How Your Life Can Help Change Someone’s Eternity

Pastor Chris shows how every believer has a God-given role in impacting eternity. Rooted in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 and the Great Commission, this message reveals how a changed life becomes a powerful witness that God uses to reach others. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/19118132

Key Points:

1.  You Have Been Changed by Jesus – 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us that in Christ we are made new, no longer defined by our past but transformed for a purpose 
2.  You Have Been Given a Message to Share – 2 Corinthians 5:18 and Matthew 28:19 call every believer to carry the message of reconciliation through Christ 
3.  You Have Been Sent as Christ’s Representative – 2 Corinthians 5:20 shows we are ambassadors, representing Jesus in how we live and speak 
4.  You Participate in What God Is Already Doing – 2 Corinthians 5:19 and 1 Corinthians 15:58 remind us that God is already at work and invites us to join Him 
5.  Your Life Can Change Someone’s Eternity – Romans 10:14 and John 3:16 highlight the eternal impact of sharing the gospel with others 

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:
 Pastor Chris connects this message to real-life opportunities where simple acts of faithfulness, conversations, and obedience can open the door for eternal impact in someone’s life.

Notable Quotes:
 “God did not just save you from something, He saved you for something.”
 “You are not just a believer, you are an ambassador.”
 “One conversation about Jesus can change someone’s eternity forever.”

Actionable Takeaways:
 Reflect on how Jesus has changed your life and who needs to hear that story
 Pray for one person God is placing on your heart this week
 Look for an opportunity to share the message of Christ in a natural way
 Take a step of obedience by engaging in a spiritual conversation

Scripture References:
 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 – New creation and ministry of reconciliation
 Matthew 28:18-20 – The Great Commission
 John 3:16 – God’s love and the promise of eternal life
 Ephesians 2:1 – Our past condition before Christ
 Romans 5:8 – Christ’s sacrificial love
 John 20:21 – Sent as Jesus was sent
 1 Corinthians 15:58 – Faithful labor in the Lord
 Romans 10:14 – The necessity of sharing the gospel

Keywords:
 disciple making, evangelism, gospel, new creation, Great Commission, Christian mission, sharing faith, reconciliation, eternity

Challenge:
 Ask God to show you one person this week and take a bold step to share the hope of Jesus with them.

