How To Share Your Faith

How to Share Your Faith

So tonight we're gonna be looking at the subject of how to share your faith. So let's turn to Acts chapter 16. We'll begin there, Acts chapter 16. And after that, we'll look at two key passages of scripture that address or speak to this subject.

But let me start out by saying there is no one right way to share your faith. What's important is not so much how you do it, it's that you do do it. Being a secret Christian is really not a biblical option.

Lydia and the Lord Opening the Heart

So let's look at Acts chapter 16, verses 11 through 15. Therefore, says sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothase, and the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost part of that city of Macedonia, a colony.

And we were staying in that city for some days. And the we here is Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, at least those four. Verse 13, it says, and on the Sabbath day, 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, a certain woman named Lydia heard us, and she was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. And the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. 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 here is a situation where a group of men, Paul and these others, they went to a place where religious people met to pray, and it just seems like they just struck up a conversation about the Lord.

So in some way, the word of God and the gospel was proclaimed or shared. And notice what convinced Lydia, that Paul was just so eloquent and persuasive that she just had to believe. Is that what it says?

No, it says the Lord opened her heart so that she listened and received it. And we could look at other places in the book of Acts where Paul is preaching the gospel and people, their hearts were not open.

So either God opens the heart or God doesn't, what's important is that the child of God, the servant of God is faithful to communicate the word. And then you leave it up to who? Only God. Yeah, you leave it up to the Holy Spirit to do his work.

The Great Commission and the Call to Evangelize

Okay, now let's turn to Matthew chapter 28. And some people are very, very good at that. They can kind of turn any conversation in that direction. Others, that just is more difficult to do. So my point is sharing the gospel can be as easy as having a conversation with someone.

But some people are not as gifted in that area. So some people it's easy, some it's not. It's helpful, I think, if the setting is right. This was a place where people would go for this purpose of prayer.

So when you're on the clock during the workday and everyone's busy doing their job, that's probably not the best time to try to start a conversation because everyone's busy doing other things. So knowing the timing is important.

But Christians, we need to do our part. And let's look at Matthew 28. This is more of just the mandate really for believers and certainly the church to evangelize. This passage you know as the great commission.

And remember, it's the great commission. It's like a mandate, it's not a suggestion like if you feel like doing it. Matthew 28, 18 through 20 says, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, amen.

So in giving the great commission, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. And by extension, Jesus is speaking to the whole church. So it is the mission of the Christian church for all of us collectively to spread the Christian faith to all nations.

And the term that we typically use, I think I mentioned it already, is evangelizing, right? Or evangelism. So evangelism means what? Sharing your faith, being a witness, okay? Evangel, that term means gospel.

So evangelism is really sharing the gospel. And here he says, share or make disciples of all the nations. In Mark's account, you can just make a note of this. Mark 16, verse 15, Jesus says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

So this is the church's mission. But of course, preaching is not something that every person is called to do. Is everyone called to be a pastor? Is everyone called to be a missionary? Is everyone called to be an evangelist or a teacher?

What's the answer? No. Matter of fact, there's some people, you're better off not having them do it, you know? If you have someone doing something that's not their gifting, I don't wanna say it can cause more harm than good, but I mean, it can sometimes.

Being Ready to Give a Defense

So let's turn to 1 Peter 3. So you say, well, if not everyone is called to preach or to be a missionary or something like that, then is it really the responsibility of every Christian to share the gospel?

Some people would say no. I've heard some people say no. You personally are not necessarily obligated to do that. And again, there is different gifting, but look at what 1 Peter 3 says. 1 Peter 3 .15, the apostle says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

So what does that tell you? First of all, like I said, there's no option to be a secret Christian. Jesus said in Matthew 10, whoever confesses me before men, him I will confess before my father who is in heaven, but he who denies me before men, him I also will deny before my father who is in heaven.

So if somebody asks you, hey, are you a Christian? And you say, no, not me. I'm not one of those people. What does that mean? Does that mean that you cannot be saved? Well, no, because even Peter himself, you remember denied the Lord three times.

So, I mean, that is a very serious thing, but that type of thing can be forgiven, but we're clearly told to be ready. Okay, so sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Who wants to kind of put that in a different words?

