In this powerful message, President John K. Jenkins, Sr. shares the heart and mission of Converge: building a culture of evangelism and discipleship across our churches. He calls every leader and member to embrace the mission of winning people to Jesus—not as a program, but as a lifestyle. President Jenkins challenges us to equip and mobilize our movement so that every church becomes a place where lives are changed through Jesus, person by person, worldwide.

Transcript

President John K. Jenkins: Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Keep going. Good morning. Thank you for being here. Thank you for coming. Thank you for participating. Thank you for being a part of Converge, and to our guests, thank you for coming and sharing with us. Let me pause and salute and celebrate the pastor of this church and the chairman of the board of Converge, Pastor Darryn Scheske. Let’s celebrate him. God bless you, brother. It’s my joy and delight to be working with you. So thankful for you and your beautiful family, your beautiful bride. You know, we know you are who you are ’cause of who you are married to, so we celebrate her.

I want to celebrate and thank Pastor Linn Winters, who has put together this training for us. I’m gonna salute pastor and his team. He brought 30 people from his church to put this on, and I want you to just help me celebrate the Cornerstone Church leaders. I’m honored to be the President of Converge. This is a delight and I want to celebrate and acknowledge some of the team that makes this happen. Our chief operating officer is Tim, standup, Tim Ponzani was so grateful for him. Pastor Mike Henderson. Michael Henderson is Vice President of National Ministries. I don’t know if Rodney is here. Our CFO, Rodney Williams, he was here. I don’t see him. Ivan Veldhuizen, our International Ministry Director. They make it happen, so I’m very grateful for them in all of their service. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for the privilege and the opportunity to share with the people of God. I pray that you would anoint us to be your mouthpiece, your conduit, your instrument. Pray, Father, that by your power and might that somebody’s heart will be challenged, convicted, converted, encouraged, and that your name gets all of the glory and honor. In Jesus’ name, amen.

If you have your Bibles, I’m gonna be reading from Acts chapter 13. I want to encourage you to turn to Acts chapter 13. If I was going to title this message, I would title it the most critical yet neglected message of the church, the most critical yet neglected message of the church. That’s what I would call it. Acts 13, I wanna start reading in verse 13, it says this, verse 13 of chapter 13. “Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. and after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying, ‘Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.'” Y’all, get the picture. Paul and his team, his crew of folk, his entourage, go into a synagogue, one particular Sabbath day and they sit down and after the reading of the scriptures, they ask, see, we got some guests here. Y’all got something to say, stand up and say it. We used to do that at our church. We don’t do that anymore. ‘Cause you never know what somebody might be saying. And in verse 16, “Then Paul stood up and motioning with his hands said,” verse 16, “‘Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen:'” And then for the next 25 verses, Paul preaches a sermon. Ain’t that’s something? You ask the person to just greet the people and then they go forth and preach a sermon. And that’s what he did, he preached a sermon. 25 verses, he goes on preaching this sermon, and then something unbelievable happens, something startling, something amazing happened. Y’all supposed to say, well, what did he say? What happened? See, I’m gonna have to coach y’all along on this here today. An amazing, phenomenal, unbelievable thing happened. And to hear what happened, I want you to slide down to verse 42. In verse 42, it says: “So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles beg that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.” Y’all missed it. The man preached. They only asked him to say a word of encouragement. He preaches a sermon. When he finishes, the scripture says, the Gentiles said, “Can you come back next Sabbath and preach that same sermon?” Now, I’ve been preaching a long time, 50 years. Go ahead. Look at your neighbor, say, “You don’t look so young, pastor, you do look so young. You don’t look that old.” I’ve been preaching for 50 years. Rarely has anybody asked me to preach the same sermon. I feel that if it is okay for the choir to preach the same song over and over again for them to sing, it is okay for the pastor to preach the same sermon every now and then. Do I have any pastors that say amen to me with that? I have preached your sermon before, what I’m getting ready to tell you today, I have preached it before. Matter of fact, I’ve been preaching it all over Converge because I have a mandate, I have an assignment from God. I have a call from God, I have an anointing from God, a gift from God, a challenge from God. He has challenged me to challenge Converge. This is why God put me in this role, is to try to bring our churches back to a place of doing something that we started doing, that we’ve avoided doing, that we’ve escaped from doing. And I feel God is anointed and called and empowered and challenged me to do this. Somebody say, amen.

