Out of God’s great love, He created a world that was good. He made people to enjoy a deeply connected relationship with Him and to represent Him through our lives. (Genesis 1:26-28, 31) As a loving Father, He communicated boundaries to protect us and to allow us to fully enjoy our relationships with Him and with other people (Genesis 2:15- 16).

Yet, when we look around our world, brokenness and evil are everywhere - war, famine, disease, and corruption. If we are honest, we also see brokenness and evil inside ourselves- deceit, hatred, greed, lust. This is because we have rejected God’s design and chosen to follow our own way. Our rejection of God and His ways is what the Bible calls sin. (Romans 3:23) Our sin results in separation from God, which the Bible calls death. (Romans 6:23a) Unless our sin is forgiven, we will remain separated from God forever.

God does not want to leave us in our sin and brokenness! God graciously provided a way to forgive our sin and freely give us eternal life - a life connected to God now and forever. (Romans 6:23b; John 17:3) God’s only Son, Jesus, died in our place. He took upon Himself the penalty that we deserve because of our sin. Then, Jesus rose from the dead and forever defeated the power of sin and death. (Romans 5:8, 1 Corinthians 15:3-5)

We respond to Jesus by believing in Him for the forgiveness of our sin.

Believing in Jesus means that you no longer try to earn God’s approval through what you do, nor deny that you need forgiveness and rescue. Instead, you accept God’s free gift of eternal life. Belief or faith is simply being convinced or persuaded that something or someone is trustworthy (John 1:12; Ephesians 2:8-9).

Everyone who believes in Jesus is forgiven of their sin and receives eternal life. We can now know God personally and experience the life we were designed to live (John 3:16-17).
Have you believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? Have you put your trust in Him alone to be reconciled to God?

Everyone who believes in Jesus should then grow in their relationship with God. We grow by knowing God more deeply and living more like Him personally.

We begin to know Him and we become like Him by following His way of living (Ephesians 4:15).

Followers of Jesus have the great calling and opportunity to go into the broken world to share the love of God and the good news of the gospel message (Matthew 28:19-20).

“Yes.”

• Ask: “Tell me about that. When and how did that happen for you?” Try to discern if the person trusts in anything other than Christ alone.
• Move to Grow and Go

“No, but I want to.”

• Affirm their decision to believe and help them to tell God in prayer of their belief in Jesus.
• Example: “Thank you, God, for loving me by sending your Son Jesus to die for me. I believe in His life, death, and resurrection to rescue me from my sin and spiritual death. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me the free gift of eternal life.”
• Welcome them to the Family of God! “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13
• “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
• Move to Grow and Go

“Not Sure” / “Not Yet” / “No.”

• Ask: “What is keeping you from trusting in Jesus?”
• Try to discern their willingness or unwillingness to believe.
• For those willing, help answer their questions if possible.
• For those unwilling, offer to pray for them and talk further at another time.