Reaching Out

I'd like to welcome everyone to Bridge Gospel this morning.
I'm glad you're here.
If this is your first time, I'd especially like to welcome you.
We have some free coffee.
We have a gift for you in the lobby after service.
We'd love to just share that with you to say thank you for coming and checking us out.
I know that visiting a new church can be a little awkward at times.
So we just welcome you for walking in the door.
I'd also like to welcome everyone who's listening online.
I pray that God will bless you right where you are.
Amen.
So we just have a couple of announcements this morning.
We'll see what's up on the prices right here.
All right.
We have the events for May.
So we just kind of announce all of the ongoing events once a month.
We have prayer Wednesdays at 7 p.m.
I'm here as much as I possibly can be.
I love this time of prayer as a family.
Every Wednesday night is different.
Don't laugh.
No laughing.
We have men's Bible studies Saturdays at 8 in the morning.
We meet over at Panera on Signal Butte.
And we have healings.
Sorry, healing rooms.
We do have healings.
The first Thursday of the month from 5 to 6.30.
If you don't remember those things, they are on the website on the events page.
So I think that is all the announcements I have.
The one other thing that we can celebrate as a group is we've had this building for two years now.
As of tomorrow, I believe.
So we're still here.
We're not leaving.
So praise God for that and praise each and every one of you for your faithfulness to the vision.
I know it's crazy to come out and plant a church.
I still think it's crazy.
I'm getting over it.
But I'm thankful to each and every one of you that has chosen to call this home, that has supported us as friends, as family, as supported the church financially.
I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.
So God bless you guys.
So the last thing I'll talk about is the offering.
We're not going to pass a bucket or a plate or anything like that.
We're not going to put anybody on the spot.
There's a box in the back.
You can make your checks out to Two Rivers Church.
They're the ones that helped us get this going.
Or you can give online by scanning the little thing.
So I will pray for the offering.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that every good and every perfect gift comes from you.
We thank you for the way that you provide for each of our needs.
So, Lord, we acknowledge you that all things are yours.
And what a privilege it is to give back in our tithes and our offerings to sow a seed into the kingdom of God.
And we thank you that as that seed goes forth, it may leave our hands, but it never leaves our life.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So I wanted to introduce a friend of mine who we'll be sharing today.
His name is Michael Bologna.
He's been going to Seattle Bible College, working on that.
And he's interested in getting into ministry.
So I encouraged him not to for a long time.
Because it is hard.
And he wouldn't quit.
He kept calling me.
He kept texting me saying, I want to do this.
Are you sure?
Are you sure?
Are you sure?
Come up here, bro.
Come up here.
Give him a hand.
Give him a hand.
This is one of the biggest chicken lines is coming up and talking in front of a crowd.
So I just wanted to encourage you a moment before you get started.
I wanted to warn you about a few things.
There's a lot of occupational hazards.
Okay?
I've had rubber chickens launched at me from these people.
True story.
Larry, the rubber chicken, is in the building somewhere.
There's been cough drops that have been launched in my vicinity.
I think Sharon's in Kids Church.
So she was the culprit there.
So there's a lot of occupational hazards that come with being up here and come with a job.
But then there's the other hazards.
There's the hazard of loving people and getting close to them and feeling what they feel and walking with them.
And the hazard of just wondering where things are going and what God is doing.
And it's a beautiful place to live, but it requires a great faith.
And God will give you that faith as you grow and as you pursue him.
I just chose this scripture to share with you.
This is 2 Timothy 2, verse 3.
It says,
Take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No one in military service gets entangled in matters of everyday life.
Otherwise, he will not please the one who recruited him.
Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he will not be crowned as the winner unless he competes according to the rules.
The farmer who works hard ought to have the first share of the crops.
Think about what I'm saying, and the Lord will give you understanding of all this.
So would you just join me in praying for Michael here, and he'll take over.
So dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for Michael.
I thank you for the calling that you have placed on his life.
I thank you for his pursuit of that calling through schooling, through serving in ministry,
through coming out here and preparing his word today, Lord.
So I pray that you bless his time here.
And we just thank you for the word that he's about to share in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen.