Some translations say, honor God with your lives. Okay, set the Lord apart. Your faith has to be real. You have to really love the Lord and focus on him. And if you do that, and if you're focused on Christ walking with him, you're gonna be ready.

So when somebody asks you, yeah, you're gonna be able to give them a response. So as long as a person, bottom line, as long as the person can talk, they can give an answer, they can give a reply. Now, sometimes people get nervous when, I think this is one of the big problems of why people don't share their faith.

They're nervous, right? They get nervous talking about it because they know people can respond negatively. But here's the thing, it's like with a lot of stuff, the more you do it, what happens? The easier it gets.

The first time you share your faith, that's pretty tough. The second time, third time, I mean, for some people, they'll talk to anybody and it's not hard. But for a lot of people, it is hard at first, but the more you do it, the easier it gets.

Did you have a hand up?

Yeah, just remembering that we're instruments, that we're not saying enough.

Right, yeah, that's the thing. And that can be a real burden to people, like if I don't share the gospel, like it's all depending on me, right? And that can cause people to feel very overwhelmed. But as we saw with the story about Lydia, it's God who opens the heart.

You just have to do your part. That's all God is asking. Hey, at the very least, if somebody asks you what you believe, yeah, I'm a Christian. You tell them what you believe and why. Okay, so to even be a Christian, you need to know what the gospel is.

But if somebody asks you, well, why do you believe that? Just tell them. I mean, that should be fairly simple if somebody asks you. Now, people will say, well, no, you need to be more aggressive than that.

You can't just sit around and wait for people to ask you. Biblically speaking, I would say that's a bare minimum of giving a response when people ask you. Is it good to initiate it? That is good if you can initiate it, but some people are more gifted in that area than others.

Okay, any questions or comments so far, Mark?

Why is it 10 minutes after you approach, or somebody's approached you and asked you a question, you get the answer? Yeah. I should've, I should've said this, right?

Right. Yeah, you think later on. This is very common. I was just talking to someone this week. It was the same thing happened. They have perfect door of opportunity. It was brought up, and yeah, on their way home, you know, 20 minutes later, they thought, oh, man, I should've said this.

That happened to me one time. I went into a department store, or there's no department stores anymore, right? Dick's Sporting Goods, I guess it was. But yeah, the guy, it was just served up on a silver platter.

My mind was somewhere else. I wasn't really focused on spiritual things. I was thinking about something else, and I missed an opportunity, and I almost wanted to go back in, but that probably would've been very unnatural, but if you're walking with, the more you have the Lord on your mind, and the more you're thinking about spiritual things, you're ready throughout the day.

But yeah, if you're not thinking about spirit, it can take you off guard, so. It's common, don't beat yourself up about it, you know? Be prepared next time, that's the thing. Okay, so I would say, again, at the very least, we need to be ready to give a response, okay?

But others would say you should initiate it. I remember talking to a pastor. His goal was to reach everybody, and this wasn't me. I'm not talking about myself. He wanted to reach everyone in the community.

He was gonna knock on some doors. He was gonna leave some door hangers. He was gonna talk to people. He was gonna mail some things, but it was his goal, he said, to reach every home, every apartment in town.

And another pastor that we were talking with, he really seemed, I don't wanna say he seemed disgusted by it, but he thought, oh, you shouldn't do that. That'll turn people off. People don't wanna be bothered, and you kinda do have two sides.

One side says, wait for them. The other side says, no, I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna pull people aside. So among Christians, a lot of strong opinions on this of the proper way, but again, I'm not saying there's one right way.

It's just that we do it, at the very least, we do it as we have opportunity. Have you encountered this, that, yeah, some people are very strong about one method, one way, and then other people are totally against it.

Yeah, Erin. I just wonder, that word discernment,.

That's a great plan to have for yourself, to go to every single door, but if you go to one door and they're very closed, then the Spirit might be telling you you know what, just step back on this one for a minute.

Right, yeah, and I remember there was a time where Paul was gonna go to Asia, but it says that the Holy Spirit did not allow him to do it, and I don't know what that means, or how the Holy Spirit didn't allow it.

