The text this morning is the first seven verses of Isaiah 43.

But now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called

you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia, and Ciba in exchange for you.

Because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you peoples in exchange for your life.

Fear not for I am with you.

I will bring your offspring from the east and from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, give up and to the south.

Do not withhold.

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called

by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

More and more over the recent months, years, I think,

the staff, the pastoral staff have been increasingly burdened with the urgency of local evangelism, telling

people about God and sin and Christ and faith.

No matter what part of our faith we focused on, no matter how we've conceived of Christianity, what

angle we've come at it, the Bible has sent us right to evangelism every time. Let me illustrate. If we focus on Christianity as a life of love, you should be loving people.

Well, immediately the Bible shows us that you just play in games if you say you love somebody when you just do nice things for them and you don't show them the way to get right with God and avoid destruction and have eternal glory.

You call that love is just not reasonable. Or if you consider Christianity as say fulfilling the commands of God that's what my

Christianity is I obey God well then all of a sudden the Bible directs you to commands like make disciples of all nations or rescue the perishing and so immediately your Christianity

means evangelism again. Or if you focus on that dimension of Christianity that says

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