Amen.
Your lead pastors are both amazing.
I love them dearly.
Can you guys just give him a hand real quick?
Because they're the most lovely people in Apache Junction, maybe in the entirety of Arizona.
Maybe.
And maybe the rest of the world.
So like Pastor Tim was just introducing me, my name is Michael Bologna.
My lovely wife is back there with our daughter.
So that's Carolyn and Susanna.
Oh, actually, I'm kind of doing things out of order.
That's my fault.
I have a slide up here when it makes sense to get the...
We'll go to the next slide because I'm doing this out of order because I'm introducing myself first.
So this is our lovely family photo.
Now, here's the funny thing.
This is so funny, actually.
When we took this photo, we didn't know that there was actually four people in the photo.
So that was the funny surprise.
So we are...
Two Rivers Church has a normal prayer and fasting week in January.
And this photo was taken before then.
And we found out like right at the end of the fast that we were actually pregnant, which is so funny.
So we have another one on the way late September, which is super exciting.
So thank you all.
Thank you all for that.
So yeah, like Pastor Tim was saying, Tim and Jesse have encouraged me so much in my faith.
They're the ones who said go.
And I had to respond and say, am I going to go or not?
And I said, yes, I will.
So they have a great calling to speak hope and joy into people.
And I just believe that this is a great place to do that, is to remain here.
So God bless you all as you're enjoying that.
Okay.
So I guess going back to slide one, because I'm a little out of order.
This is the title of my message, Calling from Cleansing.
The blood of Jesus is communion and commission.
This is the repeated phrase I want you to catch today, is that the blood of Jesus gets us into shared relationship.
That's what communion really means in my mind, is the shared relationship and shared living.
And then from that shared living, we get to go on his great commission at the end of a few of the gospels,
to go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.
So that is going to be what we're talking about today.
And actually, I wanted to release a word.
Just as we're in worship, I know that you guys are a church plant on fire for Jesus and you want to see the kingdom of God come.
But I just wanted to share what I felt like God was saying about Bridge Gospel.
I believe the Lord is saying to you all, I have the prize for you.
You are runners and you will run well.
I am pleased with you already.
Come and take the prize as you run with me.
So I just believe that the Lord wants to continue to call you farther and higher in your race.
Even as Tim was sharing that particular verse from 2 Timothy, I believe that's true for all of us here and for those who are watching online.
We're all called to the great commission.
So, and in this message, I just, if you guys have your Bibles with you, either physical Bible or your phones,
I want you guys to land on Psalm 51 in particular.
That's where I'm going to be landing our different points of the message.
We'll kind of line up with those.
I have this wonderful prayer journal.
So you can also take notes in this with a pen or pencil or something like that.
But I'm going to try and keep to Psalm 51 in particular.
So if you don't have a Bible, go sit next close to someone else who does.
Maybe in your row.
We could do it like the old times, like in the pews and all that kind of stuff, which is funny.
Okay.
So let's go ahead and jump to my summary slide real quick.
I like giving summaries first because it's really helpful to know where we're going.
And not so you guys can check out, but so you guys can know where I'm going today.
So first point, the blood of Jesus as worship.
And so it's this idea that depending on God actually creates intimacy with him.
So if you're taking notes, the point I want to get across is worship-depending-on-God.
So you can write down worship-depending-on-God.
And point number two, because of the blood of Jesus, we get an opportunity to get God's heart in repentance specifically.
And there's this amazing gift of getting to trade away our hearts as they are now, old, for a brand new heart, which is God's heart.
And it's always, just always available.
And so specifically hearts that seek God will get God's heart.
So second point you can write down if you're taking notes, repentance plus seeking equals God's heart.
Repentance plus seeking equals God's heart.
So once we have God's heart, from here, God calls us, point three, to seek after his highest call, which is Jesus-like character and action.
Jesus-like character and action.
So if you're taking notes, you can write down Jesus has God's best.
Jesus has God's best.
And you could say, dash, obey God.
That's what you do.
You obey God, and you get God's best.
Jesus has God's best, dash, obey God.
So what is Jesus calling us to today in particular?
So point number four, we are called as ambassadors to live for Christ.
