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You should know how to present the gospel. Here’s an example.

God is love. Any sin is rebellion against God. God is also just. That means He must judge any sin. So, if you ever told a lie, even a little one, God must judge you. If you ever took something that didn’t belong to you, God must judge you. If you ever hated anyone, failed to love every person as much as God loves every person, had a sexually impure thought, wanted what someone else had, disrespected your parents, or did anything wrong, God must judge you. Judgement is hell, a terrible ongoing punishment.

God loves you more than you can imagine. He doesn’t want you to go to hell. He wants you with Him in heaven, and He wants to be your friend right now. The trouble is that your sin has made you His enemy. You were born in sin. Everyone is born that way. God wants to set you free from sin, and He has a way.

Your sin broke the law. If you were in court, and the judge said, either pay a six million dollar fine or go to jail, you wouldn’t be able to pay the fine. You would go to jail. If the judge was just, like God is just, he couldn’t let you go. But someone else could pay your fine. God loves you so much that He paid your fine for you by sending His Son, Jesus, to be born as a human, be tempted as a human, never sin even once, and then suffer and die in the most unfair way to pay your fine and set you free. He died for your sin. He rose again from the dead, overcoming death for every person who will receive His free gift of life and righteousness.

Now, your loving God is asking you to accept Jesus Christ into your heart. As He speaks to you through these words on this page and you hear His voice, you can receive what He says. If you do that, you will find faith forming in your heart. You will know Jesus died and rose again to set you free from sin and death. You can confess that you have sinned against God and tell God you accept the work Jesus did to forgive your sins. When you believe and confess in this way, Jesus is formed in your heart. You are born again. You are taken from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God.

Ask God to answer these questions.

1. How do you feel knowing that God loves you so much?
2. Have you ever done something wrong that you now understand as sin? How did you feel about it?
3. Why do you think Jesus was willing to die for people’s sins?
4. What does it mean to “accept Jesus Christ into your heart”?
5. How does it feel to know that God wants to be your friend and take you to heaven?

Bonus questions:

1. If God is speaking to you, how can you listen to Him?
2. How would you explain to a friend what Jesus did for us?
3. Do you believe God wants to set you free from sin? Why or why not?
4. What would change in your life if you were part of God’s Kingdom?
5. How do you think you can grow closer to God every day?

EXERCISE

The exercise is to close your eyes and imagine yourself talking to a friend, having a conversation with give and take where you talk and you listen to your friend. As you have this conversation, you go through each of the points below and explain the gospel to your friend in a respectful and reasonable way.

Below is a five-step guide to presenting the gospel. When you present the gospel, you need the Holy Spirit to guide you and empower you. That means you don’t follow a script unless the Holy Spirit gives you the script. The five points below are the five most important points to understand. They aren’t meant to be a form that supersedes the leading of the Holy Spirit.

1. What sin is, how it separates you from God, and the nature of holy justice and judgment.
2. How God’s love moves Him to redeem you from sin.
3. How God paid the price for your sin through Jesus Christ.
4. Explain pardon and removal of sin: a new creation.
5. The Father draws; Christ authors faith (believe); Faith gives access to grace; Grace confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior from sin.