There's people in this world that, I would say that it's not your job to talk to every last person on Earth. Okay, it's the church's job, collectively, but it's still, at the same time, we don't wanna make excuses for why I'm never sharing my faith.

Okay, yes.

I think it also makes a difference if you're gifted with evangelism. Right. And there's something about people that have that gift. They can just start talking and it just opens, whereas someone else is awkward and it doesn't come off the same way.

So I'm sure they would see it differently. As in, oh yeah, I should just go out and talk to everybody, you know, kind of thing.

Sure. If you have the gift. Yeah, yep, that's absolutely right.

My dad, it was really easy for him because he would invite anyone who came to his business.

Or his house to come to church. Yeah. And he had no problem with it at all.

Right, yeah, and we're gonna get into the different ways of approaching it, inviting someone to church. You know, there is that aggressive style that very few people do it, but they'll be at a grocery store and they'll pull someone aside and excuse me, man, do you know Christ is your Lord and Savior?

I mean, that's, like I said, it's very rare, but some people are very forward, and others, you know, there are Christians who don't share their faith at all for whatever reason. So I think one of the big, the biggest reason maybe of why people don't evangelize is they are concerned about how someone is gonna respond, especially someone that you have a relationship with, coworker, family member, they're nervous about how this is gonna go.

Praying, Living, and Speaking to Loved Ones

So I wanna read this article. It's just a very short article I pulled offline. It says how to evangelize friends and family without pushing them away, because that is a concern for some people that they don't want to push people away.

So it says at some point, every Christian has had a family member, a friend, coworker, or acquaintance who is not a Christian. So isn't that true? We all know someone we care about who's not a believer.

Sharing the gospel with others can be difficult, and it can become very, or even more difficult when it involves someone with whom we have close emotional ties. The Bible tells us that some people will be offended at the gospel.

However, we are commanded to share the gospel, and there is no excuse for not doing so. And they reference Matthew 28, 1 Peter 3, along with Acts 1 .8. So how can we evangelize our family members, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances?

The most important thing we can do, according to this article, is pray for them. So start out by praying for your loved ones. Pray that God would change their hearts and open their eyes to the truth of the gospel.

And then it references 2 Corinthians 4 .4, which says that Satan has basically blinded people's eyes. So unless that changes, there's no way you can get through. It has to be a work of God, okay? So it says start out by praying for them.

This isn't someone you meet on the street, right? Some random occurrence because you wouldn't have time to pray for someone you don't know. This is for loved ones, people that you do know. Start by praying.

Now, do you think it's only gonna go as far as praying and don't ever talk to them? No. Pray that God would convince them of his love for them and their need for salvation through Jesus Christ, and pray for the wisdom as how to best minister to them.

I do believe that is a prayer that God wants to answer. In addition to praying and sharing our faith, we must also live godly lives in front of our friends and family members so that they can see the change that God has made in us.

And then it says, be a bold witness. And I don't think, I mean, bold as in, you know, brash or arrogant, but don't be timid. Don't act like you're afraid of what you're saying. You know, speak with confidence.

This, hey, this is what I believe, and I'm sharing it with you because I care about you. So pray for them, share with them boldly, but notice it says, make sure you're living right so that they can see.

Because what's the problem? If they see that your life is just one, you know, bad decision after another, or they can see that you're rebelling against God in some of your decisions, I mean, what's that gonna communicate?

That you don't really practice what you preach. And I think that's one of the big problems that at least some people have, that their witness is not matching up with their witness. Okay. So I wanted to highlight that part.

We must live lives worthy of the gospel so that people can see that. This is one of the main reasons Christians, I think in general, at least in the United States, have lost, churches have lost their witness because the average evangelical in America, the way they live really is not discernibly different from anyone else.

Of course, that's not true with everybody, but that's true with large segments of professing evangelicals. Am I imagining that, and I've read this before, but I mean, I think this is true. But as far as leaving it up to God, again, that's not, well, I'm just gonna pray and God's gonna just save them on his own.

You know, again, we looked at the subject of predestination the past two weeks, and that's the attitude that some people have, that that's true. Or if you talk about predestination, what's the point of evangelizing God's, or if you say God is doing the work, then he's gonna do the work with or without you.