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:20

Your life can change someone's eternity. You're like, I don't know if I can. I'm just a I'm just a simple person. I'm not perfect. I don't know what I would even say. And I've been doing everything I can over the last few weeks to show you how you can reproduce your faith in others, how you can take a new believer and train them up in faith, how you can lead someone to Christ, how your life can change someone's eternity. But God's plan wasn't just for you to get saved and then to grow in your faith on your own. His plan was that you would reproduce, that you would tell other people about Jesus. Sometimes in the church we surround ourselves with Christian friends, and people literally say, I don't know any non-Christians that I could talk to about my faith. But if you pray about it, if you prepare yourself, if you get a gospel tract, I put one in your bulletin. It's got a John 3.16 tract in your bulletin. And we've got these connecting with God booklets somewhere in my pocket here on the table there. You need to find a tool, a method, a resource that you can use so that you can help lead someone to Christ. But it is important that you are ready, get prepared, and then pray that God will give you an opportunity. And as you're out and about, think about okay, someone has just crossed my path. Is this a divine opportunity or just a coincidence? Yesterday I was out for a walk in the neighborhood and I'm walking along, and so one lady's sweeping and she notices I'm walking by and she said, Who are you? And I said, I'm Chris, and she's like, Chris, who? And then I explained who I am, and that I've actually lived in the neighborhood for four years, and that I'm the pastor of this church. And she's like, Oh, I know where that is. And so we had a nice conversation, and so went further down the street. And out from the alley pops an older gentleman. Never saw him before, he never saw me before. I'm like, this is a beautiful day to go for a walk, isn't it? So we had a conversation again. I invited him to church, talked about faith a little bit, and so I actually left him. I gave him my card, told him you could call me if you ever needed anything, and went on my way. Will it ever amount to anything? I have no idea. Did I plant a seed? Maybe. Was it a God thing? Only time will tell. That's the way you need to live your life. Think about this person just crossed my path, or I'm sitting next to this person on this plane, or this is my coworker now, or they just moved my cubicle, or uh, I had to, I have a new locker now. You know, who's next to me? Who can I tell about Jesus? Who can I share my faith with? Because that's how the Lord has intended us to live our lives. The culture that we live in today, not very studious. Some people are, but most people aren't. I mentioned, I think, last week, that maybe one-third of people don't read another instructional book after they graduate from high school or college. So we're trying to get Christ's followers to become studious Bible readers. And many people struggle with that. The Holy Spirit can motivate people to study the Bible and to read the Bible. But I'm promoting this How to Find God New Testament, because it's got all the notes throughout the whole thing to help a sincere person find Christ and get online to start living for Christ. And so some say that the living Bible became the new living translation. It's just a paraphrase, and that's not really how it worked. One hundred Bible scholars from places that we like took the Old Testament and New Testament manuscripts and turned it into a dynamic equivalent translation so that people can read it and know how to apply it. People can read it and say, Oh, I understand what that means. And so we promote it, as do many fast-growing churches that are making a difference in the world. So there are all sorts of good Bible translations. And so I don't know which one you have. It's probably a good one. In front of you is the NIV 1984. You can't even get those in print anymore. There's now the NIV 2011. There's the English Standard Version, there's the New American Standard Bible, there's the New King James Version, there is the New Living Translation. Those are all good ones. And you actually should have many of them. You can have them on your phone, on your computer. You can buy them. And if I have time, I might even show you a couple features of a couple different Bibles that are helpful. But nonetheless, my point in this short message is that I need you to get engaged and start following Jesus in such a way that we all make an eternal difference. So I'm a pastor of a church. I can't win everybody to Christ on my own, nor can I disciple everyone on my own. I can do everything that I can do with the resources that I have to reach as many people as I can with the time that I have. One-on-one discipleship with a bunch of people, I wouldn't have time to do that. I wouldn't have time to do everything. So I pray and I look for resources and methods, and I find things that work for me in my context. And you need to find things that work for you. Maybe you join a social club, maybe you get involved as a volunteer, maybe you do something in the community, and your purpose is one, to help the community, but two, to be available to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Because you want to do anything that you can to have an opportunity to tell people about Jesus in the hopes that they will turn from sin and turn to Jesus and follow him for the rest of their days, because you know that your life can change someone's eternity. Again, what works in your context? So our crew over here does an awesome job of recording what's going on here right now. And it goes on YouTube, and the church has a channel and everything. And I am finding that if I take the audio of this, edit it, and put it online, we call it well faith with Chris Tyan, that there are many listeners. So on average, 300 people will listen, or 300 listeners will listen to this message in the coming week, which is more people than we have in these seats right now, which is good. And because it's edited once, it's easy to put out there and got a system, and it's partly because these guys do such a good job that making a difference that way, getting some responses. And now the newest thing is I found by putting short videos on YouTube. We have some on the church channel, but on a second channel under my name, that it's been picking up speed and getting lots of listens and comments, and a few comments even included stuff like, Thank you, I needed to hear this, or I believe