Light Up the Night! 3 of 3

This weekend we have a golden opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our friends and neighbors. Many of us will have trick-or-treaters on our front porches with their families nearby. Others of us may team up with fellow growth group members to handout candy, food, and water bottles to families in busy neighborhoods. Unlike so many other times of the year, we have a special opportunity to be in close proximity to people who need to hear about Jesus. 

We also have a message to share. We want these families to have the opportunity to hear and respond to the message of the cross and resurrection. We want to clearly communicate how people can be saved and changed by Jesus. Some of us may get the opportunity to share verbally with trick-or-treaters. Some of us may simply include gospel tracts with other freebies (by the way, we have provided you with packets of tracts on a table in the worship center lobby). The best method for sharing the good news of Jesus is the one you will actually use. 

There's one other thing we need to remember if we want to have maximum impact as gospel witnesses this weekend- we need to make sure our witness flows out of a healthy relationship with Christ.

If you remember, the Ephesians excelled in the works of Christ. They toiled with patient endurance in the name of Jesus. However, Jesus rebukes them because they abandoned the love they had at first (Revelation 2:4). This means that they were not walking closely to Christ. They were working hard for Jesus, but not sitting with Him. If we want our witness to be prosperous spiritual work, we need to have the high spiritual potency which comes from abiding in Christ. 

This means that several of us need to spend time with Him before we try to witness about Him. I'd like to encourage you to spend some time in prayer and reading the Word before sowing the gospel. Take time to praise the Lord, give thanks, confess your sins, pray for the people whom you will share, and to pray for yourself. If you will start with Christ, you may be amazed at the God-ordained opportunities which may come your way.

Let's light up the night!

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