And you can advance the slide one more time.
And so the idea that you can write down if you're taking notes, true lordship is represented.
You could say true lordship, dash, 2 Corinthians 5.15, and that's the verse that's up there.
So what is an ambassador?
The definition that I have is an ambassador is someone who represents another person, kingdom, or government, wherever they go.
So I'm going to go ahead and read this verse, 2 Corinthians 5.15.
And he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.
So that's where we're going today.
We're going from the blood of Jesus, which is communion, to the call, which is evangelism, that commission.
All right, so part one of my message is all about the blood of Jesus.
And the most important thing is how do we apply the blood of Jesus?
Now, this sounds kind of gory and weird, but I promise you that this is not a gross gesture and Jesus wants us to do it.
This is an act of worship to say, you know what, Jesus, I need you.
I'm going to depend on everything that you've paid for, everything that you've promised.
So the first scripture I have, Hebrews 3.1, to kind of describe how to apply the blood, it describes Jesus as the apostle and high priest of our confession.
So Jesus is actually the one who makes a way for us to be with God in particular.
We have a sinful humanity, but God is holy.
So God cannot be in close relationship with a sinful humanity.
So Jesus is that high priest that makes a way for us.
So if Jesus is the one who makes a way for us, what do we have to do in order to receive that?
Well, it's an agreement between what you believe in your heart and what you say with your mouth.
So that is the point of Jesus being high priest.
As long as we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So, second verse I have here that illustrates the principle, Matthew 12.37.
And I'll go ahead and read that.
By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
So that sounds a little scary, but really what Jesus is trying to say is,
and this is actually in the section of scripture where Jesus is talking about good trees and good fruit and bad trees and bad fruit.
Jesus is just saying, be a good tree if you have the good seed in you.
You should speak life if you are born again in life.
So that is how we bear God's character, so that the world may know that we are his disciples.
By the way, that we love one another and love the world.
So finally, point three, Jesus already proved that you are valuable by giving his blood.
That is the most valuable thing that I believe we can receive on this earth is Jesus' blood,
because then we are a part of his family.
So use God's word to speak life over yourself.
So this is a participatory message.
We're going to participate together and prayerfully make some declarations.
So as you agree with your heart and your mouth towards God,
these declarations are true for you if you believe them.
That's how they work.
So we're going to talk about four specific applications of the blood,
and we're just going to pray these things together as a whole church family.
So first point, or the first way that we get to apply the blood is redemption.
We actually sang about this, at least in two of the songs, if not more.
So God is already on theme specifically about redemption in particular.
So the first verse I have here is Ephesians 1.7.
You can write that as a cross-reference, specifically on your Psalm 51.
So let's go ahead and show that verse real quick.
So in him, Jesus, we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of our sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace.
So that's just automatically paid for,
because he wants to redeem us out of what in particular?
He wants to redeem us out of this spiritual darkness,
this oppression.
And because of sin, we actually deserve death and judgment.
So he actually redeemed us out of death and out of sin itself that has power over humanity.
Not just the devil has power over humanity, but the sin nature has power over humanity.
But God redeemed us out of Satan, out of sin, out of oppression and darkness and death,
and he gave us life.
So let's go ahead and put up the next point here.
This is actually one of David's Psalms.
Actually, not one of David's Psalms, I don't think.
But specifically, it says,
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
So the Bible is asking us, say that you're redeemed.
Commanding us, say that you're redeemed.
So that way you can actually receive the redemption that God has planned for you.
So now we're going to participatory.
So we'll go ahead and put up the next chunk here.
This is the declaration that we're going to say together that kind of combines these two ideas
of Ephesians 1-7 and of Psalm 107, verse 2.
So I'll say it first, and then you guys can say it.
We'll all say it together.
So I declare that through the blood of Jesus, I have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil.
So we're going to all say that together, but I'll do it slower.
All right.
On the count of three.
One, two, three.
Through the blood of Jesus, I have been redeemed out of the hand of the devil.
Amen.
All right.
So that's how you make a declaration prayerfully,
is you just say it with your heart and your mouth together.
Okay, so on to point number two, application of the blood, is cleansing.
