Make Jesus Known

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What's going on, everybody?
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Welcome to another episode of Beyond Sunday.
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I'm your host, Lee Day, and I pastor Christ Family Outreach Church located in Amelia Courthouse, Virginia.
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If I'm sounding a little stopped up, a little different on this episode, it's because I am.
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I've been a little under the weather here over the past few days.
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Uh, but I'm here and I'm excited to share the word of God with you here on Beyond Sunday.
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This past Sunday was National Back to Church Day, and it was so good.
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I mean, let me just say, it blessed my heart seeing some faces that haven't been at our church in a while.
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And National Back to Church Day, if you do not know, is all about creating a new habit of getting back into church after maybe the busyness of life or summer events or vacations have maybe taken you out of the church doors for a while.
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So it was so awesome, amazing seeing people come in and the spirit of God was moving.
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The word was preached, worship.
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Woo! Man, if you were there this past Sunday, a CFO, worship was anointed.
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The Spirit of God was there and the people were worshiping and praising the Father in the house of God.
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It was truly a blessing.
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But if you did not make it back to church last Sunday, can I just say this?
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Let this upcoming Sunday be the day that you create the new habit of getting back into church.
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So I want to welcome you.
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Let this upcoming Sunday be your back to church day.
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I would love to meet you if you've never been to CFO and you're able to get there.
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I'd love to meet you if you live near us.
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But if you do not live near CFO church, I want you to make it a point to find a good, God-fearing, Bible-teaching, word of God preaching church.
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Get in it and get involved with it, and God will change your life and use you, my friend, to change others' lives forever.
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On this episode of Beyond Sunday, I want to talk to you about making Jesus known.
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Making Jesus Christ known.
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A few years ago, we were doing an outreach, and we had a man stop by on the side of the highway where we were holding this particular outreach.
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This man, he was an elderly fella, almost 100 years old, and he told us true story, almost a hundred years old, and he told us that no one had ever taken the time in his entire life to personally share the gospel message with him ever.
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No one in a hundred years had ever taken the time to share their testimony with this man about the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross for him.
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Imagine that.
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And as I begin to think and ponder about that over the last couple days, just thinking about that gentleman from a couple few years ago, I begin to wonder how many people in our own personal lives do we have around us, our friends, our co-workers, our neighbors, hey, honestly, maybe even extended family members, where no one has ever taken the time, real personal time, to share the gospel message with Jesus Christ with them.
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I mean, just think about that.
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To share the gospel message of Jesus Christ with them.
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We have people all around us that we may think are okay or we think that they're gonna figure it out.
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And the truth is that no one's talking to them about the true love of God through Jesus Christ.
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Now, if you got your Bibles, I want you to turn to Acts chapter nine.
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I'm gonna read a handful of verses, and then we'll go swing back around as always, and we're gonna talk about what it means for us right now.
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Okay.
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Acts chapter nine, beginning with the first verse, this is what the word of God says.
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But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
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Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me?
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And he said, Who are you, Lord?
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And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.
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The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
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Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
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So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
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Now, talk about getting somebody's attention.
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Can you say amen to that?
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Talk about getting somebody's attention.
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Up until this point in Saul's life, he cannot stand followers of the way.
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He cannot stand Christians.
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He is more than happy to have them imprisoned.
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But can we just say this?
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But God didn't leave them there.
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Hallelujah.
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Glory to God, praise the Lord.
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I'm gonna say it again.
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But God didn't leave Saul there.
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Jesus Christ stepped in and showed Saul the way.
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And I know that some of you listening right now could say the same thing about your life that God didn't leave you in your old sinful, wicked, wrongful way of thinking and living.
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God didn't leave you there.
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Just go ahead and say it out loud, just as a testimony.
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Somebody just shout out loud, God didn't leave me there.
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That's right.
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Go ahead and do it again.
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God didn't leave me there.
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But Jesus, everybody say, everybody say, but Jesus.
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But Jesus stepped in and showed you that he was the way, that he is the truth, and that he is the life.
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Now, let's get back into the word together because I want to pick up where we just left off together in Acts chapter 9.
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We're gonna pick up at the 10th verse.
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Again, I'm gonna read a handful of verses.
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We'll swing back around as we did a moment ago and discuss it.
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But Acts chapter 9, verse 10 through 19 says this.
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Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.
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And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.
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But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
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But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
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So Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
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Then he rose and was baptized, and taking food, he was strengthened.
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All right, listeners, let's talk about it.
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I want you to pay attention to what happens in the next two verses.
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Something critical happens in verses 19 and 20, and I'm hoping that it blows your mind as it has mine.
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19 and 20 says, and taking food, he saw or Paul, and taking food, he was strengthened.
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For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God.
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Now, if you remembered, Saul wanted to take letters to these synagogues, looking with permission, okay, to imprison anyone claiming to be a follower of the way of Jesus Christ.
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But now, somebody say, but now, somebody out there say, but now.
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But now he is in the synagogues making Jesus known.
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I wonder how many of you out there in this very moment, I just feel the presence of the Lord in this studio right now, in this room, at this table.
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I just wonder how many of you have been at a place where you were just living like the world, just a wreck and all messed up.
