 Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to another session. Everyone, can you hear me okay? Yes, Pastor. All right. Great. Okay, so let's pick up from chapter four before that. Let's do a quick review of what we did last week. Last week, we looked at ministering in power and love. So God has given us this wonderful privilege to be ministers of God, to go ahead and share the gospel with people around us. Yet, He has given us the responsibility to minister in power and in love. We looked at several examples last week as well. The Lord Jesus Himself ministered in power and He had compassion on people. So the root of our ministry should always be out of compassion and out of love. So if we want to share the gospel with people around us and if it's for the wrong reasons, maybe it is, for example, to become famous as a pastor or become famous as an evangelist or people should know you or any other reason, it will be a failure from our side. Remember, Jesus said, you shall be known by your fruit. So it's very important that it's wonderful that God has given us this opportunity to spread the message and share the gospel but share with power and share with love. So there will be times when people may reject you, people may say, hey, I don't believe in this Jesus. I don't believe in the message that you're talking about. So all of these things will be there. But what is important is we need to continue to minister in love. So that should be our foundation. So that's what we looked at last week. We also looked at a few points we, you know, some of us shared in chapter four, overcoming inhibitions. Some of us also shared a few of the inhibitions that we face, that you have faced while sharing the gospel. So let's pick up from chapter four. I know we did a couple of points but let's pick up from there, overcoming inhibitions. First one, not knowing what to say. The fear of, you know, one of the inhibitions of not wanting to share the gospel is not knowing what to say. Some of us also shared that, you know, sometimes I don't know what to say. Should I respond to this? Should I not respond to this? Or sometimes I panic. All these feelings and emotions are part and parcel of sharing the gospel, right? Not knowing what to say. But here's the thing. We look at it. We need to prepare. We need to practice. Right? Now, when I say prepare, what is important is we prepare both in the practical aspect, right? And we also prepare spiritually. Now there will be times you will have to take times of extended prayers, spending time in worship, spending time in reading the Word of God, your personal time with the Lord should increase. And the more we spend time with God, the more the power of God flows in us. And all these inhibitions will slowly fade away in our lives. Right? I just wanted to share, you know, personally what happened in my life, you know, at a young age, I was a very, very shy person, extremely shy. So shy that from first, I think from my school days till 10 standard, I never went on stage. No programs, no events, no, you know, the children go for all these competitions. No, nothing. Extremely shy. I till about 10, the only time I went on stage on 10 standard was to take my, you know, my certificate, 10 standard certificate. That is the only time I went on stage, extremely, extremely shy. Then many years later, as I accepted the Lord, I was still very shy. I was thinking, okay, now God has called me and I knew somewhere in my heart, okay, I want to be a worship leader. I want to share the word. I knew what I wanted to do. But I was very shy. I thought, how am I going to do this? So I tried on my own flesh. I tried, okay, you know, getting this sense of, you know, overcoming inhibition of being shy. I tried it on my own, but it didn't really work. And then I began to read the word of God. The word empowers us. At many places, the word says he gives us courage to face our challenges and all of that. So I began to prepare more than, you know, how you know, how to sing songs or how to play music and how to preach more than all of that, just spending time in the word of God, spending time in prayer. I said, God, this is a challenge that I have. And you know, it helped me to overcome these challenges. So slowly, you know, I auditioned for the worship team. And it was very, very scary because all of a sudden you're, you know, you're in front of, you know, it was a smaller church, smaller setting, one of the locations. All of a sudden we are in front of people and it's, it's so scary because you've not done this all your life. But I remember the word of God, the Holy Spirit, empowering us, empowering me personally. And so there came a time when, you know, I don't really, it doesn't bring any fear anymore, right? That fear just left me. I was able to overcome that inhibition, that fear that used to always grip my heart. And I was able to, you know, come out of that, you know, do a lot of outreaches, street ministries and all of these things. So, so the fear sometimes stops us. And we look at that also later on, right? So point two, feeling that nobody is interested in the gospel. Let's read Ecclesiastus chapter three and verse 11. Could one of us please read that Ecclesiastus chapter three and verse 11? He has made everything beautiful in its time. Okay, I think, I think the voice was, the voice was echoed. Yeah, there's some echo. Yeah, there's some echo. I just request those who have unmuted, those who have unmuted please mute. Okay, is the echo there now? No. Okay. Yes, Rosalind, can you please read that again? Ecclesiastus chapter three and verse 11. Ecclesiastus three verse 11. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. The Lord, God has put eternity into our hearts, right? So the reality is many people are looking for genuine friendships. Many people are searching for meaning and purpose in life. Many people are hurting and are looking for healing. So remember that, you know, God designed us as spiritual beings, right? You will also study in different subjects about how, you know, we are human we are human beings who have a soul and we have a spirit inside of us. So we are spiritual beings. We are not robots. We have emotions. We have feelings. And so if you remember, I did mention that every human being has a God shaped vacuum in their heart, so which only God can fill. No money, no fame, no popularity, no pleasures of this world can fill that void because it's only God who can fill that. So we need to come out of this feeling that, you know, hey, this person may not be interested in knowing the gospel because he's got everything. He's got everything that this world offers. I don't think he needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. No. So we have to come out of that, right? Every person is a spiritual being and every person wants that feeling of genuine friendship, a searching for meaning and purpose, right? Third point, fear of rejection or ridicule, right? How many of us have gone through this fear of rejection and ridicule, right? Many of us, I'm sure, I personally have gone through it. Fear that, hey, what if they don't accept the message? What if I share this gospel and then they make fun of me? What if they just reject what I say? You know, it becomes a fear. Now, here's the important thing. Remember that even when the Lord Jesus ministered in his ministry, not everyone accepted his message. I think most of them did not accept his message. He was saying that I'm the way, the truth and the life. He's proclaiming himself as the Messiah. Many of them didn't accept the message. We go on to look in the first century church and then the second century church. You go on to see many people faced rejection and ridicule for the sake of the gospel, right? So if any of us feel that, you know, okay, I'm going to share the gospel. If there's a fear of rejection or ridicule, what are they going to say about me? What if I fail? What if they make fun of me? If we have this, we need to pray and ask the Lord to help us overcome that because the gospel will be rejected by many people, right? It's not the end of the world. Go on, right? The Lord Jesus himself says, when you go, remember he mailed a team of 70 people of twos and he said, go and preach the gospel. They went and Jesus told them, when you go, if they accept the message, stay with them, bless them. If they don't shake off the dust of your feet and move on, right? So there will be times of rejection. There will be times when people will ridicule you, make fun of you, right? But here's the important thing. We must learn to respond graciously to those who reject us. We must learn to respond graciously. Why? Because we should not be people who remember we are ministries out of love. The foundation is love. So we cannot say, okay, if you don't accept this message, you're going to go to hell. You and your family are going to go to hell. That is the wrong way of responding to someone who rejects your message, right? So for example, you're sharing the gospel with a friend of yours or a couple of friends or at your workplace. They may reject you or they may make fun of you. Now, the wrong thing to do is, okay, let's see, you say that, if you reject the message, you'll go to hell and then later on you'll come to know. So these are the wrong ways to respond. Respond out of love. Respond graciously and say, okay, I just, I understand that you're not able to understand what I'm trying to share. You need some more time. I know you feel that, you know, it's not making sense to you, but I pray that God opens up your heart, the Holy Spirit ministers to you and just leave it. Or sometimes you may not even get the opportunity to tell them that. They may just reject you and walk away. That's all right. That's all right. Just continue. Go on. Go to the next person and continue to share the gospel. There are many stories where people came to Jesus and ridiculed him, right? The Pharisees themselves said, before Jesus said, before Abraham was I am, I'm sure they would have had a good laugh because it doesn't make sense. You're what we're probably about 30, 31 years old. You're saying before Abraham was I am. Abraham was born thousands of years ago, about 3,000 odd years ago. And you're saying before Abraham was I am. It was a, it was a really, they were, they ridiculed Jesus, right? And plenty of other places as well. So Jesus himself warned us that people will reject us, right? So it's okay not to be accepted always, right? Now just because people reject us doesn't mean we, you know, become like a cocoon. We go into the corner of our room and sit and say, oh, people have rejected us. No. Remember, the message of the gospel is the