Those types of arguments are not helpful. You know, the Bible tells us to evangelize, so we do it. You know, we don't get into these theoretical arguments about why we should or shouldn't, okay? So just remember, and this is very important to remember, you do not have the ability to change someone's heart.

Even if you can sort of pressure somebody, and I don't recommend that you do this, but even if you could pressure them to say the right thing, it's been said, a person convinced against their will remains unconvinced still.

Now, you can probably get some people to say the right words at least once, but sometimes they say it just to get you off their back. They don't really believe it. Okay, so God has to change their heart.

Don't pressure someone or try to badger them into it. And certainly if someone's hostile, let's say you speak to someone about your faith, a coworker, a family member, and somebody starts getting nasty.

This has happened several times with me. Maybe someone comes to the church and they're here for, let's just say, they're a, well, I don't wanna call anyone out, but let's say they're here to fix something, right?

And you try to talk to them about the Lord, and all of a sudden they start cursing. And of course, they know I'm a pastor. They weren't cursing before, but as soon as they sense that I'm maybe trying to steer it in that direction, it's almost like comes naturally to them to start using God's name, and it's like a signal to back off.

That's happened many times. So if somebody responds with hostility or they start swearing, hey, just kinda, okay, they're not ready. I wouldn't continue with that. What does Jesus say? Don't cast your pearls before swine, right?

I mean, there are some people who are really hostile to the gospel message, and I would say, don't waste your breath. Spend that time and energy on people who are willing to listen. And if you wanna listen, if you wanna disagree, I'm giving some advice here.

I'm reading some passages of scripture. If you maybe see it a little differently, again, what's important is that we evangelize as we have opportunity. So that's some advice that I have. Some more advice I would say, well, did you mention it?

Invite someone to church. Let's say you're not really comfortable witnessing or I can't preach the gospel. I can communicate information if they ask, but I don't feel comfortable. Invite them to church and I'll preach to them, you know?

That's one way to do it. But if you personally wanna make a difference in someone's life, you really do have to have a consistent pattern of faithfulness in good work so that they can see that. Just the term witnessing.

For most of my life, when I hear people talking about witnessing, what are they referring to? Telling someone about the faith and trying to evangelize with their words. But really, in the Bible, I think an argument can be made that the term witness is how you live more than the things you say.

And again, the two have to line up. The word martyr, I think I mentioned this last month when we talked about persecution, the word martyr means witness. So the people who lost their lives for the faith were a witness.

They were a witness even after they died, right? So it's not just your words, okay? What's another thing you can do? One of the most practical ways you can share the gospel with someone. I'll give you a hint.

There's a rack out in the foyer. Yeah, a gospel track. So I think most people know what that is. It's a little booklet that you can read in what? Two minutes and it explains the gospel. So we have a whole pile of them out there.

They're for you to take. All you have to do is give it to someone. And if they say, no, I don't want it, hey, fine. Or go to a restaurant. This is something I've seen many people do. They leave a track with a tip.

So the waitress may or may not read it and make sure you leave a decent tip with the track, okay? If you leave 50 cents in the track, you can just bank on the fact that, yeah, don't do that. And make sure you don't have one that says Morris Corner Church on it.

Yeah, yeah, if it says Morris Corner, definitely leave a good tip, right? Another way to, and this often gets overlooked, but one way you can help to evangelize is giving, okay? Financial giving helps to fund missions, evangelism, as well as the local church ministry.

I mean, just think about it for a moment. If nobody gave, then churches would close. Missionaries would all have to come back home. Certainly missionaries wouldn't be sent out. And a lot of people, I would say most people probably hear the gospel either in a local church, well, the church needs a certain amount of money to run, or they hear the gospel on the radio.

Well, that costs money to put the gospel on the radio. So giving really does help to fund evangelism. I mean, that's just the way it is. Here's another very popular form of evangelism. These days it's called friendship evangelism.

Who's heard of this? Yeah, a lot of people are not at all comfortable going up to a complete stranger and just starting a cold conversation about Jesus. But the more you get to know someone, you know, befriending people, you're getting to know them, and eventually there will be times where they ask you about yourself, and you can just, you know, it's very comfortable over time.