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But you got to go back to that place.
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Here we go, listen, and make Jesus known.
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You got to go back to that place and make Jesus known.
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I'm not talking about going back to that place and being tempted and falling in sin again.
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I'm talking about going back to that place, going back to the enemy's camp and making Jesus known.
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Because when Jesus saves you, and I mean that point where he saves you in life, when you truly are repentant for the way that you've been living, and you ask Jesus Christ to come in as Lord and Savior of your soul to save you and to rescue you, and you begin living and walking with Christ in relationship.
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When you get to that point, my friends, you cannot help but tell others about this Jesus and how he has come in and what he has done for you.
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Okay?
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And let me just say this: the truth is you also want others to taste the exact same freedom that God has given you through his son, Jesus Christ.
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Because we don't want anybody to perish.
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We want everyone to come into the family of God.
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Can someone say amen to that?
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Amen.
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We want everyone to come into the family of God.
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Just look at someone next to you and say, Come on in.
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Come on in.
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Come on in.
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If you got someone sitting next to you, just tell them, come on in.
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We're talking about the family of God.
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And we want everybody to come on in if they're currently not within the family.
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And we can only come into the family of God by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.
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So here's what I like to call a spiritual inventory question for you.
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Write this down if you're taking notes.
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Are you making Jesus known?
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And you can write it down personally.
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If you're taking notes, make it personal.
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Am I making Jesus known?
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At your job, in your family, hey, watch this.
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At the dinner table, at the restaurant, when you're out shopping, when you're driving and someone cut you off, when you're at the gas pumps, when you're at the supermarket, the grocery store, when you're at the mall, when you're close shopping, are you making Jesus Christ known?
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Have you invited Jesus Christ into your life so that he could change your life?
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And if you have, and if he has, are you making it known to others?
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Are you making Jesus known?
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And if so, then I encourage you to keep pressing into God and continue making Jesus known.
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If you are a Christian not making Jesus known, let me talk to you for a moment.
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You can begin making Christ known today by sharing your faith with someone right now in this moment.
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Just go share.
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If that means you got to turn the episode off and go share, go do it.
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If at the end of the episode you turn it off, go do it.
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But you got to make them known today.
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If you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, but you want to be, well, we're going to do something about that in just a moment.
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You're going to have the opportunity to accept Jesus in just a moment.
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I want to read to you two more verses and then we're going to pray.
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Two more verses.
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Acts chapter 9, verses 21 and 22 says this.
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And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name?
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And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priest?
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But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving, hear this, by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
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Wow.
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And the people are saying, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
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Isn't this the same man who made havoc?
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That's really what it says.
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Who made havoc in Jerusalem about these people who call upon the name?
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So the very people that he was trying to persecute, condemn, and imprison for calling upon the name of Jesus, he himself is now calling upon the name of Jesus and he's teaching others about the name of Jesus, and he's encouraging and teaching others for themselves to call upon the name of Jesus.
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And they're like, wait a minute, wait a minute.
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What is going on here?
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But yet scripture says that Saul, Paul, verse 22, increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving.
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Write those two words down if you're taking notes.
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By proving.
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By proving that Jesus, what did he prove?
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By proving that Jesus was the Christ.
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Listen to me.
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Paul's life not only changed.
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But the unfortunate truth is that they don't show the evidence of it.
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Paul's life not only changed, but there was evidence that Paul's life had changed.
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You know what I'm saying?
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Do you see the difference?
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Can the people who knew you before you asked Jesus into your life now see the results of Jesus actually coming into your life?
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Because they should, my friends, they should, my brothers and sisters, they should be able to see the change.
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When the Holy Spirit of God enters into your life at salvation, right then, right then begins a new way of living.
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And our mission at that point, at our mission, at that point is to go out and make Jesus Christ known.
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Let's pray together.
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Father, in the name and the blood of Jesus, I lift up those people that are not yet saved, but want to be.
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They want to surrender.
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They want to ask for forgiveness of their sinful living.
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They want to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and serve Him as King.
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And if that's you, I want you to repeat a prayer like this Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
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And I ask you, Lord, to come into my life and save my soul.
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I recognize that you died on the cross so that I could be forgiven.
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And I ask you now to forgive me of my sins.
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If you're out there listening to this episode and you are already a Christian, but your life's not showing much fruit, you're not making Jesus known.
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Let me pray for you.
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Father, in the name of the blood of Jesus Christ, I lift up every believer that they would be an encourager, that they would recognize your holy presence in every room, in every place, every situation, in every circumstance where they find themselves.
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Father, I pray in the name of the blood of Jesus Christ that they would be so encouraged to walk in your will, to be the hands, to be the feet, to be the mouthpiece of God.
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Lord, I pray that our eyes, our ears, our hearts, our minds would be open and we would be ready.
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We would be ready.
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That we would have a mindset of just speak, Lord.
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Speak, Lord, use me, tell me what to do, and I'll be willing to do it.
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In the name and the blood of Jesus, Father God, Yahweh, I pray that you find us faithful.
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And all God's people said, in the name of the blood of Jesus Christ, amen, amen, and amen.
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Until next time on Beyond Sunday, stay prayed up and stay in the Word of God.