What Do You Do With The Good News?

How do you use your time? How committed are you in learning and knowing the Word of God? How involved are you in the Lord's Kingdom? Are you reaching people for Christ?

Clearly, every Christian is called to go out into the world and bring people into the Kingdom. We’re supposed to share what we’ve been given. But what exactly are we supposed to share?
Here’s your message in two words: Good News. Mark 16:15 (NLT) tells us to "preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere."

Do you like to get good news? Everybody does. Do you like to share good news? Most people do. I know you’re thinking, "The people I work with, my friends -- they’re not interested in the Good News.” You’re dead wrong! They may not be interested in religion, but they are interested in the Good News. The problem is not that your friends and co-workers aren’t interested. The problem is you have forgotten how good the Good News really is.
Once you’ve been a Christian for a while:

You forget how miserable it was to live without hope.
You forget what it was like to worry where you would go when you die.
You forget what it was like to have a life full of guilt and fear and regrets and bitterness and boredom before Christ brought meaning and purpose and significance.

What happens is that the longer you’re a Christian, the more you tend to take for granted how good the Good News really is.

If you go out on the street and ask, "How do you convince God to like you?” 99% of the people will say, "You’ve got to work hard to get God’s approval. You’ve got to be really, really good. You’ve got to keep a lot of rules and probably do some rituals. You’ve got to be religious. I'm none of those things -- so I'm never going to please God or get to know him.”

The Good News is that you get right with God through a relationship based just on faith (trusting in God)-- not through a religion of rules, regulations, and rituals.

When we trust our lives to Jesus Christ, he takes care of our past, present, and future. These are three fabulous benefits we can share with others.

He forgives your past.If we were to take everything you’ve ever done or said or thought and make a movie of it and show it on a screen to everybody, you’d be really nervous -- and probably embarrassed.

And so would I, because none of us bat 1,000. Nobody’s perfect. Everyone has made mistakes. Everyone has skeletons in their closet -- things they wish had never happened. God comes along and says, "When you trust Jesus Christ with your life, I take that movie (What Is Your Life?) and I burn it. I take everything you’ve ever done and wipe the slate clean. You get to start over with a brand new life.” Is that good news?

He takes care of the present and gives you a purpose for living right now. You weren't created by a mistake. God created you for a purpose. You need to know God (daily read the Bible, grow in fellowship with other believers, worship God, serve in your community and church) or you will never know God's purpose for your life. Knowing God isn't just by confining yourselves at home reading His Word alone. It's much more than that! In the past, when you gave your life to the Lord and buried it in baptism, you promised God that you'll follow and obey Him regardless of any circumstances. Through the course of your "Christian life", things become much more complicated. You add things to your list of priorities. You have kids. You work more hours to make ends meet. You begin to "re-focus" on self. In the past, you have been "crucified with Christ" but now you've resurrected self. In the past, you used to share with your friends about Jesus but now you fear rejection and ridicule. Your knowledge of God may be based on "human intelligence" (what you just know about God) rather than living the Word of God; being the Word of God (what you're living the will of God).

When you get to know God, you’re going to know who you are. When you figure out God, you’re going to figure out yourself. I meet people all the time saying, “I'm just trying to find myself.” You probably aren’t going to like yourself once you find yourself! They say, “There’s something missing in my life.” Of course! God’s missing! You weren’t made to live and go through life just on your own power.

He gives you a future And what is that? That’s a home in heaven. Most people hope they’re going to heaven, but they’re not sure. Most people think if you do more good in your life than bad, maybe God will grade on a curve and say, “Alright, you can come in.”

Wrong! It doesn’t work that way. You won’t get into heaven on your own power because you’re just not good enough. In the Bible, heaven is a perfect place -- free of sorrow, suffering, and sin. That means only perfect people get to go there. If God let imperfect people into heaven, it wouldn’t be perfect any more. And that leaves me out and it leaves you out, too.

There’s only one way you can get into heaven: on somebody else’s ticket. Since none of us are perfect, God came to earth in human form. And who is that? Jesus Christ, our Lord!.

He lived a life of perfection.
He died on the cross, paid for our sin, and then went back to heaven.
Now you get into heaven on his ticket -- if you believe in Him.

Have you (H)eard (seen) the good news? Have you (B)elieved in Him? After believing, have you (R)epented of your sins? Have you (C)onfessed that Jesus is the Lord (meaning you're going to submit to Him and His will for your life (surrendering)? Have you buried your old life in the Lord in (B)aptism (buried in the blood of Jesus; under water)? Are you (L)iving Christ-likeness?

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23, NIV)

Now, remember, it’s a gift. That means you can’t earn it, you can’t work for it, you can’t own it in any way other than accepting it. You're not "baptized" to earn your salvation! I surely hope you didn't give you life to the Lord in baptism "by works"!

Do you think anybody you know would be interested in that? Of course!

Satan has fooled you. You think that none of your friends or the people you work with are interested in hearing the Good News. You’re wrong. The world is hungry for Good News. They’re looking for it. The Good News keeps sounding better and better because the bad news of the world keeps getting worse and worse -- so go out and share it! I mean, really!

Otherwise, when the time comes, God will ask this simple question: What did you do with my Son, Jesus?