So we'll go ahead and advance again the slide.
And the really important thing about the blood of Jesus is that it will cleanse us from that sin nature
and the dirt that we feel like we have on our soul, but it only works if we get into the light.
See, if we have unconfessed sin in our lives, then we will never get out of the dirt.
It will just remain in the dark closet, and that's the problem,
is Jesus actually wants us to walk in the light.
So let's go ahead and advance at least one or maybe two.
So is there any spiritual dirt that muddies your soul?
Is it some deep lie?
Is it a place in your life that it's an addiction?
It's something you're really ashamed of?
These are things that Jesus paid for by his blood that you don't have to live with anymore.
You can just freely give it up.
So this is the gift that God wants to give us in this cleansing in particular.
So we are cleansed, remember, for commission.
Okay, so we'll go ahead and do the next slide.
And this is straight from Psalm 51.
Now we're in Psalm 51, verses 3 and 4.
I'll go ahead and read it.
So we're going to say this out loud again on the count of three.
And we'll do about the same pace as last time.
One, two, three.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
Amen.
So that, I believe, is just a great prayer.
David, he messed up pretty bad.
He did adultery, murder.
He messed up the kingdom pretty bad.
But God wanted to redeem him, and he wanted to purify him and cleanse him.
So this is a great prayer that you can pray.
Our sin is against God first and foremost, and it's so important that we recognize that.
So now to the actual cleansing part.
We can advance again.
So this is 1 John 1-7 specifically.
So we'll pray this declaration because now that we've come into the light about our sin,
we get to receive that cleansing.
So actually, I think you guys are getting pretty good at this,
so we can just do it on the first try.
All right, so on the count of three.
One, two, three.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
Thank you, God.
So this is stuff that I pray every day, guys.
Like, I pray these declarations because I know that I need to be redeemed,
and I know that I need to be cleansed.
So it's just so important that we pray these.
Okay, let's go ahead.
Next slide.
Nice, okay.
That was there anyways.
We'll go ahead and go to the next slide.
Okay, justified.
So, and you can go in advance to the verse.
This is super simple, guys.
It's just straight Bible.
We have now been justified by his blood.
It's just a fact.
So we don't have to argue with it.
But the really important thing, though, is that my next point is do we know for certain that Jesus himself is our judge?
Sometimes I think we judge ourselves a lot.
We think, man, I'm not really that great at that.
Or maybe even judge other people and say, man, like, my wife or my kid is just not the way that they're meant to be.
Like, you're just, this judgment gets in our head, and it's just because sin tells us judgments about other people.
But the thing is, the Bible says, for the Father judges no one and has given all judgment to the Son.
And if God is perfectly just and he's given all judgment to Jesus himself,
that means that we have to appeal to the courtroom that Jesus is living in when we get to the end of our lives and we meet Jesus in that courtroom.
So it doesn't matter what we think.
It only matters what's true in the real courtroom of heaven, specifically about our lives and about other people.
So the question is, have you made Jesus the judge of your life?
So we can go ahead and advance, I think, twice.
Oh, here we go.
Okay.
Yeah.
So the question that I have for you guys is, what sin in your life is under condemnation or shame or unhealthy conviction?
These are the things that, you know, the self-deprecating, condemning, embarrassed thoughts that we have about ourselves.
And, I mean, I'm speaking for myself, but I definitely tried to fix myself and, you know, introspect and, like, man, if I just fix this about me and, you know, I would be a better husband.
I'd be a better dad.
You know, I'd be a better pastor in the future.
But the thing is, it doesn't matter how many times we think that we can do it ourselves.
It just never works.
We just can't be redeemed on our own.
So this is just a quick prayer that we can pray.
Because Jesus deserves to be in the throne, to be on the throne of our heart, because he's the only just judge.
So it's much better when we're living life where Jesus tells us who we are, what he thinks about us, than us having our own ideas that sin tells us, that Satan tells us.
So we'll go ahead and just pray this last prayer at the bottom together, same pace, on the count of three.
One, two, three.
Jesus, I repent and put you as Lord and judge over my life.
I reject all other judgments, including my own.