Amen.

Are y’all with me so far? Have I lost you yet? I feel God has assigned me, given me this assignment to try to call out church back to doing something. As a matter of fact, I know we talk about unity, we do talk about unity and unity’s important, but you know, you can break up unity pretty quickly by getting into divisive issues. But I’m here to say to you today, we can help overcome those divisive issues by getting on the same mission. Somebody say mission. When we’re on the same page, headed in the same direction, trying to accomplish the same things, working in the same way, we can avoid division and disunity by being on the same mission. And that’s what I wanna talk to you about today because Paul preached and the people said, “Can you come back the next Sabbath and preach the same thing?” It’s because Paul had a mission with what he said. As a matter of fact, then something else amazing happened. Something else amazing happened.

What happened?

There you go. I’m hoping that somebody would ask me. I gave you the space to say, come on, tap me up, bro. You’re with with me. I’m proud of you. The next amazing thing happened right here in verse 44, look at verse number 44. “On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God.” That’s amazing. Almost everybody, that’s how we would say it in our church, almost everybody. Almost the whole city came to hear the Word of God. What did the man say that they asked him to preach the same thing, what did he say that it caused almost a whole city to come together to lay down whatever they were doing and almost everybody came? Here’s what he said. He said something that’s not being said in churches today. He says something that we are avoiding to say. We are scared to say, we’re not promoting it. That’s what I want to talk to you about. I’m not gonna preach long. If you jump on board quick, I’ll be finished sooner than quick. Come on, hold on, hang with me for just a second. He said something that caused almost the whole city came and they said, “Can you come back and preach the same thing again?” We are not doing it today. We’re doing a lot of stuff in church. We’re saying a lot of things. We’re motivating people. Yes, we are helping people get better in certain ways and certain things, but we are not saying what Paul said. That’s what I want y’all to ask me. I’m trying. Y’all are picking up what I’m talking about. Y’all got what I’m saying? He said two things that I want to highlight for just a moment that was so important and so critical. As a matter of fact, I’ve learned to say these things and I’ve been saying these things and the stuff that I learned that Paul said, I’ve been saying. And when I’m saying, you know what has happened? I’ve been the pastor of my church for 36 years and in the last 30 years, I cannot remember a Sunday that nobody responded to the gospel. I cannot remember a Sunday when nobody walked down the aisle and said, “I want Jesus to be my Lord,” in 30 years. Go ahead. Lean over to your neighbor. You know what you wanna say? I wish I had that at my church. Go ahead, say it. But I’m getting ready to tell you what he said. He said some amazing things. Because I’ve learned we’re doing a lot of stuff. We are helping people be better Democrats and better Republicans, but we’re not helping people become better disciples. We are teaching people about woke, but we ain’t waking nobody up to be saved.

Are y’all with me? Have I frustrated you yet? Have I irritated you yet? Have I made you angry yet? I’m working. I’m trying to get it. What did he say? I know y’all want to know. I’m about to get there. I’m about to go. Let me tell you what he said. I’m gonna show you what he said. I want you to go to verse number 38. Here it is. I want you to incorporate this in your church. What he said is so amazing, so fantastic. Here’s what he said. Verse 38. Here’s what he said. Here’s what we are not saying. Here’s what he said. Verse 38, “Therefore,” verse 38, “let it be known to you brethren that through this man,” talking about Jesus, “this man is preached to you,” here it is, “the forgiveness of sins.” Oh yes, lemme get the deal straight here. We are telling people a lot of stuff, but we are not telling them that they can be forgiven of their sins. And that’s what Paul said. That’s what he said in front of them. That’s what he preached and declared to them that through Jesus Christ, you can be forgiven of your sins.

