Young Life Leader Learns the Gospel

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So we're on campus today asking people if they had three minutes left to live what would they say and who would they say it to?

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I'd probably have to be talking to my mom because of just really what what she has had to do in my life and so I would tell her how much

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I loved her and cared and thanked her for just the amazing blessing that she has been and instrumental in my my life and my walk with the

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Lord. Flip this around real quick if we could let's say that I had three minutes left to live and you knew it what would you say to me?

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I would briefly see if I could get out of you whether or not you believed in Christ and where you're going just okay just to ensure you're you're you're safe I guess making sure you were saved.

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I mean what would you literally say though I mean what questions would you ask what would you what would you want to know?

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Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior and that he died on the cross for your sins?

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Also I would ask whether or not you thought that your life was meaningful or impactful on others?

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What if I said that that I didn't believe in Jesus and I didn't think my life was very meaningful? I have to go and say that I mean that Jesus is you know the

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Lord he he's the one that created you so I don't know it's kind of like right on topic.

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Now I mean so if I've got two and a half two minutes left I mean

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I don't believe in Jesus my life isn't meaningful I mean what what can you say to me in the next two minutes that might make a difference?

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Well your life has you know hasn't gone unnoticed God really understands who you are and where where you come from there's nothing that he doesn't know about you that these few last minutes of your life are completely going to be used for the best possible so it's it's up to you whether or not that you will ask the

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Lord into your life he's the most amazing person I've ever been able to have a relationship with.

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A minute left isn't a lot of a relationship now is it? Not entirely no but I mean it's up to the

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Lord he's the one who judges. So if God's gonna judge me what is he gonna judge me on?

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He's gonna judge you whether or not you believe in Jesus or him. That's that's it that's all he's judging me on so if I just say hey yeah

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Jesus was a real person a couple thousand years ago I'm good? No it's it's the higher higher aspect of it you have to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is the

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Lord over your life. And if I don't what's he gonna do to me? Well in the time we have that I can't really go into that but.

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Does that seem like a problem to you? To me personally I mean I who am

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I to say yes or no? I mean does it I mean just does it concern you maybe that you know if you knew you know one of the kids you work with let's say

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Mark maybe with young life just got hit by a train as a friend of mine did when when I was in high school you know that in those last few moments maybe you don't know where he's going and neither does he and there's nothing you can do about it?

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Well I don't think that there's nothing I can do there's always prayer you know the Lord does know so I mean the instrumental pivot might be you know those last few seconds in his mind.

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Okay Mark what where does the gospel come into all this? Expand upon that real quick.

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Well I mean the gospel is the good news of Jesus. Where does that come into this whole whole situation?

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I mean I mean does it even enter into the conversation if you only have three minutes left? Well it can and it cannot it just depends on whether or not the person...

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I've lost train of thought. Let me say it one more time.

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You know how does the how does the gospel enter in maybe in that conversation in those last three minutes of someone's life if you knew that they weren't a

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Christian? I mean you knew it they told you hey I don't believe in Jesus but I don't know why

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I need to believe in Jesus you know any more than I know why I need to believe in Allah or Buddha you know what what makes

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Jesus different and and can you even answer that question for us maybe?

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I mean I have it in the back of my mind but it's very difficult to just say you know. Yeah I mean

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I've been there. So I don't have an answer right now no. So you know

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Mark one of the things that we often tell people is is the gospel that you were raised on and that you believe is the gospel you preach when you're under pressure.

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So it makes sense? Yes yes it does. So do you know where the

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Bible defines the gospel? I mean I assume you read your Bible on a regular basis. Where does the

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Bible actually define for us what what the good news is? The end of Matthew I believe

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I think in the the what is it called the the

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Great Commission. So so the Great Commission is one thing but the Gospels totally different from the

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Great Commission. So so the gospel we fight it in 1st Corinthians 15 right that Jesus might bore our sins in his body right died was crucified and brought back to life three days later defeating sin death the devil is that something you've heard before?