All right.
So Jesus is now Lord and judge of your heart.
So that means that you can just receive exactly what he thinks about you.
So let's go ahead and go to the next slide.
A little bit more on justification.
Actually, into loving God's presence is what I meant to say.
So let's go ahead and advance.
So this is a great thing.
We don't have to be separated from God's love ever.
That's actually what was sung multiple times, I believe, today.
So Jesus gives us this complete access to himself and to the Father.
Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
And no one comes to the Father except through me.
So with Jesus as our Lord, with Jesus as our judge, we can enter God's presence freely.
It's just this free access that we get as a gift.
There's nothing that we can work for to gain access to God's presence.
It's just a free gift that we get.
And then once we're in God's presence, next point, we can just receive what we need.
So Luke 11, 13, amazing verse.
This is what David was doing in Psalm 51.
He was asking for what he needed, actually.
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
The Holy Spirit is the one who manifests not just himself, God's presence,
but the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, provision from God.
It all comes from the Father, given to the Son,
and the Son gives everything to the Holy Spirit
so that we can receive the distribution of all of God's promises.
So if we lack for anything, we can just ask for it.
We can ask for healing, deliverance.
We can ask for emotional freedom and peace.
We can ask for joy.
So let's go ahead and go to the next point.
Most importantly, what I want to get across today in the first part of this message
is inseparable, inseparable love is the gift given to people who seek God.
Inseparable love.
That means that we're in perfect communion, perfect shared living, just by God's grace.
See, everything that I've said so far, we just receive it as a gift.
We just have to pray in agreement with our heart and with our mouth,
and we just receive it as a gift.
There's no other way to get it.
Okay, so ultimately, we just have to find the areas in our lives where we're resistant.
And I'm just going to speak about my own life, but I've been resistant to God's love.
I thought that I could receive the Holy Spirit by working my way through all the Bible passages
and just try my absolute best to work for the things of the Holy Spirit.
But the thing is, it's always been a gift.
It's never been something that I could freely earn.
So, is God calling you today to seek after his inseparable love in your life?
See, Jesus does want your heart, and he's just asking you to put your heart before him.
Any kind of resistance and say, you know what, Lord, I need your grace
so that I can receive your inseparable love.
This is where all the vibrant and joyful and abundant Christian life comes from,
is just putting your heart before the Lord and receiving it.
So, putting this all together, all right, we are cleansed for communion and called for commission.
So, God has a shared purpose for us and the shared inheritance to walk it out.
So, our responsibility in this is just obeying God.
That's all we have to do.
We have the ability to respond.
That is response ability.
We're all given some kind of responsibility in life, and that's all we have to do.
We just have to obey him.
That's an easy thing to do once we've gotten all this redemption and cleansing and justification.
So, I'm kind of a math guy, science guy.
So, this is my spiritual math that I'm putting out.
You can check my work, please, you know, so that I get an A on the exam.
So, redemption plus cleansing plus justification equals sonship.
That's a, you know, $1,000 Jeopardy word, I guess.
But really, that just means that you live freely rested in the idea that you're one of God's children,
freely resting in the inseparable love.
Okay, one more line of spiritual math.
So, this is where we're heading.
Sonship plus God's love and presence plus obedience equals intimate relationship,
recovery of your inheritance, and enablement of your commission and your calling.
So, if we just do, if we do this in order, I believe that we can walk out the beautiful Christian life
that looks like Jesus Christ himself here in 2026, even though we seem to be time separated from Jesus.
But Jesus is not, there's no distance spiritually between us and God.
There's no separation.
So, I'm now entering part two of my message, which is the call to evangelism.
So, we'll go ahead and advance the first slide.
He said, in communion is the grace for commission.
And remember, I had the definition.
Actually, I think the definition is up there.
The commission is to be an ambassador.
An ambassador is someone who represents another person, kingdom, or government, wherever they go.
And Jesus said, go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.
So, only Jesus can know if the motive of our hearts actually matches exactly what Jesus' motives were,
which I believe were love and God's glory in particular.
So, this is where Psalm 51 is really going to come into play, guys.