power of God and the salvation. So if this person's rejected it, go on to the next person. Go on to the next person. Continue to share the gospel. So we don't become people who say, okay, I think I don't know how to share the gospel. I give me another year. No, no, no. We, even if people reject us, don't worry about it. Don't sit and contemplate and think about it. Oh, he, he shouted at me or he, you know, he said this against me. Don't have to think about all that. Just move on and continue to share the gospel, right? If they reject us, they're not rejecting us, but they're rejecting the message of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, they're rejecting the one who sent us, right? So let's read Matthew chapter 10, 11 to 16. Can one of us please read that? Matthew chapter 10 versus 11 to 16. Matthew chapter 10 was 11 to 16. Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it to your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it. If it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly, I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves, therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as dogs. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Divya. Right. So here we just read about what Jesus himself said. He said, if they accept you, stay there, bless them. If they don't shake the dust off your feet and move on, right? Acts chapter 5, 40 to 42. Can one of us please read that? Acts 5 was 40 to 42. Acts chapter 5 was 40 to 42. His speech pursued them. They called apostles in and had them flung. They ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. The apostles let the sand rains rejoicing because they had counted worthy of suffering, disgrace for his name. Day after day in the temple courts, from day after day in the temple courts, from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. Amen. Thank you. So we see here that the apostles were flogged, beaten for the gospel, for sharing the gospel, but what did they do? The apostles counted in joy to be rejected and suffering and being persecuted for the sake of the gospel. So we are to count an honor to suffer shame for his name's sake. Now, I want to be very clear. Now, just because people reject the gospel, just because people look down on you or me, very, very important is to be established in your identity in Christ. I'm sure you have that subject who we are in Christ this semester. It is very important to be established in your identity in Christ. Now, if your identity is out of Christ, when persecution, when rejection, when failure, when suffering and shame comes, if our identity is not in Christ, what will happen is we may easily fall away. And I've heard of plenty of testimonies of not only ministers of God, pastors, people who are servants of God, serving the Lord for many years, and somewhere along the line, they give up on this call that God has for them. I think it was probably two years back, or there was this young man in his early 30s, pastoring a church, and he had a good church. He had about maybe about 100, 150 people, which is a good church. It was not in the city, but it was in the town. And he was ministering there. And all of a sudden, a lot of people began to leave his church because there was some great evangelist or something who came, and the healing evangelist he came, he started doing events and programs there. And then eventually he started a church in that same locality. And so all the people from this church went to that church. He was so depressed. He didn't feel like going to church. Suddenly, the church from 100 became 25, 30 people. He went into a feeling of rejection, a feeling of failure. And I remember he said, we got to meet and he was discussing this with me. And after he said this whole thing, he was very, very sad. He was very sad. And he said, I don't want to start the church. I don't want to continue the church. So I've given the church to somebody and I just want to give up on this because it's too much for me. And I asked him, why? So he said, no, this is what happened. I said, it's okay. So one of the things I told him was keep your identity established in Christ. Your identity is not a pastor. Your identity is not evangelist. Your identity is not profit or whatever these titles are. That's not our identity. Our identity is in Christ. And so why is this important? Because if our identity is in Christ and we know who we are, so whether there is fear, whether there's rejection, whether there is failure, whether people accept us or not, our identity remains the same. So even when these challenges come, we'll count it an honor for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I remember telling him, go back, continue what God has called you to do. Don't compare your calling with somebody else's calling. And I did request him to spend time in prayer and reading of the word and now he's able to, he also started his church, continued things. But what I'm trying to say is not only for those who are believers but also leaders in the church, pastors, it's very important to be established in who we are in Christ. And here we see that the disciples counted it an honor. They went back home rejoicing saying, hey, it's an honor for people to reject us, to ridicule us and the persecutions that we are facing. It's an honor for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so