this, thank you for reinforcing that, or thank you for saying that clearly, or whatever. Now, my hope is that they would come to church and sit here. But my bigger hope is that someday when my life is spent and I'm standing before Jesus and He's judging us for what we did with our lives, that we would find that we made a difference in people's lives. And that would be good. So that's something that I can do. That's something that's already happening. So I've just chosen to extend it. And what can you do? How can you do it? And my first question, my first point, these points aren't going to be very long, is have you been changed? My point says you have been changed, but my question is, have you been changed by Jesus? So in this short series on discipleship, we looked at first, are you a follower of Jesus in week one? And then week two, we looked at who is God calling you to walk with. And week three, we asked, we asked, is my faith actually multiplying in someone else's life? And so now we want to put that into action so that you can see yourself as Christ's ambassador. So let me just get the context of this real quick. This isn't on the screen, but just to put you in line with what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. The verse on the screen is going to start in verse 17, but let me just read you 14 through 16. So here's what Paul says. Either way, Christ loves. Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we all have died to our old life. He died for everyone, so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view, how differently we know him now. So that's the context that this is in. Just think about that. So we don't see people as a human in the human point of view from their status, their career, their education, their height, their attractiveness, whatever. We see them as somebody who needs Jesus, as a soul that needs saving, as somebody who may be able to glorify Jesus with their days on earth and spend eternity in Christ's presence if they place their faith in Christ. And that is so exciting. So then Paul continues on to verse 17 that says that means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, the old life is gone, a new life has begun. Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, a new creation, the old life is gone, a new life has begun. So that means that they weren't just reformed, they weren't just changed, they have become brand new on the inside. The Holy Spirit is now empowering them. They're following Jesus, they're rooted in Jesus. And the things of the past are pushed aside. Your past no longer defines you. Your failure, your regrets, your mistakes no longer define you. It's not a behavior adjustment, it's not self-improvement, it's a new life in Christ. And I hope that you can look back if you've received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and grown in your faith. I hope that you can look back on your life and think about how much your life has changed. So watching some of those crazy sci-fi shows where they talk about an alternate universe with another you, I always wonder, huh. I wonder what kind of villain I could be. I wonder how wicked and messed up I would be if Jesus wasn't in my life. But he is, and my life has changed. And when you think about that, think about how much someone else's life could change. If they became a new creation, if they came to Christ. Ephesians 2.1 says, you were once dead because of your disobedience and your many sins, but now in Christ you're made new. And so we live a life that makes a difference. And people, many people are under conviction that they know that something needs to change. They know something is missing, and they don't know what it is. And you have the solution, you have the answer. It is Jesus. Some people get confused though with the message of Jesus and think, okay, I just need to clean my life up and then God will accept me. I just need to do the right things. I need to become one of those church people, and then I'll never have any fun again, is what many people think. And that's not it at all. Matter of fact, a lot of people think that if they're going to go to heaven, that'd be boring because I don't want to sit on a cloud strumming a harp all day. That doesn't sound fun to me. And these are things that people are people literally tell you they think. And that is not the way it is at all. Matter of fact, for the believer in Christ, when you die, you will immediately go to be in the presence of Jesus. So I like to say that heaven is where Jesus is. But you can read the Bible and look at all sorts of wonderful things about the future and a bodily resurrection and the heaven and everything else. But most important thing is that when we go from this life, we go to be in the presence of Jesus. And so that's what we have waiting for us. But our purpose and God's plan for us here is that we are ambassadors for Christ. Wherever we go, whoever God puts us around, we may have the opportunity to make an eternal difference because your life can change someone else's eternity. Number two, you have been given a message to share. You have been given a message to share. It is a great message. Somebody said the best way to think about the message is like one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. So the message is not that you gave your life to Jesus, you studied a bunch of stuff, you become morally pure and perfect in every way, and you've achieved it, you've done it. That's not the message. The message is that Jesus has paid the price. Jesus has made it possible for you to have a new life, for you to be forgiven of your sin and reconciled to God, and that will start everything brand new. And you don't clean yourself up before you come to Jesus. Jesus cleans you up as you walk with him. And that is a good thing. That's a message people need to hear. It's not about their perfection, it's about starting to walk with Jesus and wanting to follow his ways and to learn his ways. Of course, you will study the Bible. Of course, you will want to learn how to follow Christ. But I do believe that when you're truly in Christ, the Holy Spirit motivates you and gives you a deep hunger to know and to learn the things of God. So 2 Corinthians 5.18, Paul writes, and all after being a new creation, and all of this is a gift from God who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him, a task of reconciling people to him, of making peace, of helping make peace between people that are far from God and God who can't stand sin but has made it possible for us to be forgiven, for us to uh accept the price, the sacrifice that Jesus has paid. And