Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: The methodology that God uses in reaching the lost is the Spirit of God using the Word of God through the people of God to reach the lost. That is His methodology. God is an evangelistic God. And He uses His Spirit in and upon us to open up the Bible and share it with others. People to people.

And of course, we have technology now. We have opportunities now that other generations didn't have. So, I think there is a greater responsibility on us than ever before. The Bible says to whom much is given, much is required.

Guest (Male): There is a lost and dying world around us. Whether it be our family and friends, our neighbors, those in our community, or people we don't even know on the other side of the world. But the question is, how do we reach them with the gospel? The answer is wonderfully simple and laid out for us in Acts chapter one, verse eight. Let's uncover God's strategy for reaching the world today on Abounding Grace. Here is Pastor Ed Taylor.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles, please, open them to Acts chapter one and I draw your attention there to verse eight, where we left off. Acts chapter one in verse eight, and the Bible study I've entitled God's Strategy for Reaching the World. What is God's strategy for reaching the world? Because God does have a strategy. So much money is spent, so many seminars are attended, so many pastors want to find the new program, the new strategy, maybe even you wanting to learn how do I reach the lost? How can God use me? What is it that I need to do? What do I need to learn? And on and on that list goes when the answer is profoundly simple.

So often we miss the substance of what God's teaching us because it's so simple. God's strategy for reaching the lost hasn't changed. It hasn't changed from the first century, it hasn't changed from the promise of Jesus, from the empowering of the Holy Spirit, it hasn't changed. It's found right here in verse eight, chapter one: "But you shall receive power" and you already circled that, you will receive the dynamic, dunamis power of God. You will receive the Holy Spirit's power. It says, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you," the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And notice immediately, "you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

This is it. This is God's strategy. He's still using this today in reaching the lost. Now, I want you to pause for a moment now sitting here in this climate-controlled room in the 21st century in a relative place of comfort and ease. I want you to consider this. I want you to really grasp this. I want you to think about it when you leave. I want you to consider this in the depth of what I'm about to share with you because it's so vital and so important.

I want you to consider right now the immense amount of people on the planet that are considered unreached. It might shock you the number I'm going to share with you in a moment. The amount of people that are unreached on the planet Earth right now. I looked it up on a trusted website that we use here. It's called the joshuaproject.net. You can look it up for yourself. I'd also encourage you to download their app because every day I get a notification and you can too to pray for an unreached people group around the world. Every single day my watch buzzes and I look at it to remind me that there is yet another people group around the world that is unreached.

It represents 24% of the known population. As I speak right now, according to joshuaproject.net, one billion, 878 million, 683,000 people are unreached. It only speaks of this as the 100 largest unreached people groups. It represents 0.6% of the world's people groups, but it represents 24% of the world's population. One billion, 878 million, 683,000 people. That's unreached, that's not unsaved. The unsaved number is much larger. The amount of people today that are not born again in our lives.

Now, this is an amazing statistic. The number is so big that it may not make any difference to you, but you can reduce those numbers down to maybe your friends and family that aren't saved. Those people that are closest to you, the people that you work with, your neighbors. After 2,000 years of evangelism, 2,000 years of faithful evangelism—we know it’s faithful because you and I are saved today. The gospel has carried on into the 21st century. But after 2,000 years of evangelism, there are still 1.9 billion people that are unreached and more billions that are unsaved.

Now, it is important to understand—and we know this to be true from Revelation chapter 14—that at the end of the Great Tribulation period, God is going to use an angel to spread the gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation so there will be no excuse. Everyone will have the opportunity to hear the gospel through an angel, but He hasn't chosen to do that now. He could, but He hasn't chosen.

You see, we know the strategy as we'll see in a moment, but the methodology, well, the methodology is the same too. Throughout the book of Acts, extending into our church, which is an extension of the book of Acts, the methodology that God uses in reaching the lost is the Spirit of God using the Word of God through the people of God to reach the lost. That is His methodology. God is an evangelistic God. And He uses His Spirit in and upon us to open up the Bible and share it with others. People to people.

And of course, we have technology now. We have opportunities now that other generations didn't have. So, I think there is a greater responsibility on us than ever before. The Bible says to whom much is given, much is required. And God has enabled us to do exactly what He wants us to do, the way He wants us to do it. So, you've got the angel at the end of the Great Tribulation period preaching the gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation so it's all covered then and now.