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Yes. Okay does that message is that would you call the core of Christianity or would you say the core of Christianity is more about a meaningful life having a productive family maybe

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I mean what is the core of Christianity? It's not constrained to this world we are not of this world but in this world as Jesus had called us to be.

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So us having a meaningful life we're just his instruments that he uses here on earth to spread that gospel like you're saying.

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So just a hard question for you and I I hesitate to ask you but I will given that you didn't even know where it was and you're leading in young life that sort of a thing do you really think you're being a even starting to spread that gospel to to the kids you work with to to anyone on your campus?

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I mean if if you couldn't tell them tell a dying man if you can't you know tell us where it is are you really doing the

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Great Commission which is to teach people the gospel and then call them to obey it? I think that's a good question that you can ask yourself every day you know but personally that that's that's good.

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Well yeah but at the same time no because it's a daily struggle that I have to daily go against you know the constructs of society to actually put my faith out on the line and then tell people who

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Jesus is. Mainly I do that through my actions I like to do that structurally through my actions and through my lesser use of verbal just like profanity

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I never use profanity. So so would you say just just real quick would you say that you you live the gospel out and people just see

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Jesus in you? Yes. Do you believe that man by nature is good or evil?

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By nature good yes. By nature good? Yeah. Because Satan was the first sinner correct?

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Yes. Through pride and by pride he brought in the first lies into the world and God had made us perfect in a sense correct whole with him having that complete relationship back and forth face to face with God right and because of this we are made good because everything that God makes is good and sin kind of defined is taking things that God has made in ways and amounts that are not.

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Did you know that the Bible actually defines sin three times for us? I've heard of that yes.

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Could you tell us what any of those definitions are? None. So so I'm gonna just run through them just just real quick and I want to get back back to this other point about man so so we see in in 1st

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John right that sin is lawlessness right so sin would be breaking God's law right so if God says don't steal and you steal that's that's sin right now we see in James 417 right that anyone who knows the good he should do and doesn't is sinning.

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Would you agree with that? Well if it says in the Bible. Okay just make sure and then we see at the end of Romans 14 that anything that isn't from faith is sin.

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Anything. Sure a great example let's say that you you love

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Jesus right and a Buddhist are helping an old lady across the street.

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You're doing it because Jesus told you to love your neighbor right you see that you see that and you say

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I want to love my neighbor because God you know was so kind and merciful and forgiving me that I want to be merciful to others right and the

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Buddhist says well the Buddha told me that this is the right thing to do. The Buddhist isn't acting in faith right because the

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Buddhist doesn't believe in God. So even if he's doing something good right that's sin because he's not doing it via faith in Christ.

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Would you does that make sense? It does. So so let's get back to this issue of man right

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God made Adam and Eve and Adam and Eve sinned. Did Adam's sin affect the rest of mankind?

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I mean maybe you've heard of this once before original sin you heard that term right. Did original sin affect you me

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Tony here anyone? Yes that's why we're here right now. So so if original sin affected us are we still are we still born good or are we born not good because of Adam's sin?

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We are born into sin so with that then we like you don't teach your your son or daughter to take a toy from another and bash them on the head do you?

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No I don't. Exactly you have to teach them that that is incorrect. So so are they born then good or are they then born bad?

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If you don't have to teach them to do bad things but you have to teach them to do good things. I have a three -year -old and an 18 month old.

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I never taught my three -year -old to lie. I never taught my three -year -old to push his brother down. He did that all on his own.

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Would you say that that's the mark of a good person or the mark of a bad person? Mark of a bad person with very little knowledge.

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I would agree with you I would agree with you that it's a bad person so could we say maybe that all people are born bad?

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For the sake of the argument or just personal for me? After hearing that brief two -second analogy would you feel comfortable saying yeah people maybe are born bad?

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I could. Good if I if I said that that Romans chapter 3 starting in verse 11 says that there's no one who does good no not one no one seeks for God.

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You remember that? Okay if that's true is anyone born good knowing that faith is anything or sin is anything that doesn't come from faith?

