[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], August 2020]
So you’ve received the gift of the Holy Spirit, what next? Well Jesus told his followers to go and tell others about him, to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, and to be good news to everyone.
Is that what is happening?
We are continuing our series looking at not only how we become a Christian but what happens when you become a Christian. Last week we were looking at the fact that when you become a follower of Jesus Christ, when you welcome Jesus into your heart that’s exactly what you do. You you have the gift of the Holy Spirit, you have God himself living within you.
[00:38] I don’t know if you’ve heard the saying “healthy things grow” and we see that in all parts of nature, you know, healthy children grow, healthy plants grow and likewise healthy things reproduce. We decided we were going to grow some tomato plants; at the beginning of lock-down I bought some tomato plants from the garden centre but unfortunately I went and killed them, I put them out in the frost. My wife got a tomato from the fridge, took out the seeds and we’ve now got 13 healthy tomato plants, each of which is growing its own crop of tomatoes.
[01:16] Jesus said something very similar about those who follow him – that healthy followers of Jesus Christ reproduce and actually if the word sinks into their heart, if they accept Jesus as Lord, then they will produce a harvest far, far bigger than humanly possible.
[01:39] Healthy things grow but the reality is when we look at the state of the church in the UK you have to kind of come to the conclusion it’s not very healthy because it’s not growing. In fact, it’s doing the opposite. As a whole, the church in the UK is dying and the church is only as healthy as the individuals that make it up.
[02:10] In Israel there is a sea – it’s called the Dead Sea and it’s called the Dead Sea because, well, it’s dead really. It’s so full of salts and minerals that nothing can live in it and the reason why it’s like this is that the river Jordan that flows into it has good water that brings lots of minerals into the Dead Sea but there’s no outlet. It can’t go anywhere so it just sits there and the only way it can get out is to evaporate.
[02:51] That’s not all that different to how some Christians can be. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, if you make him Lord of your life you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You receive so many good things. You could read your Bible from cover to cover, you could listen to as many sermons as you could possibly fit into every hour of the day but if you have no outlets, if you don’t share the good news of Jesus Christ with others, if you don’t tell them about the enormous difference that Jesus has made in your life then you will have no outlet and you will find that, actually, you just start to die on the inside.
[03:40] Jesus said these words, found in John chapter 7 and verse 38. “Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures have said, streams of living water will flow from within them.” Streams of living water. That’s the complete opposite to the Dead Sea, the complete opposite of what is happening to a follower of Jesus Christ if they don’t share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. My question for you is, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ are you sharing the good news of Jesus with others through word and deed, are you ministering through the power of the Holy Spirit, or are you dying a little bit each day from the inside out?
[1] YouTube link: How Do I Become A Christian? Part 3
Bible references: John 7 v38
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Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