that is so important in that newness of life to take up that task, to say, I am so glad that Jesus is in my life. I just can't help but tell people about my faith in Christ. And Satan does everything he can to try to shut you down. So he'll try to pull up your past because he's the accuser. He will accuse you, he'll bring up the stuff that you did in the past, he'll tell you you're not good enough, he'll tell you that he saw you in your temper tantrum today or um before church or whatever, and he'll try to make you feel like you're not good enough. But um, it's not your goodness that brings people to Christ. It's Jesus' goodness, and that is a good thing. The core message or the beginning of this series has been because Jesus told the disciples and told us to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and I'll follow that, teaching them to obey everything. And so this is our task, this is our duty, this is our opportunity. So after three weeks of this, or after all of your time in church, or after all of the years you've had, what is your method? How would you do it? Jude 23 talks about rescuing people from the flames, and so I like that. It makes a good Christian t-shirt too, by the way. But if you have an opportunity to help someone come to Christ, and you're good, you're close, you're good friends, they'll listen to you. What is your method? How are you going to help them start to follow Jesus? I am trying to give you simple methods. Was it not last week, but the week before? I walked you through what's in the uh Navigators Lessons and Assurance book, and that is a good book. I've got some in my office there. Uh that is a good method. And so I'll show you some more methods in just a minute here. But Romans 5.8, God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Were we perfect? No. Were we not sinners anymore? No. God knew that sinners would need salvation, and he sent Jesus, and that is our message. Number three, you have been sent as Christ's representative. You have been sent as Christ's representative. So, again, verse 20. We are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead. Come back to God. So I guess I say again because I had a really great message on this in August of 2023. You can find it online. But I listened to it yesterday while I was on a walk. Many times when I go for a walk, I have one earbud in and I'm listening to an audio book or something else while I'm walking along. That allows me to hear anybody around me, then I'd say, hey, in which I can talk to them, or yeah, or I can hear cars and things like that too, to stay safe. But Christ ambassador, and then that message I mentioned that I met some people from the embassy in Chile when I was on that missions trip, and that their job is to represent their country, to represent the United States of America to the people and the businesses and the politics and everybody in the country of Chile. And so that's what they do, and that is what they're tasked for. And you would not hire anybody to be in that position that was not excited about their country. You would hire somebody that was excited about telling people about the United States of America and how we can be helpful and how we can work together and all of those things. And so it is a good message to listen to if you want to hear more about this topic. I included from 2 Corinthians 5.14 through verse 21 that we're motivated to go to the people because of Christ's love, that we value all people as Christ does, that we offer new life in Christ. We bring peace to those who will surrender to God. We live as ambassadors wherever we are. We pray for opportunities and success, and we seek to raise up more workers and ambassadors. So you can, like I said, you can listen to that or watch it. I guess it's on YouTube too. But do you see yourself as Christ's ambassador? Do you see yourself as Christ's ambassador to Evelith, to Virginia, to Mount Nairn, to Gilbert, to Bewabik, to wherever you're from, to Brit, uh, all of those places. Maybe God is going to use you to do a great thing. Number four, you participate in what God is already doing. That's a good way to live, is to think about, okay, what is God doing and how can I get involved? So, verse 19, for God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them, and he gave us the wonderful message of reconciliation. So God is at work, and we want to be a part of what God is doing in this work. We want to pray that the Holy Spirit gives us the right message, gives us the right thing to say, gives us the right opportunity, gives us the right words to bridge the conversation. You can start from anything from beautiful weather to God's creation. And all sorts of other things. Or smoky or whatever. Fishing, when guys wear their Vietnam or World War II hats or whatever, you can ask them. Thank them for serving and ask them how they served, and they'll love to tell you how they served and what they did. And those are all good things. But to be involved in what God is already doing and to use the resources that are around you. We are so blessed that we have 2,000 years of scholarship resources for the New Testament. There are so many tools, so many resources that you can use. And again, you just need to find the one that works for you. So I'm going to give you four that if you got together with me, I would say that maybe if you're an audio listener or a good reader, that you should invest in these, and this will help you to grow in your Christian life. My suggestion for new Christians. Okay, so number one, what every Christian should know by Greg Lori. Super simple. Definitely tells you how to start living the Christian life. You can listen to it on Audible. There used to be a Christian audio, but no, they're no more. So you can't buy things on Christian audio anymore. You can also get it on CD, I think, but that's a good one. 30 Days to Understanding the Bible by Max Andrews is really good too. That is great. Pace yourself to get through it. And then the Life Application Study Bible. This one's a little thicker because it's the large print one. But this Life Application Study Bible comes in a lot of different translations. So this one's the New Living Translation. You can get it NIV, English Standard Version, New King James, King James, New American Standard Bible. But it has all sorts of notes that when you read through it, it looks at the passage, maybe tells you some historical background, but its purpose is to tell you how you can take this passage or these passages and apply it to your life, to put it in action. Not just I'm increasing Bible knowledge, but I okay, what