All these themes do fit in Psalm 51, but now we're going to really sit in Psalm 51 in particular.
So, we're going to look at a couple verses.
I'm just going to read them, and if you have your Bibles, you can follow along with me.
So, Psalm 51, starting in verse 4.
So, again, this theme comes alive.
Against you, you only, this is verse 4, the first little chunk.
Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.
So, that is this idea that he knew his heart was impure.
And then, down to verse 10, David responds and says,
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
And not only was his heart impure, but he admits that he did not obey God.
The opposite of obedience is rebellion.
So, verse 3 says,
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
So, then, this is where we get the purification part.
In verse 7.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
That is specifically the blood of Jesus.
That's a beautiful image of, even though the blood might be red,
or whatever color it is in the body.
I forgot my biology, but we actually get completely clean, completely purified.
White is whiter than snow, is what the Bible says.
And God wants to give us integrity and wisdom, which is that obedient living.
So, verse 6 says,
Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom.
So, there's something about God that he wants to put in our hearts his ways and his presence,
and that is exactly where we're heading.
From God's ways and from his presence,
we're commissioned to go out and to be practitioners of evangelism.
So, I think that was my last point.
Verse 13.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall be converted to you.
That is a prophetic calling of the church to say,
go therefore and make disciples.
It's not just to slap people in the face with the gospel.
It's a, I'm going to love you and call you into a great calling
that's way better than what the world has to offer.
So, thinking about evangelism,
I think we have a lot of doubts.
There's a lot of looking at us and feeling inadequate,
but that's the whole reason why I just preached about the blood of Jesus,
because it tells us who we are,
and it cleanses us from who we're not,
and it gives us the right to be in God's presence.
So, from that place,
we are cleansed for communion and called to commission.
So, advancing the, yeah, here we go.
So, if you just practice evangelism,
if you just practice it,
you will get better at it.
You will actually become like Jesus.
And because Jesus is the one calling you to evangelism,
he's releasing the grace for you to get better at it
and to show other people who he is.
So, there is great reward in following Jesus.
You will get to see him move through you.
And I have a testimony that I want to share.
This was last Sunday.
So, I'm a part of an evangelism class at Two Rivers Church.
And so, we have little groups that we go out to like local stores,
like grocery stores.
So, I was at Smart and Final and just walking down the aisles.
And I see a woman and I believe the Holy Spirit speaks to me in that moment
and says, I want to give her a house.
And I'm like, hmm, okay, that's pretty bold.
I'm a little nervous about saying this, God.
But, after getting over my nervousness, I said, you know what, what do I have to lose?
I can just be wrong.
So, I go up and she's, you know, she's got her shopping cart.
She's shopping.
And I say to her, I say, excuse me, I'm a follower of Jesus
and I believe God has a message for you.
So, she goes like, stops her cart, looks at me, doesn't say anything.
And I'm like, I'm going to take that as an invitation.
So, I said, I believe God's message for you is that he wants to give you a house.
And she looks at me and says, well, I'm going through a divorce.
Like, what is that, what do you think that word means to you?
And I said, well, I actually believe that God wants to give you a new home to live in
and he wants to give you a secure place.
And she starts, she's crying at this point, just touched.
And so, we're kind of discussing the idea like, yeah, so I didn't know anything about you
and I've never seen you before and, you know, I think God's calling you.
And so, she gets to that level of understanding of like, oh, the God of the universe is speaking to me right now
and wants to know, wants her to know, Jessica, to know that she's loved and to be called.
So, I said, well, can I pray for you?
Can I just pray that?
So, I pray that over her, like I was going to provide this home for her.
And she just admits to me straightforwardly, like, you know, I'm a Roman Catholic.
I've been running from God for a long time.
And I can tell that God's coming after me.
I said, well, would you like to go to church?
Like, here's a free gift of a meal.
Like, this is something that our church just does.
We have a good cafe.
And she's like, yeah, you know, I think I will go to church.
So, even though she had no experience of God speaking to her that way before,
just by being open through the Holy Spirit, God can intersect people's lives,
I believe, in an irreparable way where God has called them out of darkness and into light.
So, you don't have to be some cool guy to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
You just have to act like a son and believe that you're a son.