that should be in our spirit as well where we say, God, we will share, we will continue to share. People may accept wonderful praise God, people may reject, people may ridicule, persecute. But remember that it's an honor to suffer for his name. Remember the year 2009, 2010, I just became a believer, 2008, 2009, some of that. And I joined the corporate sector. I joined the corporate sector, began to work there. And I was so passionate about wanting to share the gospel, but I didn't know how. So remember praying, I said, God, when will you call me into full-time ministry? I want to be in full-time ministry and all of that. But God very clearly, one day after prayer, he clearly, very clearly ministered to me and said, in your office, you've got hundreds of, hundreds of employees. Why don't you start sharing the gospel with them? Then I thought, okay, this is a good opportunity. Okay, I thought about it, spent some time practicing, preparing. And so I began to share the gospel with people in my office. I would go in the mornings, I would find people from other faiths, go sit with them and try to minister to them. I know what rejection and ridicule is. There came a time when we started a small prayer fellowship in the IT company where early morning, before we log in to our works, so we would meet for about half an hour and pray and all of that. But people ridiculed us. Like we were about nine, 10 people. People ridiculed us. People made fun of us. I remember they would come with a bottle of water. When I think of it now, I laugh, but at that time, it was hurting things. They would come with a bottle of water and they'd say, hey, why don't you turn this into wine? Because they know, they would call me Jesus boy and all kinds of things. And it was hurtful. There were times when I felt, God, why should I go through all this? I can just do my work and go back home. But over time, God gives us the ability. The Holy Spirit empowers us to be willing to take up and suffer for the name of Jesus. Amen. So some of us may be in a place where, oh, I don't want to share to my friends what will they think, overcome that. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you overcome that. Let's look at the next one, next point, fourth one, being ashamed. Now, this is a big inhibition that we face in this current world, in the current days as well. So being ashamed, what if I speak about Jesus and what if my friends leave me? What if people make fun of me? Sometimes we deliberately hide the fact that we are Christians and we hide it from others. And now this is not right. Sometimes we are ashamed of being Christians in the workplace or in our colleges. We deliberately hide the fact. Right? Now, just because we wear a cross, a chain with a cross on our neck does not make us Christians. Right? Just because we have a tattoo of a cross does not make us Christians. Right? Sometimes people may brand us as fanatics. Oh, you know what? You are only talking about Jesus. Forget about you. It's better to just be, you know, be with somebody else and, you know. So all these kinds of feelings, being ashamed of the gospel. Now, very important, do not be ashamed of the gospel. The gospel is, it is through the gospel. It is through our Lord Jesus Christ that you and I have eternal life. We have found forgiveness of sins. It's a gift that God has given us. Jesus was not ashamed to die on the cross for you and me. Right? Right? Now when you study about the Roman crucifixion, it's a horrendous practice. It was actually started by the Persians. Crucifixion was started by the Persians, but it was mastered by the Romans. Right? Usually what they would do is the Romans, if people had, you know, rejected or people are against the Roman government, what they would do is they would actually, Roman history says that they would crucify people on the sidewalks of the streets of Rome. Right? People were crucified on the sidewalk. So probably if you're going out to the market, you can see people being crucified. It was like a reminder that if you go against the Roman government, this is going to be what you will face. Right? So it was that and there were times when so that, you know, people could throw anything on this body. He lost all rights once you're on the cross. Right? You're naked, beaten, bruised. Usually what they would do is they wouldn't even take off the body from the cross. Roman history says that the body would remain there. The vultures, the birds of the air would come and eat on the flesh and eventually the bones would just fall off from the cross. It was so bad. Now when we read the old, the crucifixion and I know some of us have watched Passion of the Christ and Passion of the Christ is nowhere close to what really happened to our Lord Jesus Christ. It was, it was more than that. He was, the Lord Jesus was, that's why the book of Hebrews says he was obedient to death, even death on a cross, which was the most humiliating way of dying. So he was not ashamed of it. When he was on the cross, you and I were on his mind. So what I'm trying to share is I'm not, I'm not here to, I'm not stirring up your emotions. What I'm saying is, do not be ashamed of what the Lord Jesus did for you, right? Because he was not ashamed of dying on the cross for us. Sometimes we need to be bold and unashamed of Jesus Christ. We