do I do with this? Is there something for me to apply to my life at this time, or was this just for those people at that time? Really good tool, one of my favorites. And then there's another one called Christian Theology for People in a Hurry by Daryl Aaron, which is really good. So it's simple, but it explains a lot of systematic theology stuff in a way that you can understand. It's not huge. It's probably if somebody gets saved today, they probably don't need to listen to that tomorrow. But as they've you know gone through nine 30 days to understand the Bible and whatever Christian should know, that would probably be another one. And I have lots more, and but I'm not gonna share those. But I would share the This is an interesting Bible because this is also a New Living Translation, but it's called the Filament Bible. So, what you do is you take your phone and you scan the page number, and then it goes to the online Bible commentary resources that are tied to the passages on that page, and then you can look at study C maps and all sorts of things. And that's for somebody that's kind of technological, it's a great way to have a paper Bible and also to get some resources that help along the way. Another, not expensive, another good study tool that could change someone's life. Because again, I don't want to be pragmatic, but I really think that we need to get in gear and start to change the world because we're losing ground. So lots of people are pushing away any religion. Now there's competing religions everywhere. 1 Corinthians 15, 58. My dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. Think about that. Okay, you planted the seed, you talked about Jesus, you prayed for people, you said you were available, maybe you even bought them a Bible or gave them one of the How to Find God New Testaments, which is also first-tier resource to give to somebody because in the beginning it makes it really clear on how to live the Christian life and what the Bible is, what prayer is, all those things. And maybe you take your new believer and you both take the How to Find God New Testament and you look at the index and you look at the cornerstone list and you start to read through that together, or you say, Hey, let's read through this and talk, get together and talk about it. But these are less than four dollars each, the best resource out there, especially for giving away. All right, number five, again, your life can change someone's eternity. Your life can change someone's eternity as you are Christ's ambassador. What will you say? What will you do? Again, so many resources, but maybe even you just take the first Bible verse you ever memorized and you use that to tell people about Jesus. So I gave you this tract here on John 3.16. And so basically it just takes the words and then has a little explanation. And so you don't actually even need to have this in your hand, but just think about, okay, you got this verse memorized, maybe you write it down on a napkin so the person can see it as you follow along, or maybe you just quote it and talk about it. And so here it talks about for God, and then it talks about how salvation began with God. So you have the tract, you can read it. I'm not gonna read the whole thing to you, but so you can explain love, God so loved the world, what that means. What does it mean for God to show love to the world? Who is the world? Does that mean everyone? Yes, it does. That he gave, talking about giving gifts, his one and only son, how important that is, the sinlessness of Jesus, that whoever whoever, again, that would mean the person you're talking to, means you too believes in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life. And you talk about all of those things as their resource. And then, so there's a lot of online pushback against the sinner's prayer. And I'm thinking about writing my own article about it because I'm kind of tired about it. I do believe that the sinner's prayer, if you just say the words of a prayer, it's not magically gonna save you. But if you lead somebody who wants to come to Christ to say a prayer of commitment, and maybe they follow along, maybe they don't, but a prayer of commitment that acknowledges that to Jesus or praying. Praying is talking to God, that they're a sinner and they realize that Jesus died on the cross and he rose again, and that through faith they can be made right. And they want that. They want to turn from sin and turn to Jesus, and they express that in their own words. Billy Graham did a really good job of coming up with a follow-after me prayer. And here on this Bible track, too, it says, In your own words, if you want to receive him today, carefully read and think about the scripture verses quoted above, then talk to God in your own words, confessing to him that you're a sinner in need of salvation. Thank him for sending Jesus to take the punishment for your sins, for the sins you do, for your sins. Yeah, put your total trust in what he has done, ask him to save you, and he will. And if they do that because they want Christ, the most important reason that is important for salvation, that is important for the person's walk with Christ is because now they've made a decision, they've made a commitment, and now you start your discipling process. Now you say, So you just receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and they're like, Yeah, I really want to follow Jesus. And then you show them how. You show them how to get started, you show them how they can know for sure they're saved, and all of those things. Romans 10 14 says, How can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? How can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? You are the one to tell them. Quick questions. Number one, am I truly in Christ or just around him? Is there real evidence of new life or have I settled for outward religion? Two, is there any sin I need to confess and turn from right now? Have I been ignoring something God has already made clear? Number three, am I living like someone who has been reconciled to God? Do my attitudes, words, and actions reflect a restored relationship with him? Four, who is the one person God has placed in my life to reach? Have I been intentional or have I been silent? Five, am I faithfully representing Jesus in my everyday life? If others watched my life this week, would they see Christ clearly? Six, am I stepping into what God is already doing or holding back? What is one step of obedience I need to take this week? And seven, am I grateful for the gospel or have I grown overly familiar with it? Does the cross still move me to worship and praise?