But the objection to friendship evangelism is some people, you know, they take six months, a year to get to know someone. And, you know, it takes a year before they finally share the gospel with them.

But, you know, you're gonna get criticism no matter what. I have found that friendship evangelism is a very effective way. It's not the only right way. It's not the only way, but it is a very good way to share your faith.

So you just tell them the impact that Christ has had on your life. You know, whatever comes up, invite them to church. A lot of people have been brought into the church this way. I think the most visible way, what's the main way?

If I had to just put it out to you, what do you think the main method of evangelism is in the world? I mean, I think it's the local church. Jesus gives the great commission to the church. If all the churches disappeared, I think most evangelism would disappear.

So the local church is key. I mean, there are men who are evangelists and they travel the nation and travel the world and God bless them. They're usually funded by local church. Certainly missionaries are funded by local churches.

So the local church is vital in fulfilling this mission because again, the mission was given to the church. Okay, so for the remaining time we have, let's get very practical. All right, are there any other verses that come to mind that you wanna share, something that I overlooked?

Okay, well, if you have anything, raise your hand. But most people, safe to say, are not gonna become pastors, not gonna become missionaries, not gonna become evangelists. So what is one sure way that you, that everyone can share their faith without having people reacting negatively?

Because again, I think that's the main reason or certainly one of the main reasons why people don't do it. Here's one thing everyone can do and should do. You should be able to share your testimony. Who knew I was going there at some point, like this is the big one, right?

Sharing Your Testimony

Sharing your testimony. I think it's very helpful because we see a biblical example of sharing one's testimony. Who do you think of that did that in the New Testament? Paul, right? In the book of Acts, I believe it was three or maybe four times Paul shares his testimony.

And Paul had a great testimony. I mean, he encountered the Lord on the road to Damascus and was struck down by the light. And he said, well, my testimony isn't quite as amazing as that. It doesn't matter.

He was telling his story. And that's something everyone can do. You can tell your story. Here's the thing about sharing your testimony. It is a very non-threatening approach because you're talking about how the Lord has impacted your life.

You're not putting the pressure on them. You're talking about what God has done for you. So people don't feel as pressured or threatened with this. You're not calling the other person a sinner. Who's seen Ray Comfort?

And I'm not critiquing Ray Comfort, but he's the guy who goes around with a microphone on the street and says, excuse me, sir, you know? And he goes through the 10 commandments. Have you ever lusted in your heart?

What does that make you? An adulterer. Have you ever stolen anything? And he basically gets people to like admit all of their sins on the street. That probably works sometimes, but a lot of people don't like that.

And he has had plenty of people tell him off, which I'm sure he doesn't really care, but that is kind of, you're really putting the emphasis on that person and they're under the microscope. I'm not saying that's wrong.

I'm just saying when you share your testimony, it's very non-threatening. You're talking about you. So it's less confrontational. You're not even really telling them, hey, you should believe on Jesus.

When you share your testimony, you're just talking about how you did it. And God can use that. Also, nobody, here's the key, nobody can refute your testimony. If you start in, like on Sunday morning, when I preach a sermon, I'm getting into all this doctrinal stuff.

There's people who can, well, I don't agree with that, and they have their arguments against everything, right? Well, nobody can argue about what God has done for you in your life. It's your story. They cannot really refute it.

So if you preach to them, they're probably gonna react a certain way, but if you just share your testimony, it's pretty safe. Okay, so if you've never shared your testimony, how do you start? Well, I would just recommend that you start by writing it down.

Some of you have shared your testimony. It's no problem. You could do it right now if you had to, but some people have never done it. Start by writing it down. If you're at all interested in this, write it down and recount how you heard the gospel, who you heard it from, the events leading up to that, why you were receptive or why you think you were.

Tell them how you came to know the Lord. Just give them the details, how the Lord has impacted your life. A few pointers, like try to have it five minutes or less. You know, don't just start talking and then, you know, you can ramble and get off topic and mention a whole bunch of things that are immaterial and then people are gonna tune you out.

So try to be concise, five minutes or less. Include scripture in your testimony. Remember Romans 10 says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by what? The word of God. So your story itself cannot convert the heart.