need to do that. We need to take your stand. But we do it without being brash, without being rude, and just let people know that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all right. You know, in Mangalore, we get opportunities to go to many colleges. And there was this one time we went into this college. It was not a Christian college, but and so they said, can you come and speak about life and all the challenges that people, life skills basically, and all the challenges that students face and how to overcome all these challenges and all of it. And so we were talking and there were some politicians who were sitting in the, in that place and we were discussing and, and I remember they said, so can you come and talk to our students? We are about maybe 500 old students. I said, okay, but I said, at the end, I want 10 minutes to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were taken aback. They said, no, you, you cannot do that. We don't believe in all of that. And I said, I can't come. I can't come. I can't share because if I'm only sharing about life and how to overcome and all of this, it's just going to be like a lesson on, you know, how to improve life. Right. And that you can get on YouTube and all of that. But I remember telling them, if I'm coming, I need 10 minutes to share the gospel of Jesus Christ because it's only the gospel that can change lives. And, you know, there were a lot of people there and they were taken aback. They said, you know, you're bringing your Christian gods to this nation. That's why our nation is spoiled and all of it. I said, this is, this is what it is. And if you're giving me 10 minutes at the end, I will share. They said, no, I said, no. End of story. We went away. So there will be times when you have to hold fast and to your confession be bold, be unashamed of Jesus Christ. Right. Romans 1.16, we all know that. Maybe one of us can read that just to refresh our minds. Romans 1.16. Yes. So Paul is writing to the Romans. He's saying, I'm not ashamed of the gospel and it's true because if we read about his missionary journeys, he goes into Athens, he goes into Corinth, he goes into Ephesus, all these places which was filled with idol worship, sexual immorality, sin. He goes in there. He was not nowhere was Paul, you know, in any kind of fear, nowhere in his ministry. He never said, can I, you know, is it possible you can, can I share here about Jesus? No. In Athens, in Greece, he goes there and into the great Mars Hill sermon and he begins to preach in front of the people the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was not afraid. He was not ashamed people said some people accepted him. Some people said too much of studies or too much of learning has got into your mind. You don't know what you're talking about, but that did not stop him. Right. Important thing is to not be ashamed of Jesus Christ. Right. When you get an opportunity or maybe in your college, in your workplace, wherever it is, I'm sure all of us will get opportunities. Go ahead, take that step. Right. Take that step. Don't be afraid of what, of people calling you old fashioned or people calling you fanatic. Don't be ashamed of it. People call us old fashioned because, okay, Jesus died so many years ago. You're still behind him. He's dead and gone. Forget about it. So people may call us old fashioned. No, no, no. Gospel, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it's the power of God unto salvation. So very, very important. Make sure your identity is rooted in Christ. If it is not, we may feel ashamed. When persecution comes, we may just, you know, fall away. Now I'm not saying that, you know, in the face of persecution that we may not feel fear. We may feel fear. We may feel all these other, you know, feelings of overwhelming feelings, fear may come in, but it is there where the Holy Spirit comes and empowers us. Remember Paul says, in my weakness, his grace is sufficient for us. Right. So do not be ashamed. Next point. Fear of mixing with unsaved friends. Now another important point is sometimes as Christians, we may feel that, okay, now maybe things have changed, but many, many years ago, maybe 10, 15 years ago, if you are a Christian, you can, you know, there's this, this mindset that you should not be with people who are not saved. Why? Because we may be contaminating ourselves and that is so wrong. We must be willing to meet and be around non-Christian friends. Most of my friends, 9 out of 10, are unbelievers, were unbelievers. Right. I purposely made friends with them. I purposely spent time with them. Why? Because it's, the end was not so that, okay, yes, I wanted them to accept Jesus as their personal savior, but I genuinely had good relationships with them. And I thought, okay, if I am a good friend to them, I have to be willing to share what Jesus has done in my life for him or her. So I genuinely made good friends who are non-believers. Right. Remember that light is more powerful in darkness. Right. If we are only sitting and making friends or with people with only Christians, light and light, that's good. Fellowship is very, very important. Remember the Lord Jesus in John chapter four, what did he do? He met the Samaritan woman. Jesus didn't say, oh, you're a Samaritan. You better go back quickly before the disciples come. Jesus didn't do