So what about in the middle? What about for us now all the way through? What is it that God would have for us to reach the lost? And it's this simple strategy. It's this simple obedience and surrender of our lives to Him. And it begins with just caring. Caring for the lost. It begins with just caring for other people other than yourself. For taking notice of hurting people and struggling people and difficult situations and the world's condition the way it is. Understanding that in all the difficulties in the world today, it's people that suffer the most under oppressive situations.

Some of you are under oppressive situations right now. That's what's got your attention toward God. That's what made you start thinking about, well, maybe God is true, and maybe church might work, and maybe that Jesus and maybe Christianity. And I'm glad you're asking those questions, even if you ask them with a little bit of skepticism or a little bit of hesitancy because of the difficulties of this world. And by now, for those of you that have made Calvary your home, by now you know the vision of our church.

But if this is your first time or you've never heard this before, I want to introduce to you the vision of our church, the purpose of our church. Because you know there's a lot of great churches in town. All over town, there's a lot of great churches doing a lot of great things. And then here we are on the corner of Hampton and Biscay right here in southeast Aurora. Here we are. So why do we exist? If there's all kinds of great churches in town, why would God start another church?

Why would He gather another group of people? Why would we exist? And we've summarized the vision of our church in just one word. So you could say, "What's the vision of your church?" Here's the answer. The vision of our church is evangelism. God has put us on the planet so that the Spirit of God could use the Word of God through our lives to reach the lost. We want to participate in exactly what Jesus came to do. Remember what Jesus came to do? He came to seek and to save the lost.

We want to be a part of that. That's what I believe God's mandate is upon our church: to seek and to save the lost. To extend our lives in love and grace and mercy in very practical ways in reaching the lost in our lives. Seeing lives changed, seeing families changed, seeing communities changed through the gospel. Now, if our vision is evangelism, then we have a responsibility. Evangelism comes with a responsibility and we reduce that down to three words: win, disciple, and send.

Win, disciple, and send. We have a responsibility number one to win a person to Jesus. To win a person to Jesus. In Mark chapter 16, verse 15, it says, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." Proverbs chapter 11, verse 30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he who wins souls is wise." It is a wise thing to be used of God in seeing souls won by the gospel. Now, again, we use the word win. It could be easily misunderstood because winning almost implies losing, like it's some kind of competition.

That's not how we're using that word, that definition. The idea of this win is to see a soul and a heart won over by the love of Jesus. We're not in any competition with any churches. We're not trying to win more than the other church. We just want to see people's hearts won over by the love and mercy of Jesus. And once a person is won over, number two, we have a responsibility to disciple that person in Jesus. We win a person to Jesus, then we disciple that person in Jesus.

Matthew 28, verse 19. Jesus says, "Go therefore and make disciples." The word disciple in the original language means learner. So, we want to see people learn and grow in their knowledge of Jesus Christ. Why? Because even Peter told us in second Peter that we've been given all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him. So we want to make you a learner. And this is a lifelong process. The role of the pastor-teacher is to teach the Word of God.

Why? So that you would be equipped. My role is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So then in your maturity, as you grow, you participate in what God has. "We" is the language of ministry. We all get to serve the Lord together. And depending on where we are in our walk and the maturity level and what how God wants us to use us—our gifts and our upbringing—all those unique things about us, God uses us together as the body of Christ. It's beautiful.

And then thirdly, we also then send a person. As that person matures, they are sent out for Jesus, which is where we are in Acts chapter one verse eight. You become witnesses and you're going to go into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world. In a moment, we're going to leave here in just a few minutes, 30, 35 minutes, we're going to head out of this building and once again you will be sent out on mission.

Once again, you've come in to be encouraged, to be strengthened, to be challenged, to be corrected, rebuked, instructed, whatever it is God's doing in your life right now, and then you're going to go. And you're going to go with the gospel because you are the church. And as you're sent, you're constantly sent, continually sent, every day, all day, into a world that so desperately needs you. And this is the direction and the people that we're to look for in spreading the gospel.

