What's your gameplan to win yourself to Christ?

I want you to, on a paper, list your closest friends.

Next to their name, write where they are at with Christ. Are they a Christian, not a Christian, a Christian who doesn’t live it out, etc.

Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Day in and day out, it is so ingrained in us to look out for you and you alone…no one else matters. You are the only that matters.

That view, however, is not God’s view. Time after time, Christ looked out for everyone else first. Just look at what He did on the cross. He didn’t do that for himself – who would? He did that for us!

However, in order for us to reach out to our friends and be a witness to them, we have to first win ourselves to Christ. We have got to be the person God desires us to be before we could ever lead anyone else to where God wants them to be.

How do you do that?

Think of it on these lines… In order to be great at sports or in a musical instrument what steps must be taken in order for that to happen?

You need to:
Get the right equipment
Get training & practice
Go out and perform

Scripture:

How do we win ourselves to Christ?

Get the Right Equipment:
Get a Bible (or open it), get a notebook and Staying close to Christ (Matthew 6:33)

Get Training and Practice:
Being in Community of Believers (Acts 2:42-47)
- You get training in practice in a community where you are taught and encouraged to do as others are. The 1st Church Community was the perfect example
- We have that opportunity here to be a Community of believers committed to Christ 1st then each other 2nd
- Look at the people around you. We are all here because we know people and desire to be with them.

Think of the impact you can have on each other’s lives by being committed to Christ 1st and each other 2nd. With Christ as our source of strength and each other to rely on, we could immeasurable things for Christ and for others.

Go out and Perform:
Remember when you 1st committed your life to Christ – the joy and excitement you felt. How you were unafraid of what people thought of you? We cannot forget our first love (Revelations 2:2-5)

We were unafraid then, we need to be unafraid now and make the most out of the opportunities that are before us.

My small group has been going through Acts lately and the 1 thing that has stood out to me above all else is the fact that the believers made the most out of their opportunities:
- When the Holy Spirit came upon them all in Acts 2, people were saying that they were drunk and a bunch of idiots. But Peter got up there and shared the gospel with them all. What happened because he acted on his opportunity? 3,000 people were saved
- When a Blind beggar asked Peter and John for some money, Peter said, “I don’t have any money for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6) He took that opportunity and ran with it. What happened? Many people began asking questions about Jesus and wanted to know him.

God will bless us when we take the opportunities before us and run with them.

Why should we act on these opportunities? Because we are so in love with Christ that that love compels us to share about him.

We cannot forget our first love!

In order to be effective in reaching others for Christ, you have got to win yourself to Christ.

Application:

True or False: “You can only take others as far as you have allowed yourself to go in Christ.”

It’s true. We can’t take people past where they are if we haven’t allowed Christ to be that in our life.

So the question is - Is your faith worth imitating? (1 Corinthians 4:16)

We have got to take hold of our faith and win ourselves to Christ first and foremost before we can win others.

Let’s start imitating Christ and others that have gone on before us like Peter and Paul.

Let’s stay close to Christ, never forgetting our first love. Let’s fully commit to Christ ourselves so that we can win our friends to Him.

Write down 1 thing you are going to do this week to help win yourself more to Christ