That's what I want to get across.
So, it is a joy to be in God's presence and to give away the presence of God.
Because in that moment, Jessica met with the God of the universe.
Not me, but the God of the universe met her.
So, it's what the world needs most, along with his love.
So, practically, I want to stay super practical in this message, going on to the next slide.
What are my next steps?
If I've never practiced evangelism before, if this is brand new to me,
maybe I'm only young in the faith.
So, what are my next steps?
I'm kind of afraid.
So, just do the little acts of witnessing.
Witnessing is showing God's presence and love.
And evangelism is specifically sharing the Gospels.
So, witnessing is like the umbrella term.
Evangelism is the specific act of sharing the Gospel, the good news of Jesus.
Which is, everything that I said about the blood of Jesus, you can just repeat.
So, if you're new to evangelism, all I'm asking you to do this week is just smile and wave at people.
Just do that.
That's, I believe Jesus did that, like, as he was walking about his day, just saying, like,
Hey, nice to meet you, or, you know, I love your shirt.
So, sorry, I should advance the slide.
But, so, there's just easy things that you can do, like, complimenting people.
Like, oh, you look great, or, you know, nice job at doing that.
Or, cute kid.
These are simple things that we can just start from a place of love and compassion.
And this is how we warm up and get away from this, like, private version of Christianity, where we just kind of, thanks for advancing the slide, by the way.
Or we can just kind of be kind of inward about our faith.
But Jesus actually wants us to be his ambassadors.
That's what he called us to.
And so, keeping Jesus as Lord of our lives, we're starting to enter into the practice of evangelism just by witnessing.
And so, just being positive in general.
The how are you's, practicing good manners.
Most importantly, though, is just saying the simple phrase, God loves you.
You know, Jesus loves you.
I believe God wants to call you into his family.
It's, you don't have to be a prophetic person to say that.
That's just practically true.
That's what the gospel says.
So, you can just say that.
You don't need to be super in tune with the Holy Spirit.
You can just say simple things like that to start warming up your evangelism in your own life.
So, more next steps.
Be in the word and receive intimacy with Jesus, which is his love and his grace.
So, because evangelism is an outflow of God's presence, we need to have an appropriate inflow.
So, that's the way all engineering works.
I'm an engineer.
I'm a computer scientist.
I know that I need the right data in so I can produce the right output afterwards.
So, if we get the right inflows, we will get the right response.
So, what does it mean to have intimacy with Jesus?
Well, I think some of the first things that we have to get past, any kind of fear about hearing God's voice.
So, at one point in my life, I was pretty good at just like praying to God and just saying things to him.
But I never took the time to just listen and be quiet and see what he had to say to me.
So, just listen when you pray.
That's a super practical thing.
And the good news is you can read the Bible.
And if what you hear does not match the Bible, you just throw it in the trash can.
You don't need that.
But if it does match the Bible, you can say, you know what?
I think God is speaking to me.
I think he wants to do something in my life.
Another way is just putting an empty chair in front of you and talking to Jesus.
This is a practice that I do sometimes, is I'm just sitting in my chair during my quiet time.
And there's an empty chair right there.
And I'm just talking to Jesus.
And I'm truly believing by faith that I'm having a conversation with Jesus.
Another way, in particular, is just investing in the scriptures that remind you that God is a good father.
Because that is the most important thing that we need to know about receiving God's love,
is that God is a good father first.
And we sung about that today even, too.
So that was the Luke 11, 13 passage earlier.
Just look for cross-references.
What other passages in the Bible talk about God being a good father?
There's one in James 1, kind of towards the end of chapter 1.
There's lots of great passages that describe God being a good father to us.
So that's second in the next steps.
Oh, and of course, we need to surrender our anxieties about provision.
There's so much fear, guys, in this generation.
And it's not your guys' fault that there's fear.
It is just the total aggregate atmosphere that people are in.
People are just afraid.
So we just need to receive God's promises for provision in general.
Okay.
Third, we need to remove lies of the enemy through putting Jesus as Lord, repentance, and if necessary, deliverance.
I know your guys' church believes in powerful deliverance.