Notice with me in verse eight. You have some concentric circles, if you will, of being drawn here of how and where to take the gospel. Number one, He says you're going to be witnesses to me in Jerusalem. If you're taking notes, the gospel always starts at home. It always starts at home. He's speaking to those in Jerusalem at the time and He says, "Look, you need to be faithful at home first." So not only in the city of Jerusalem, but also at home.

Let's take a step back and say if you're ever going to be effective in the city that you live in, you first are effective at home. The gospel's really at home. That's where it's lived out in your house, behind closed doors, as a single person, as a married person, if you're renting a room, in a condo, in a townhome. That's where it is. I was thinking the best example that I can think of is kind of like Instagram today. You know, Instagram is the highlight reel of someone's life.

If they got a really nice meal, they snap a picture. Here it is. And I'm always interested in what people—oh, that's a really interesting meal. But nobody's really posting pictures of warmed-over macaroni and cheese from four nights ago. Because that's real life. You're not always at every restaurant. You're not always eating burgers this big. Those are highlights. They're encouraging days. You had a great trip, you had a great vacation. You're not always on vacation. It's a highlight reel.

And I find that as well, being together for a time as we gather for church is kind of like your highlight. You guys are all mostly on your best behavior. You're on your best behavior. Maybe you don't take a shower every day, but for church, you took a shower. You put your best clothes on and you got the highlight reel. And that's great. We'll take the highlight reel, we'll be encouraged together. It's fantastic. But you want to know where the gospel really lives? Lives at home.

Where people see you all day just as you are. And I don't mean if we were visitors to your house. But then if we announced that we were visitors, you'd go clean up all your house and we wouldn't see it the way it is anyway because that's how it is. Clean it all up, Pastor's coming over, we've got to have everything in order. No, just live the way you normally live. It's fine because that's where the gospel is.

And so when you think of that, once your home is in order—as we spent all that time studying on our Family Matters series—when your home is in order, then you have a responsibility to your city. So for our church, our city, Aurora. This is where God planted us. I know many of you come from different cities and that's great and wonderful. You have your own little home base when you go home, but for us as a church, we have a responsibility to our city. North, south, east, west, Aurora.

That's what we are: witnesses to our city. That's where God planted us and that is our primary responsibility to our Jerusalem is Aurora and the surrounding neighborhoods. But then notice He says in verse eight, after Jerusalem you're to go to Judea and Samaria. So if you have a Bible map in the back of your Bible, you'll notice that Judea is the region around Jerusalem. So you can see now the circles widening as you have a responsibility not just to your city, not just to your home.

Why do you have a strong home? So you can help other homes. Why do you have a strong church? So you can help other churches. Why are you faithful in your city? So you can be faithful in the broader metro area, which includes all the cities you live in. Everywhere you come from. From Golden to Strasburg to everything in between. We have a responsibility to the Denver metro area, to the state of Colorado, to the United States of America. We are to be witnesses unto Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, you have to think about this. This is the instruction in the first century. You've got to understand this, church, because when you think about your city, you may only think bad, negative things. I mean, think of Aurora. Think of how many people make fun of Aurora in the metro area. They got all kinds of names for our city. They make fun of it. I remember when we first moved here, we started sharing the gospel with people. They'd go, "You were called to Aurora? Don't you understand Aurora?"

I said, "No, I don't understand anything. I'm just here to plant a church and I just love the people here and I'm learning to meet them. But I'm not loving you so much right now because you got a bad attitude toward this city." That kind of conversation. But maybe some of you make fun of Aurora. Stop it. Wonderful people live in this city. God loves this city. Sent His son Jesus Christ to die for the people of this city. 400,000 plus people live in this city.

Church planters are praying about coming to this city right now. God loves your neighbor in the front, in the back, across the street. And you guys listening from afar, stop making fun of our city. We don't make fun of your city, stop making fun of our city. Why? I'll tell you why. When you begin to think of your city, oh, the crime rate. Like we're the only ones with crime. Just because money can cover crime doesn't mean crime's not there. Just because it's not being reported doesn't mean it's not there.

