over the years that when they first contacted the minister from the worldwide Church of God, they had no idea there was a church in the local area. Sometimes you would ask the minister when he would visit you, and he might dodge it for a few visits before he was sure and would allow you to come. So it's centralized. It points people usually to a headquarters or a home office, and in many cases people don't even know. There are a group of fellow believers just like them locally, where they can go and visit and fellowship with. So those are some of the weaknesses. A few others are great amounts of money, must be budgeted and sometimes spend in advance for production costs. TV studios. Contracts sometimes you have to sign in advance. You're at the mercy of those who control and own the media outlets. They decide how much you're going to pay to be on that media. They decide the time that you're allowed. You may well, we'd like to be, we'd like to be 10 a.m. I'm sorry, the only opening we have is 3.30 to 4 a.m. Do you want to be there or not? You want that dynamically exciting time slot for Insomniacs or not?

But you're at their mercy. Again, they decide these things. Eventually, they can decide that your broadcast offends people, so we're going to cancel you and we're not going to allow you on our media anymore. So, the end result is that today is far different than it was in the 70s or 80s. Media has changed, social media has changed everything. It's become far more expensive because there's so much media. Your message is diluted because people have so many options on TV. They take their old remote out and they have 500 channels to choose from. When I was growing up, it was ABC, NBC, CBS, and if you were lucky, and you had one of those magic converters, you could see PBS.

But who wanted to? Because all they ever showed were shows with insects mating or old Englishmen talking to each other. So, who wanted to watch PBS in the 60s? But that was your choice then. Now you can go on and on and on and on and on. And have 300 channels for each time that something might be available. So the method of preaching the gospel has to change to be effective for the times because our culture changes, society changes, it has always changed. But one thing that will never change is the power of our example and making that personal connection with other people. Just having a casual conversation with them and a friendship that ultimately may lead to your discussion about your religious faith.

Let's go to Matthew 9 and verse 35. If you'll turn there with me. Matthew 9 and verse 35.

As I said, times have changed. It was different in 40 AD than it was after the printing press was invented. There were new tools. You could preach the gospel differently. It was different in 1960 when TV and radio were dominant than it was 100 years before then, when there was no radio or television. It's different today than it was in the 20th century.

Matthew 9 and verse 35. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness with every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he sees the sea of humanity. They're frustrated. They're confused. Most are unhappy. They're unfulfilled. They have problems. They have deep worries, anxieties. This is what he sees when he looks at that sea of humanity out there. When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep, having no shepherd. They have no purpose.

Verse 37. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is truly is plentiful. In other words, he says to them, opportunities to reach people with good news is great. There are a lot of people out there that need to hear it because right now their lives are meaningless and they're frustrated and empty. And asking themselves, what's it all about, Alfie?

So the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Now, many people define this scripture is talking exclusively about ministers. I'm not sure that that's true. First of all, every church that I'm aware of is struggling to find people to accept the ministry as a calling. It's a difficult job. It doesn't pay well. So virtually every church I know of is struggling to find people to fill the role. Doesn't matter whether the Catholic Church is struggling to find candidates for the priesthood. Most Protestant denominations, the old line denominations, are in a free fall anyway. Their ministers are older. Everyone that I know of is struggling to find a ministry for the next generation. And whether you want to define this is that the laborers are the ministers or it's everyone. The bottom line is, is the rest of us, all of us, brethren, have to step up to the plate here by our personal examples.

Billions of people out beyond these walls who are living lives of emptiness and frustration, anxiety, fear, wondering why they even exist. We have the answer. We have the good news. So the big question is, and I'm not saying I have the answer, but the big question is, how do we get the gospel to these people?

The harvest of frustrated lives out there is great. It's the laborers who are very few. You're one of, I believe, you're one of those laborers. You've been called to be part of this. We cannot have a church where it's always a headquarters or home office job to do everything, to make the videos, to have TV, preach the gospel for us, to have booklets, preach the gospel for us, to have all these things preached for us. We've got to get back to our basics, brethren.