So that could be an option for you if necessary.
And continuing on, ultimately, use what you learned today and pray the prayers that you prayed to get closer to Jesus.
That can be your template for now.
And then finally, point number four, we just need to learn evangelism from Jesus.
So you can find Jesus in the Gospels, and you can find other people living on this earth right now who imitate Jesus, who share the Gospel.
And so that's where we can learn most is just sharing the Gospel regardless of the results.
Because Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
And so if we just practice sharing regardless of the results, we're going to start seeing the harvest that's plentiful that Jesus said himself was true.
Okay.
Make room in your schedule and just be faithful to learn and grow.
It really just takes creating opportunities.
That is the key.
So to close our time out today, I just want to remind you guys that we are cleansed for communion and called to commission.
So just as a practical activation, application of the message, I just want to take a minute here and just quietly pray and let the Lord bring to mind one to three people that you can invest in and share Jesus with.
And then from there, we'll just do the next steps.
Pray for them regularly.
So if we can just have just a minute to let the Lord bring to mind one to three people.
And you can write them down and put them in your prayer list to pray for if you don't already have those people.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Ja vai.
All right.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
so this will be a really practical next step for those who just haven't had a lot of practice in
evangelism is just keeping them in mind so for those experienced in evangelism
I'm sure there are people in this room that are find someone to take under your wing bring them
to public spaces grocery stores all that kind of stuff so that you can impart what God gave to you
already and build up the body of Christ so so just to just to close in in totality make time to grow in
evangelism and then finally if if this stuff about the blood of Jesus is new to you or you you feel
like not clean or there's some kind of guilt in your life I would I would ask you to make a regular
practice of praying these declarations regularly when you feel out of intimacy with God and so I
have the QR code up there specifically so if if that's I just hope that that that would be a good
resource for you in particular so I was I was we were worshiping today some a few things came to
mind one was that word that I gave earlier about bridge gospel but the second thing that I saw the
Lord doing um is I just saw this this broken pottery um and I just saw it just supernaturally
being completely brought together and I believe that that's that's a word about physical healing
so if anyone has any physical brokenness in their body it could be a broken bone it could be broken
anything um if that's you uh would you just raise your hand or um all right well can I just have a few
people um come around her in this moment and we can just pray for the physical healing I just believe
God wants to release that that supernatural healing by the power of the Holy Spirit so um and what is
your what is your name by the way Lynn Jesus Lord we just thank you for Lynn we thank you God that
by your stripes we are healed and by your brokenness Lord that we are mended and whole and so Lord we just
pray God complete restoration of anything broken in Lynn's body completely restored by the power of
the Holy Spirit thank you God thank you Jesus Lord we we just pray that there will be a blessing in this
room Lord and and testimony of healings Lord I'm coming into agreement with what pastors Tim and Jesse
have prayed over this church Lord that there be healing released in this house in the mighty name of
Jesus thank you Lord every broken thing be healed now in the mighty name of Jesus thank you Lord thank
you Jesus hallelujah thank you Lord and and because the the atmosphere is just pregnant with um God moving
in our lives um I just want to close us to pray um close in prayer and then the altar team is going to come
up um Jesus we just thank you that the free gift of healing of setting us free from sin and death is just
given in this moment and in life overall Lord I pray that your blood would wash us clean and that you
would help us to walk according to the calling that you've given us to evangelize and to bring the
nations to know Jesus as Lord and Savior Lord I pray that disciples be made through bridge gospel
that uh the people of Apache Junction would experience the presence of God the Holy Spirit
and that lives would be transformed so that this town this place would be new and made new by
your life giving power Jesus Lord we just thank you for today we thank you God that you've called us
and Lord I pray that calling would be released over each person today Lord that their corporate
calling would be true but also Lord that individual calling would be released that people would know
what they're supposed to do here on this earth because of the way that you've redeemed us Lord call us
into your perfect calling Lord I pray this all in your name Jesus amen
all right thank you all for being here um I think the altar team is coming up right now
and so feel free to come up and pray um if you need prayer I'll be up here too
and then um God bless you and have a great day and we will we'll see you next week here at Bridge Gospel