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Yes. So people could be born good? No. Okay so men then if they're not born good they're born evil?

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Bad. Okay so so we've just gone from men being born good to now men are born bad.

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After the first initial sin as you said yes. After the first initial sin when when do we start sinning?

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As Satan has come into our lives and caused us and it caused us to enter into sin by tricking us into eating tricking

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Adam I should say because that is what happened. So so when a baby takes his first breath very first breath

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I've watched both of my children be born it's a beautiful thing when my sons took their first breath they did not take that breath via faith in Christ.

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Would that first moment of life then be possible to be defined as sin as you would see it?

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No. No. So if sin is defined as anything that doesn't come from faith and they don't take their first breath via faith in Christ.

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They're too young to understand. Does understanding really matter? Not entirely no.

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So if it if it doesn't matter Paul Paul didn't say hey anything that doesn't come from faith is sin unless you don't understand what you're doing right?

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He said anything that doesn't come from faith whether you understand it or not. So is it possible

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I mean just possible that that first breath somebody takes is sin? I guess it could be possible yes.

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Okay so so if men are born bad right they they're as Ephesians say says children of their you know children of the devil right there they're in enmity with God.

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They're at war with God. They hate God in their heart and I would argue that that we can see that given their first breath is sin that that that's from birth.

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They're born bad not good right? That means that as we look around here at the people walking around campus we could pretty much as Christians with confidence say unless they've put their faith in Jesus Christ and repented of their sin we have a bunch of evil people walking around us.

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Would you be comfortable saying that? Yes. Okay knowing that and let's let's go back to this three minutes to live situation.

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If you knew that that man that you saw dying right it maybe it's me maybe it's a friend whatever the situation.

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If you you saw him dying you know he's evil. You know in his heart he hates God. You said before your first question was did you feel like your life was meaningful right?

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Where does that enter into it now? Not entirely sure.

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Is it possible that it doesn't enter into it anymore? Because then all life would be rendered useless and like not meaningful without Christ you know.

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So I would say all life without Christ is meaningless. That our only meaning comes from God. Yeah.

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Okay so I have three minutes to live. If you the heart of the

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Christian message is the gospel right? And you would agree with that? Yes.

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Okay. Would you go to death burial and resurrection of Christ right according to the

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Scriptures? We could even we could even go a little bit further there in first Corinthians 15 and say it's the appearance of Christ as a resurrected man appearing to the disciples and then to 500 brothers at one time and we could expand that out and say the gospel is that message.

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What would you just just before we get into this this last little bit here what would you say Jesus did on the cross?

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He bore all of our sins everybody past present and future on the cross and as he died he became the sacrifice for all of our sins.

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Okay so so he made a way in essence for men to be reconciled to God.

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If you knew someone had three minutes to live and they hadn't been reconciled to God wouldn't you say it's reasonable or even loving to tell them hey you have to be reconciled to God because if you don't if they and and maybe you don't say this but you know if they don't it's gonna be bad and you and and you don't want that.

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Right that's completely bad we don't know. Okay so let's look let's look out here again there's not as many people walking around but if those guys over there aren't reconciled to Christ we don't know when they're gonna die you know a person dies every two seconds around the world that they could be due in five minutes one could just drop dead right now.

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Would it be the most loving thing for you to go talk to them and say hey here's how you can be reconciled to God because you don't know when they're gonna die?

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Yeah that would be. So how often would you say right now you're doing that? Normally I I earn the right to be heard first.

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Okay so if Jesus told you go into all the world make disciples teach them to obey all that I commanded them baptize them in my name do you need to earn the right or has your

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King commanded you to do that? He's commanded me but it's they

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I mean people are more generally going to listen to somebody that they have given the respect to listen to.

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Okay does that in the three in that three minutes to live situation just go just be looking for the for the way out you know?

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Absolutely. So I mean that's probably their last bet whether or not it'll be true or not but through that their faith may show that they will enter in the kingdom.