We really do.

Matthew chapter 28 and verse 16.

Matthew chapter 28 and verse 16.

It says, then, the eleven disciples, when awaiting to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had appointed for them, when they saw him, they worshiped him. Of course, they worshiped him because he's God, son of God, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. What's he saying here? He's saying, I have all authority.

Nothing can stop you.

I have all authority and power. I'm going to ask you to do something, and you know what? The only thing that can stop you is yourselves.

Nothing else can possibly stop you.

Verse 19, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And that's why we preach the gospel. That's why we baptize people. That is why we teach people the Word of God, the doctrines of God, because this is our commission. This is the job that we've been given to do. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Verse 20, Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, not some of the things that Jesus commanded, because the others are uncomfortable in our modern culture today, or unacceptable in our modern culture today. No, he says, teaching them to observe all things that I taught you, that I instructed you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

He's saying, I'm there behind you 100%.

I'm here to help you in any way possible. I can remove all obstacles. I have all power and authority. Nothing can stop you.

So he says, what are you going to do about it?

I'm going to read these verses from the translation New Century version, verses 16 through 20. The eleven followers went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. On the mountain they saw Jesus and worshipped him. But some of them did not believe it was really Jesus. Verse 18, Then Jesus came to them and said, All power in heaven and on earth is given to me. That's pretty straightforward. All power in heaven and earth is given to me. I have it all. Nothing can stop you.

Satan can't stop you. Nothing can stop you. Therefore, next verse, go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize him in the name of the Father and his Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything that I've taught you, and I will be with you always even until the end of our age. So you see, again, this is our commission. We don't have a choice in this. This is the reason after baptism we continue to serve, continue to give, continue to meet together, continue to tithe, continue to do the things that we do so that we can fulfill our commission.

And I think we can do a good job that locally. You know, we have 70 points of light in this building as our greatest tool to preach the gospel. If you include those who are on Zoom today, and those who are on Zoom, we have about 70 points of light to have an influence in this world. Let me explain a little bit how I think we can begin to do some of this a little bit more beginning this spring. This spring, we're going to have another Kingdom of God seminar with a brand new perspective. Something different than we've ever done before. Yes, we're going to invite approximately 1,200 individuals from this area who get the Beyond the Day magazine.

We're going to invite each and every one of them to come here and join us on a particular Sabbath day to worship with us. But in addition to that, we're also in the letter going to give everyone, all of them, an online link to Zoom to join our service that day. So for those who can't come, or those who won't because maybe they're introverted, and I think we don't appreciate the fact that many human beings are just wired to be very introverted.

It takes courage to come into a strange building and meet a whole bunch of strange people. We have a visitor with us today, so she's experienced some of this, but to go into a strange building, meet strange people, and hear a different message, and I've probably heard before, takes a lot of courage to do that. And many people, good people, wonderful people, are wired in their personality to be introverted, and they're just not comfortable doing that.

Okay, so let's give them a safe zone for those who can't come, those who won't because they're introverted, or they might be concerned about driving distance. Some people have limited incomes, cars that basically are held together by biblical faith and duct tape, so maybe they don't want to drive here.

They may not have gas money. Gas may be a problem. They might be concerned with COVID, and unfortunately we're having another spike in this country with COVID. They'll be able to observe a typical Sabbath service in a special sermon on the Kingdom of God Day that they can see on their phone, or on their tablet, or on their PC.

And we're also going to have a few of you along on that Zoom connection to give them some warm fellowship and encouragement when the service ends, so that they just don't skip out. They feel like they can talk. They feel safe. They feel like there's someone online who cares about them, who wants, who's asking them questions, wants to know them, wants to make them comfortable.

And it's our hope and prayer that some of those will continue connecting with us the following Sabbath, because they'll certainly be told that this is the time and connection we use every week here. And it's our hope that some will be comfortable, and they'll continue connecting with us the following Sabbath. Maybe they won't, but they'll come back a month later and connect with us. They might have some family obligations in time. They may build a relationship with someone on Zoom, someone who talks to them.