The word of God, the gospel has to be in there. So quote scriptures that are relevant to your testimony. Here's something that I've noticed. Here's what you don't wanna do in sharing your testimony. Do not glory in how sinful you were back then.

It's one thing to tell people what you were saved from. And some people think that the best testimonies are the one where the person was, you know, lived the most debauched life. Who's heard this? Like, oh man, that was an amazing testimony.

And it was like, I can't even believe what I heard. That's not really the best testimony. The best testimony is someone who was brought up in a Christian home and it was faithful. I mean, ideally that's the best testimony.

But on the other hand, hey, if that's where God saved you out of, if that's what he saved you out of, amen. Don't be afraid to share that, but don't make it sound like you're reliving the glory days. You know, because I've heard a few testimonies where it sort of sounds like people are, yeah, they're talking about their previous life as if it was awesome and they miss it and they wish they could go back.

They don't say that, but you don't want that to come across. And again, this is vital. And I know this should be obvious. I guess it is obvious, but make sure Jesus is part of your testimony. Here's the thing.

If Jesus is not part of your testimony, you're probably not actually saved. Now, who would give a testimony without Jesus? And I'm not talking about the person who's maybe nervous and they overlook a few things, but Jesus has to be part of your testimony, folks, right?

How are we saved? Through, yeah, the blood of Jesus. We don't wanna make it out to be, you have to say this specific thing and this, but I bring that up because there was a famous singer. I won't mention her name, but she's like top of the charts in the Christian contemporary world.

And she was on a radio station giving her testimony. And at the end of it, I thought she didn't even, she didn't mention Jesus. She didn't mention the cross. I don't even think she mentioned God. I mean, it was just, you know, I felt I overcame struggles in my life and the season of my life.

And it's like, there's no gospel here. There's nothing about the Lord. So, and again, when you're, people can be nervous and say things that they regret. And when you're a celebrity, you have a microphone, everything gets recorded.

I don't wanna be too hard on people, but I just wanna stress that Jesus has to be part of it. And another person that has got really popular recently, his testimony, I heard it. He said, God, if I stop drinking, I'll make a deal with you, God.

If I stop drinking, if you help me further my music career, I'll, you know, I'll give up the sin. And that's not really, I mean, that's good. Maybe that's a step in the right direction, but that's not really a testimony.

Okay. Okay. So share your testimony. Jesus, the cross, the gospel needs to be part of it. Okay, so in conclusion, one last thing that I think it's very helpful to share your faith, memorize passages of scripture.

The Romans Road and Simple Gospel Memory Verses

If you wanna be effective in evangelizing people, you need to be able to memorize some scripture. I would start by quoting and memorizing what is called, who can guess? The Roman's Road. The Roman's Road, right.

So the Roman's Road is probably one of the most basic, simple ways to kind of lay out the gospel. And it starts, and Jesus, I think, used this pattern of starting with the law to show people their sinfulness, and then moving to the need of the gospel.

Once you realize you need salvation, there's something to be safe from. So you start with the bad news, and then get to the good news. So there's different variations of the Roman's Road, but it goes something like this.

The word of God teaches that because of our sin, we are separated from God. At which point you quote Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God, right. That's one of those verses that a lot of believers have memorized.

Who has Romans 3, 23 memorized? Yeah, a lot of you. So all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. And the penalty for sin is what? Death. And that's not just physical death, because have you noticed, everybody dies physically.

You're not actually saved from physical death. It's spiritual death. So Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. And I realize I have this in front of me, but I do have it memorized, okay, I assure you.

But praise God that penalty for sin was paid by Jesus Christ himself. And then you get into Romans 5, 8, because the love of God, that's really what converts a person. God's goodness, his love. So we do share the bad news, but people need to hear something about how God cares about them.

God loves them. So Romans 5, 8, God demonstrates his own love toward us in what? In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So scripture teaches that if we repent and trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will be saved from sin and its penalty.

And then it gives Romans 10, 9 through 13. If you confess with your mouth, I think Romans 10, 9 is like, if I had to pick one verse, this might be it. John 3, 16 is good too, but that's not in Romans.