that. Now we know the history between the Jews and the Samaritans. They hate each other. Reason being the Jews, some of the Jews started intermarriage with the Samaritans for people in Samaria. And so the Samaritans would worship the God in the idols that were on the mountain. And they would also worship the God of the Jews. So the Jews hated them. Right. So, you know, deliberately, what the Jews would do is if they want to go to a certain place, they would never cross Samaria. They would go through a different route altogether. Because it is said that history says that the Jews didn't even want to breathe the air that the Samaritans breathe. That was such a kind of hatred. Jesus is here. I'm sure his disciples would have thought, why are we going through Samaria, a place which is, you know, these people are against us. But, you know, Jesus goes, he chooses that way, goes to Samaria and the Samaritan woman comes. Not only are you speaking to a Samaritan, secondly, you're speaking to a Samaritan woman. Right. And what is Jesus saying? He's sharing the gospel. He's sharing who he is. And finally, in that conversation, she believes that he is the Messiah. So what if Jesus did not go and talk to her? What if Jesus just kept quiet about it? She would not have accepted the gospel. Later on, we see that the entire place, people of Samaria, all of them accept the message, accept Jesus as a Messiah. Because later on, it says that, you know, we accept you not because of what this Samaritan woman said, but because of what you have said to us, because of the message that was shared to us. Right. So don't be afraid of mixing with unsaved friends. Right. Remember that, yes, you have to be strong spiritually as well. Right. So if you've every day, if you're in the college or in your workplace, a lot of people from other faiths, you be spiritually strong. Right. Be friends with them. There was a friend of mine many, many, many years ago. I just became a believer. He was a Muslim, a very good boy. We were very good friends all throughout school. And he was very, you know, he always wanted to know, Paul, how did you change? How did you become like this? So I would tell him, you know, what this is what Jesus did, and he would get upset, you know. He said, no, no, no, don't tell me about Jesus. He's a good man, but how can he save you? It doesn't make sense, Paul. How can God have a son? And so I didn't know much about all this apologetics and all of that, giving a defense and all of that, but I tried my best. So every day I would go meet him. I would talk to him. And, you know, he had this small food joint. His father was running a food joint. And his father was also the, like, you know, the Imam of the mosque, who would make announcements, who would sing the morning devotions. I'm sure some of us have heard those recitations. And so he was that. And so I would go and begin to talk to him. And over the course of, you know, we had a lot of, you know, misunderstand, I won't say misunderstanding, but a lot of discussions between us. There were times when he accepted what I said. There were times that he also got upset sometimes, but we were just friends. So we continued to talk. There were times when he would, you know, he would get angry or something. So I would just withdraw back and just talk about something else. So God gives us the wisdom for all of that. But over the six months of meeting with him, finally, he accepted Jesus as his personal savior. What a joy it was. One of my best friends, a very close friend of mine. And he accepted the Lord Jesus. And then he was, he went home. He was ready. He's, and I told him, see, what are you going to do if you tell your parents, they're going to make you leave the house? He said, no, no, no, that's okay. I know the truth now. I don't have to be afraid of anything. And he went home. He told his parents. His parents were very upset, but they loved him because he was the only son. They kept him at home, but he was not allowed outside, but he would sit and read the word and pray and all of it. And eventually he was able to share the gospel with his mother and then his father. And they all, the entire family accepted the Lord Jesus. And they went through a lot of persecution because his father was part of the leadership team in the mosque, but he went through a lot of persecution. But they all are believers and they all serve the Lord in the city of Bangalore itself. So here's the thing, do not be afraid of mixing with unsaved friends. Let's read 1 Corinthians chapter 9, that's 19 to 23. 1 Corinthians 9, 19 to 23. 1 Corinthians 9, 19 to 23. Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible, 20. To the Jews, I become like Jew. To win the Jews. To those under the law, I become like the law. So as to win those under the law. To those not having the law, I become like one, not having the law. Though I am not free from God's law, but I am under Christ's law. So as to win those not having law. To weak, I become weak. To win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means, I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel that I may share in its blessings. Hey man, thank you. So we see here that Paul is writing to the Corinthians, he's saying to the Jew, I'll be a Jew, to the Romans, I'll be a what he's trying to say is my whole life is so that I may reflect the love of Christ. To the Gentiles, I'll be as a Gentile. To the Jews, I'll be a Jew. To the people around, if they are weak, I will become weak for their sake. If they are bold and strong, I will become bold and strong for their sake. And so Paul was willing to mix with all kinds of people. And that is the whole point of evangelism, to go and to touch other people's lives. And finally, there are other excuses that we may have. It's not just my personality. Sometimes we may feel, okay, I'm just a worship leader. I can sing. I can sing. I can play the drums. So let that evangelism and all that others do, let the pastors and evangelists do. I will write songs and I will sing songs. That is my calling. That's good. Praise God, that God has called you for that. But the commission for all of us is go and make disciples. So God will work through anyone who is willing. So don't put a tag on, we should not do that. We put a tag on ourselves, oh, I'm a worship leader or I am this and I am that. So I'm not sure if I can share the gospel. No, we all are called to fulfill the commission. Then we look at a second excuse. It says, not my responsibility. Maybe it's a responsibility, somebody else. Maybe it's a responsibility of my pastor or my leaders to just share the gospel. I'll serve in the church. I'm happy doing that. You need to get out of that mindset. Or the third excuse is, okay, I am living a good life. I have a good life. I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm praying every day. I'm doing everything. It's good. It's important to maintain a good testimony. But it is also important not to what you have to keep it to yourself, but to share it with others. The gospel needs to be communicated with people around us. We need to get out of these excuses. Finally, I'm afraid of the difficult questions that people may ask. Now, it's a common thing that people will ask different difficult questions. We may not know the answers, but one of the things that we did mention is, we can always say, hey, I don't know this. I don't know the answer to your question. But what I do know is this. I was a sinner and the Lord Jesus saved me. What I do know is that Christ set me free before I was living a life of hatred and jealousy and anger. But now the Lord has changed me. There will be difficult questions, but let it not stop you from sharing the gospel. One of the things you can say is, can I get back to you about that? You can go. You can ask your pastors. You can read up and check and get back to them. I'll just share this quickly and I'll close again. I think about six, seven years back, just something that I was reminded of. It's not too well-versed with the scriptures and all of that many years back. This friend of mine, he was from a different faith again, and he was a Muslim. I would always share with him. He asked me this question. How can God have a physical appearance on earth? He asked me that, and I didn't know what to say. I said, I don't know. Then how can you say that Jesus is the Son of God? I didn't know what to say. I said, okay, I don't know that. But my stance, my identity did not change because of that question, because I didn't know the answer. But here's what happened. I went back and began to read. I bought a Qur'an and I began to read that and reading. There's a Surah, one place, where it says that when Moses was in front of the burning bush, the scripture said that God was in the bush, in the Qur'anic scriptures. It said that God was in the bush. So I met him the next day and I said, if you read the Qur'an, it says that God was in the bush. So his physical appearance was manifested in the bush. So he read that and he said, yes. So if God can come and manifest himself in the bush, in the burning bush in front of Moses, why can't God come as a human being? He didn't sleep for three days. Three days he didn't sleep. He came back after three to four days and he said, that question was just, it kept haunting me and then it gave me an opportunity to share the Gospel with him. He accepted the Gospel and he became a believer. So yes, there are difficult questions. You may not have the answers to all of them, but let not your identity be shaken because of that. So some of the declarations you can make is, I am an ambassador of Christ. I have no fear. I am not ashamed of the Gospel. So all these declarations continue to make it every day in your life. Amen. Amen. Any thoughts, any questions any one of us have, I know we've passed our time. Quickly, any thoughts, any questions? Okay. Could one of us please lead us in prayer? Could one of us close in prayer for us? John, if you're there, can you lead us in prayer? Yes, that's great. Father, we thank you for the time you've given us to learn from your word and to understand the importance of sharing your Gospel to the people around us, O God. We thank you for the privilege you have given us to know you more. We thank you. And we also pray that the words that we learned today will be fruitful in our lives, O God. We thank you, Jesus. In Jesus' most precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everyone. I see that I think it was Elisha. You raised your hand. Maybe we can pick up your whatever you want to share or question. We can pick that up from next week. Thank you, everyone. Have a blessed week. Catch up next week. God bless.