Hi, Martha, how are you doing? Oh, Diane, yeah, I remember seeing you a few weeks ago, and they built this relationship. And who knows? Maybe in time, they'll be comfortable enough to physically attend with us. Maybe six months. It may be a year. Who knows? But meanwhile, even if they don't come, you know what?

They're experiencing something they never experienced before. They're hearing the gospel if they connect with us on Zoom. They're hearing the Word of God. We are absolutely not going to stop preaching the gospel. We, as a congregation, are not going to hide our light under a bushel, even if we receive notification tomorrow from YouTube, if our website shut down from the website provider, if we're stopped in every way in media, we are not going to stop preaching the gospel, because that is our job. So here are the benefits of doing this at a time when our media is being muted. Eventually, it may be even canceled. It's personal. People will feel special and wanted. It's not as good as in person. I would be the first one to agree with that. But having done in the last couple of years, out of necessity, hundreds of hours on Zoom and conference calls and meetings with people, you can develop a pretty good relationship with people and get to know them and them get to know you and allow the veneer to come down and begin to express yourselves in a very candid way, even on Zoom. It's not as good as being here, but it's a good first step. It's relatively inexpensive compared to mass media. We don't need millions and millions of dollars to do this. Some other things we could do is, at the end of all of our sermons that we post on Facebook and YouTube or the beginning of the sermons, we can have that link. So the people, if they see a sermon and they really like it, hey, this church meets at a certain time, I can connect here next Saturday and hear another message. Maybe this individual will speak again. A lot of things that we can do with this in order to preach the gospel. Another advantage is that the more people know we exist, more will know where we are. I think a lot of people still think of our organization centralized as something that comes out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Historically, that has been something that has been a challenge to get people to understand and feel comfortable about not being so centralized, but the fact that there are local congregations. This will provide a safe zone for those who are introverted or anxious about meeting a large group of strangers. For those of us here, it'll be good use of our talents and strengthens our role as Christians. It gives us something to look forward to, something to work towards. And again, we'll have a party to stuff all the envelopes to those 1,200 individuals, put letters in there, put stamps in there. We'll have a number of you prepared to, beyond those Zoom calls, to be very positive and encouraging and welcoming to anyone who connects so they feel like there's somebody there who cares for them. This may be an effective tool. Slow. Remember, it took Herbert Armstrong 14 years to get from zero all the way up to only 100. So it may be slow, but you have to start somewhere. And I think it's time for us to do this, to reach out and do this. And at the same time, we can invite family members and acquaintances to connect online. Now, I know in the Kingdom of God seminars, a lot of you, because you've told me a lot of you invited friends, invited some relatives to come to the Kingdom of God seminar, and they never showed up. But maybe, if you invite them, neighbor or relative, maybe from the comfort of their home, in that safe zone, they'll start out by making that little connection, watching a service live from their little safe area. And then maybe over time, they'll be comfortable enough to begin and come attending with us. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 18. If you'll turn there with me, a reminder of who we are. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 18.

Paul writes, Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and given us the ministry of reconciliation. He's not talking to Greg Thomas here. Us is you. He's writing to the Corinthian congregation. He's not writing to the elder or the pastor in Corinth. He's writing to all of us. He's given us the ministry of reconciliation. Here's how we do it. That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Verse 20. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. Our example should be so positive that it's as if God is pleading to other people to come and get more of this. Come and get the peace that this person has. Come and get the joy that this person radiates, the kindness that this person reflects when they open their mouths and when they say things. We implore you in Christ's behalf be reconciled to God, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And of course, this word, ambassadors, is from the Greek word presbio, which means to be a senior, to be a representative. You know, I've seen a lot of ambassadors on TV. I have never once, I've even seen the ambassador for North Korea, and I've never once heard him say that my nation sucks.

