Lots of conversations were had this weekend at the Lake Stevens Aqua Fest.
Calvary Chapel Lake Stevens sponsored the FGBA God Mobile booth, ("Are You Going To Heaven, Two Question Test"). I was SO impressed by my brothers and sisters from church who spent time in the booth, speaking with people. God gets all the glory!
There are obviously, tons of details I'm leaving out; having spent over eight hours a day, for two full days out at the festival. Out of the dozens of conversations, I only saw a couple people who displayed any kind of contrition for their sin, and one person who displayed genuine glee at hearing the Good News, but there were lots of people who heard the Gospel.
I was astounded (in a good way), by what God had in store for us.
The main event so-to-speak was when a mom asked me to tell her and her little son Liam what they needed to know. At first I thought she was joking, but she wasn't. She gave me as much time as I needed to share the Gospel with her and Liam. I left the onus on the mom to read the Bible and pray with her son to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
Ron, Thomas and I went to the Mill Creek Festival today. we handed out several hundred Gospel tracts between the three of us. I preach walked the entire length of the festival. I felt the victory was that even though a festival official told me to stop preaching, I told her I would not stop preaching, but I was going to walk out of the festival.
Then we found a spot at the outskirts of the festival and handed out tracts and preached the Gospel many times each.
Many people were encouraging but there were a few hecklers.
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Here is my message...
Hi Friends, my name is Keith and I’d like to share the Gospel message. The Gospel is good news, but before I get to the good news, I have a stern, but caring warning. I am absolutely terrified for your life. Your life is in serious jeopardy because of your sin. The Bible says the soul that sins shall surely die, and the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you die with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will receive eternal life, paradise, the kingdom of heaven. But, if you die without Christ, you will received a just recompense of reward for every transgression and disobedience; Are you committed to your sin? Are you that devoted to your sin? Is it worth your very life, even your eternity? Come to your senses, for heaven’s sake. Think about; what your sin is good for; NOTHING. Ditch it. Get away from it. Renounce it. Don’t make sin your pet; it’s your enemy; in fact it’s your worst enemy. Your sin will turn on you. It will be the death of you. I urge you to deny yourself the pleasure of your sin… Yes, sin is pleasurable for a season, that’s what the Bible says, but what will it profit you if you have a whole lifetime of pleasure from sin, but you lose your own soul. Do you really want to sell your eternal soul, for the pleasures of a temporary sin? It’s not worth it. The punishment for sin is hell and that’s forever. I don’t want you to go there; I don’t wish that on my worst enemy, let alone my friends. For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world, but that that the world, through him might be saved. I'm not here to accuse you. Where are your accusers? Well we all do have Ten accusers standing over us, glaring at us. Shouting guilty, guilty, guilty. They are the Ten Commandments. They show us what we’ve done wrong; where we’ve fallen short. Oh you may be able to say you haven’t broken all of them in deed, but the bible says whoever keeps the whole law, and yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking all. Here they are; listen to them:
You shall have no other gods before Me, says the LORD. - has God always been your utmost priority in your life? God doesn’t want to just be on the top of your list, He wants to be number 1 on a list of 1, nothing else should even compare to your love and devotion for God.
You shall not make a graven image (an idol) to worship it. - you know what? You don’t have to make an idol with your hands, it’s much easier to just make an idol up in your mind. If your God is not the God of the Bible, you've made an idol.
You shall not use God’s name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.
Honor your father and mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not lie.
You shall not covet (desire) your neighbor's stuff.
I’m not here to condemn you. If I were to say, “You’re going to hell because you committed a lie, or you fornicated or a you stole or you hated or you disrespected your parents”, I’d be wrong in doing that; why? Not because those sins don’t deserve hell, they do, but it's wrong for me to condemn you because I don’t have knowledge of whether you will repent of those sins and trust in Jesus Christ for your salvation ultimately. I don’t know whether or not you’ll receive forgiveness. I just don’t know your future. Of course, if you reject Jesus and refuse the only salvation that God offers, and die in your sins, God will measure out justice. But it's wrong for me to condemn, because I don’t have knowledge of the future. It's also wrong to judge (in the sense of condemning) because I have no power to cast anyone into hell. Matthew 10:28 says, “Do not fear men who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him (God) who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” So, don't fear me, I don’t have any power to send anyone to hell, but it isn’t even my intention that anyone end up in hell. The Bible says God himself is patient, longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Since God who is Holy and Righteous and Just is patient, long suffering and not willing that any should perish, shouldn’t I be also? Flee for safety from the judgement to come. Run for the shelter, to Jesus Christ for salvation.
