Preached by Chris Broom, 2/17/2008

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James Smith (center) gets baptized

Building a Great Church, part 4 – Great Conversions – Outline

To build a great church, there have to be great conversions. It has been very exciting this week, as Kierre was restored at our Sunday Worship Service, and then Roy was baptized at the leader‘s meeting that same day. Lisa was baptized at the Latino Bible Talk on Tuesday night and James was baptized at Men‘s Night Out on Wednesday. We truly believe that Anyone can become a Christian … Anytime … Anywhere!

In Acts Chapter 8, there are two great conversions that we are going to talk about in the message. I hope you will listen to the audio sermon above, and that by listening, God will give you great vision for your life!

1. Simon the Sorcerer.

Considered himself to be someone great.

He believed and was baptized!

Anyone can make it. Anytime. Anywhere.

Steve Johnson, who leads the Portland Church has told me many times that he has never studied with anyone that he didn’t believe could become a Christian. We need to have that kind of faith for the people God entrusts to us.

Simon followed him everywhere. Now that’s the heart of a disciple (a learner and follower).

Satan knew how to get him. He went after him with his old temptation … Power! Do you know yourself and your sinful nature well enough to know how Satan will go after you? We need to know ourselves that well, because we know that Satan does.

Peter protected the ministry by telling Simon that he had no part or share in it because his heart was not right before God. Not everyone can have a share in this ministry. We must protect the church. God will reveal hearts and motives.

People will fall away. People make their own decisions. We need to do our best to love and help people, but when they fall away, we can‘t take it personally as if we are the ones that decided to walk away from God. Satan wants Christians to feel guilty and lose heart so that they will give up, or at least stop trying to help others become Christians.

Instead of owning up to their own sin, people often blame other church members for their decision to leave. When we stand before God, I don’t think he is going to let us blame others for the fact that we did not obey him ourselves!

2. Ethiopian Eunuch

Philip could have said no to the Angel of God that prompted him to go to share the gospel with the Ethiopian. He could’ve been cynical and thought, “Why preach if people are just going to fall away anyway?” He could have lost his faith and he could have become gun shy. If he had, the Ethiopian might have never been reached out to.

God wanted this important official to hear the message. Many times we are afraid to share our faith, and when we do share, we are afraid to share with people who intimidate us in a worldly way. Hillary Clinton was reached out to twice recently by Angelica Robles of the LA Church.

The Ethiopian is humble and asked Philip to teach him about Jesus.

The Ethiopian is baptized.

Close: Anyone can become a Christian … anytime … anywhere, but only if we are willing to go anywhere, do anything and give up everything to see that they get the gospel preached to them.

Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes:

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

We are not promised tomorrow. Gayle Dubowski was among those killed in the massacre at Northern Illinois University. We thank God that Gayle was a disciple of Jesus Christ, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Dubowski family. So many die everyday without knowing the love of God, and the Bible teaches us that they are the ones who have no hope. It is a sad truth that in our day, a gunman could open fire and take the life of anyone, anytime, anywhere. Let’s strive with all our hearts to get to people with the gospel before someone else gets to them with a gun.

Chris Broom

Categories: Building a Great Church, Sermons
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