Because he is trained to be a positive, enthusiastic representative of his nation. But still, he's an ambassador for North Korea, and that's his job.

And in a profound way, that's our job. And if we're negative about the church, negative about what time services start, negative about how long services are, negative about how long announcements are, we're not being an ambassador for Christ, are we? Ambassadors are positive. They portray their kingdom in a wonderful light. And that's the way that we need to present our calling and what God has given us to do. Paul is saying that since we've been reconciled to God, we should become good at helping others to become reconciled to God by our examples and lifestyles. We should be the mentors, coaches, spiritual coaches. We should be the encouragers to others to learn about God's way of life and to live God's way of life. Ambassadors are proud of the nation they represent. You represent the kingdom of God. Are we proud of that? Can a stranger see that in us?

This term, personal evangelism, means that all of us are going to be under closer scrutiny than ever before. People who listen on Zoom or ultimately attend services or visit our homes will be closely observing our conversations, our lifestyles. They'll be sensing the attitude that comes from us. What will they sense? They won't expect us to be a perfect people, but they will expect to see converted people who live active, changed, and purposeful lives. So can we do that? We're going to have to all, including myself, work a little harder to do that, but we can and we must because that's our calling. Final scripture today, Matthew chapter 24 and verse 12. Part of our calling. If you're like myself and you pray virtually every day, thy kingdom come, and it means a lot to you. Longing, looking for the time when God's kingdom will be over the whole earth, and there will be peace and plenty, prosperity, healing for everyone. You and I have something to do before that can happen. Let's read about it. Let's find out what that is. Matthew chapter 24 and verse 12. And because lawlessness will abound, we certainly have more lawlessness today than we ever have before. Lawlessness will abound. The love of many will grow cold. Just look at a conversation on social media if you don't believe the love of many will grow cold. Look at how people treat each other, how they respond to a simple post. Pretty soon they're all turning on each other. They're making it very negative. Verse 13, but he who endures to the end will be saved. Not he who hung in there for five years and then bailed out on his faith, but he who endures to the end shall be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. So if we long for that kingdom, and I believe we all do, something has to happen before that kingdom can come.

We have to do everything we can in order to preach the gospel, and I'm not saying that it's all on our shoulders. I don't know. As I said in a sermon a few weeks ago, God is allowed to work with anyone that he wants, and I'll give you an example, and I'm not saying God is working with his group or not, but just food for thought. This is in China. Now, China has a very oppressive government. It is illegal to practice your Christian faith in China unless you want to be in a prison for a while. So that being said, there's a Sabbatarian organization called the True Jesus Church, founded in 1917. It claims to have two million members keeping the Sabbath weekly in illegal in-house churches. I don't know if God's working with them, for sure. That's none of my business, but what I'm saying are people are making the effort to make these verses come alive. And, brethren, we all have a job to do, and we have to do everything we can possibly do locally in order to do the job that Jesus Christ has given us to do. We must preach the gospel, and we must explore what we can to preach the gospel. Well, in the time of Jesus and Paul, it was through the power of personal example and individual credibility that the gospel was preached. Then we entered the age of printing. Bibles were printed. Bible tracks and booklets were printed. Then radio came along. That was another tool to preach the gospel. Then television came along. That was another tool to preach the gospel. Now there's social media. There's the internet. Other tools to preach the gospel. But let's continue to use these things as long as we can. And I know the United Church of God is dedicated, and we're putting our money where our mouth is to do this as much as we can possibly afford, and to get around any obstacles that are thrown in our path. We'll continue to do that. But let's also be prepared to go back to basics. One-on-one. People talking to people in a casual way, in a relaxed way that's not creepy, that's not in someone's face, that doesn't turn them off, but is in a way that gives us an ability to share our truth and what we know with them. That's our personal example of Christianity in action. So you are the most powerful tool God's Church has to preach the gospel. Don't ever forget that. Don't ever take that for granted. I wish all of you a wonderful and fulfilling Sabbath day.