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So let's let's go back to to what you said earlier that you try to not use so many words but to let people see your life and to seek

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Jesus through that. Mainly because I don't have like the infinite amount of time to stop exactly what

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I'm doing all of the time to talk to everybody. You have time some of the time? Yes. Okay so so if if man is evil right we're going back to this now right he doesn't love

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God he hates God right now 1st Corinthians also tells us that that the natural man doesn't discern spiritual things.

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Are you familiar with that verse that section? They have to be they basically have to enter into into spiritual oneness with Christ to be able to understand them.

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Yeah God has to illuminate them. So so if you're walking around campus here right and you're living

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Jesus and Jesus is in you and and Tony and I see that and we're Christians and we say man we really we really see

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Jesus in Mark right now. Will the man whose evil hates

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God maybe is and most likely is suppressing the truth of God and righteousness in his heart and is spiritually blind be able to see

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Jesus living in you knowing what 1st Corinthians says that they cannot discern spiritual things?

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No he can't but he will see a happier person you may normally see.

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Okay so if if he can't see Jesus in you and you're not using words to tell him about Jesus and we agree that if they die it's gonna be bad.

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Through outside action I guess he would from it from the outside in looking in would think what's so different about this person and that may spark him to ask me but I don't know be the only way

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I mean I could just so easily just talk to him. Do you do you think knowing the

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Great Commission that Jesus is really calling us to to live in such a way that people will just ask us or do you think that it's more

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Jesus is commanding us to tell people as we go about so as you're walking around campus maybe your job is to hint a gospel track to somebody right?

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I would say the latter yeah. Okay so I mean it sounds like a kind of a big switch from where we started would you agree?

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Very big. Okay so so just just a couple last points here where do you see the what what's the purpose of God's law right

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I mean you've read the Old Testament you know God gave a law to Israel right and that that there's ten commandments what's that correct yes yes what's

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Jesus come to change not necessarily change but to can't find the right word fulfill yes at the same time he's you know changing everybody's sight and like the way society was at the time because of the

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Pharisees he's just completely turning the world upside down with from that law yeah and so so Jesus has right like there's this law and everybody has it right and and Paul tells us in Romans that that specifically chapter 7 that if it weren't for the law he wouldn't know what sin was right that the law brings knowledge of sin right so so law maybe maybe we could say it this way law allows the wicked man to God's law to see to see sin right and wrong yeah okay so when you're when you're letting someone see your life are they seeing

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God's law which tells them they don't measure up to God's standard but I don't even measure up to God's standard none of us do that's the point that's why we need a

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Savior Savior because he needs to save us from our sins because exactly because we are separated from God we have earned hell so to speak we've earned death because of our sin right so so if we're going up to people and we're just saying hey you know

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Jesus Jesus can be your Lord and be your be your Savior do you think that the natural man again who's spiritually blind really understands or even sees why he needs a

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Savior without having that that mirror remember Martin Luther Protestant Reformation okay he said that the law was a mirror a curb and a guide okay a mirror a curb and a guide he you know the law can be put up here right if we were to say okay the law says thou shall not steal have you ever stolen yes so have

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I okay we know that we have fallen short of God's standard and that we now are in trouble with God the judge because we've broken the law right this so so if you were to just walk around and let people see

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Jesus in you and say hey Jesus needs to be your Savior and you can have a happy life like me are they really seeing the truth there you know they're not seeing their sin their wickedness before God don't you think then given that it might be necessary to explain the law to them and then give that good news of grace in the gospel yeah okay so so here's here's what

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I'd ask you to you know as you go about you know doing your young life stuff walking around campus keep that in mind you know as you're talking to people use that law that God gave us right you know call people then via that law to repent and believe in Jesus Christ right because they'll once once they understand that law once I mean you remember once you understood hey

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I've sinned against a holy God and I'm in trouble I'm in big trouble it's only then that you even have a desire for someone to save you from that so it makes sense yeah hey becoming aware of the problem to solve the problem exactly exactly hey