Here’s one thing that I recognize and I know. When I stand up and preach, back, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I forgot to tell you. Look at the person next to you. Say, I know something about you. Go ahead, tell him I know something about you. Look at the person on the other side. Say, you didn’t have to tell me, but I know something about you. You know what I know about you. You know what I know about every person in this building. I know that somewhere during the course of your last 24 hours, in the last week, the last few days, you have done something in your life. You’ve said something, thought something, wanted something, went somewhere, desired something that you need forgiveness from God for. Oh, don’t act like y’all dot every I and cross every T, that you ain’t never tried, never wanted, never did, never thought, never. There y’all go, acting like y’all ain’t done nothing. Some of y’all want me to sit down. You desire for me to shut up and sit down, but I ain’t stopping yet. I’m here to tell you that we’ve all done something. Regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of the your educational level, regardless of where you live, regardless of the size of the house, regardless of how high you’ve climbed the ladder of success, you have done something for which you need God to forgive you for.

And you know what forgiveness means? I’m glad you asked the question. Forgiveness has a twofold meaning to it. Number one, it means to be pardoned. It means to have the debt canceled out that you owe. It means to be released. It means to be released from the guilt and the shame and to be pardoned and excused from whatever you thought. Whatever you did, whatever you went, whatever you wanted. It means you can be forgiven. That’s the great news of the gospel, that the gospel gives you the ability to be forgiven of your sins. I mean, I don’t know where you are, but I’m so thankful that God has forgiven me of my sins. As a matter of fact, I try to tell people, I try to tell the members of my church, when you talk to people, don’t tell ’em what they can do and what they can’t do, ’cause that’s what we do in church. We tell people where they can go, where they can’t go, what they can say, what they can’t say. I tell ’em, don’t do that. Don’t tell ’em what they can and cannot do. Tell them that no matter what they’ve done, God will forgive you. That’s how you get your children saved. That’s how you get your cousins and uncles and jacked up jokers in your family saved, you tell ’em they can be forgiven. That Jesus has made it possible and worked away for your sins to be forgiven. Forgiveness not only means to be pardoned in counsel, it also means something else. Forgiveness means to be free, free from the guilt of your sin, free from carrying the shame and the guilt. Freedom, it means to be free from the power of sin. That’s what forgiveness means, that God breaks the power of sin off your life.

Y’all might as well tell the truth. You couldn’t stop sinning before you got saved if you tried. You have tried, you did try, but when you accept Jesus, he gives you a power that you never had before and the ability to be forgiven. And so Paul stood up and made the declaration that there can be forgiveness. Doesn’t matter what your economic status is, your educational achievement, your political posture, it doesn’t matter, you can be forgiven. And I don’t know where y’all are, but I thank God that he has forgiven me of what I’ve done and what I’ve said. And every Sunday, every Sunday, it doesn’t matter what I’m preaching about, before I get to the conclusion of that message, somewhere during the courts of that message, I make the declaration that you may have violated everything I just taught. But guess what? There’s a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emanuel’s veins that sinners who plunge beneath that flood can lose all of their guilt and stains.