Crime is everywhere. Why? Because the heart of man is bad and sin destroys. I think of my friend in Vegas, they get such a bad rap. Sin City. Like they're the only city with sin. They're not the only city with sin. And there are regular people live all throughout Las Vegas that they're reaching with the gospel right now. It's unbelievable. But we like to label. We like to label. And I was so appreciative of Pastor Miles McPherson when we all went through his book together as a staff, *The Third Option*.

He said something that'll stick with me until Jesus comes back. He put into words really what I've been thinking, but he put it so much better. He talked about labeling people and he says, "The reason why we label people is because if I can see you as a label, then I won't see you as a neighbor. And if I don't see you as a neighbor, then I can excuse myself from not loving you." Because that's what Jesus said: love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor.

But if you're just a criminal, ah, then maybe you're not a neighbor. If you're just a prostitute, you're not—if you're homeless and all the different labels that we have. If you're a label, then somehow in my mind, I excuse myself from loving you and serving you with the agape love of God. Because that's where you have the region of Judea, but then you also have Samaria. For many years, I grouped them together, not really seeing the distinction that I see today.

I've grown and matured in my understanding of the Word. Samaria was mentioned on purpose individually because Samaria represented a group of people that was avoided by the Jews. They wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans. They felt like ethnically they were unreachable, untouchable, even as they felt like the Gentiles, and God's going to blow that out of the water too. He's going to teach them the gospel is for everyone. Every tribe, every tongue, and every nation. Including Samaria.

What kind of words could we use today to describe Samaria? Well, Samaria would be today, and using words today would include people that are unwanted, neglected, excluded, that are treated differently because of their racial makeup, because of their economic situation, because of prejudice, because of the disenfranchisement that they experience and all the things. Samaria are the people that many believers today want to avoid. Jesus says, "No, no, no. The power of the Holy Spirit's going to—it starts in Jerusalem, Judea, but don't forget the Samaritans. Don't you forget them.

You go to them specifically. Be led by my Spirit to go to the people that are being neglected. Don't label them. Don't make fun of them. Just go to them. Be a witness. Live out your Christian life in people, especially those that want to avoid Samaria." And I know some at this point go, "Oh, wow, what happened, Ed? Have we now started preaching a social gospel?" You know, that's another label. Social gospel. I looked up the word social and I thought it was interesting.

I looked it up because I understand there's a loaded phrase with the social gospel. And what the social gospel is, is not the gospel at all. Actually, if you want to adapt to a social gospel, you've got to flip the words around. Gospel always comes first. First and foremost. It's the death, resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus Christ. It's His blood that saves, it's not your own works. The gospel first. But let me tell you something: the gospel is profoundly social.

Because notice what the word social means. It is a very simple definition. Social means relating to society. That's what social means. So, you bet the gospel is going to affect society. We're going to read in the book of Acts when the believers came to town they said, "Oh, no. Those that turned the world upside down have come here too." Why? Because wherever the gospel goes, it disrupts society. It is profoundly social.

So the fact that we want to help the poor doesn't make it a social gospel. It is the gospel affecting society. The fact that we want to minister to people that have been mistreated, that have been neglected, that have been abused. The fact that we stand up for people that don't have a voice in the womb is profoundly social, but the gospel always comes first. It's gospel-social. If you want to use that phrase from now on, just say, "Yeah, we're in the gospel and it changes society." I want to be a part of the change of society, don't you?

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today as we study through the Bible and learn of God's abounding grace. This is Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Are you interested in hearing this message again? It's easy to do. Just visit aboundinggraceradio.com, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our pick of the month here in April is *Real Worship* by Warren Wiersbe. In it, he defines the essence of worship and discusses the key issues surrounding this sometimes controversial topic within the church.

We'll send you *Real Worship* when you give a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Call toll-free 877-30-GRACE. Again, we're at 877-30-GRACE. Resources like this are also easy to order through our online store at calvaryco.store. And by the way, thank you for your support. It allows us to bring the teaching of God's Word to stations like this every day. We're constantly hearing from folks all over the world that are being blessed, and your gifts help to make that possible.

You can donate through our website at aboundinggraceradio.com. Here's a question for you: how has Abounding Grace blessed you? We want to hear, and it's easy to share your thoughts and prayer requests at aboundinggraceradio.com. Scroll down to the bottom of our homepage and connect with us. May God richly bless you with His abounding grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.