Somewhere during the course of that message, I make the declaration that you can be forgiven. And you know what the good news is? The people come running to Jesus. Let me tell you the second thing he said, then I’ll be finished. That’s all I need is somebody to say is for me to take my time. He not only preached and told them about forgiveness, but in verse 39, he said this: “And by him,” speaking of Jesus, “everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Ooh, that’s powerful. Justification to be justified, what does that mean? I’m glad you asked the question. I used to teach that justification meant that God treats you just as if you never sinned. That was my definition of justification. But as I delved a little deeper into the the meaning of the word justification, I came to a different conclusion. Justification means a little bit more than God treats you as if you never sinned. Here’s what it means. Justification means this, that God renders you innocent and holy. Y’all miss a great spot to say amen. That God declares you innocent and holy. I don’t know what y’all know what that means. That means that I might not look holy, but God has the capacity that when God looks at me, he makes me holy. Oh, y’all, ooh, I feel like shouting and running around the building right here when I think about the fact that he makes me, he renders me, he makes me innocent and holy. Here is a God who’s holy himself has the ability to make me acceptable to a holy God. That blood of Jesus washes me and cleanse me and brings me into a posture of being before God. That makes me wanna run around, that makes me want to leap and jump and shout just to think that I can be made holy before a holy God. And you know what’s great about it? I didn’t get holy by sacrifices, not by indulgences, not because I worked, not because of religious activity, not because I got baptized, not because I sing in the choir, not because I’m an usher, not because I paid my tithes and offerings. I got there because I believed in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

Ooh, I am preaching better than y’all are saying amen. I’m making myself feel like shouting right here, right now. When I look and think of the goodness of Jesus and what he’s done for me, I’m not holy. I mess up, I think wrong, I do wrong, but I can shout and run around and celebrate. You know why? Because we serve a God who will forgive me and then make me holy simply by my faith in the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to remind yourself of that. When you talk to some unsaved person who doesn’t think about Jesus and doesn’t think about church, doesn’t want to go to church, I want to encourage you and challenge you to say to them that one day they’ll have to stand before God and give account for what they’ve done. They’ll have to answer a holy God and whether they know it or not, one day they will have to respond and give an account for their behavior. But the great news is they can be forgiven. I’m almost finished. This has become a mandate. This is my assignment from God as the leader of Converge to wake up our churches back into evangelism and discipleship. That’s what I’m working on. That’s what my assignment is. That’s what my call is. That’s the thing I’m bringing back to challenge our churches to do. A lot of our churches don’t even open up the doors to give people the opportunity to get saved. I want to challenge pastors, you have a responsibility to give people the opportunity to respond to the gospel.

At the First Baptist Church of Glenarden, where I’ve been blessed to be the pastor for, this is my 36th year at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden. Go ahead, lean over, look at your neighbor. Tell him he don’t look 36 years old, right? I’ve been the pastor for 36 years. We have built a culture of evangelism in our church. That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s the program, that’s the mandate that I’m bringing to Converge. That we build a culture of evangelism. What does that mean when you say a culture? It means that everything that we do is pointed toward the mission of winning people to Jesus and discipling people. That’s what we are about doing. Winning people to the to accept the Lord and be committed. Matter of fact, you cannot be a leader at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden. You can’t lead nothing. You can’t be the head of the ushers. You can’t be the lead dog catcher. You can’t clean the toilets unless you can demonstrate you could win somebody to Jesus. We have 400 employees. You cannot even work at the church until you can demonstrate that you can win people to Jesus. I wonder if anybody walks through the doors of the First Baptist Church of Glenarden, I don’t care who it is. I wanna be able to turn to the receptionist who’s answering the phone and say to that receptionist, “Take this person and lead them to the Lord.” I want to be able to say to the janitors, “When you finish cleaning in the toilets, go take that person, help them clean up the stuff in their life that ain’t quite right.” Thank all five of y’all for that rousing in there. It’s a culture. When I open up a meeting in our church with my leaders or with the staff, the first thing I ask them is tell me some testimonies among you all. Every meeting, it doesn’t matter. Every meeting I say, tell us some people that you’ve led to the Lord. Who’s on your list that you’re praying for to get saved? Who is it that you’ve led to the Lord? Who’s on your list, that you have interceded for them to get saved? It is a culture that we have. It is a culture of winning people to Jesus. And we are gonna be telling you about in just a few moments about the program that we are training pastors. We are now training pastors in our movement to be able to train other pastors, to be able to share the gospel and build a culture of evangelism. By the way, one day, all of us are going to have to stand before the Lord and you know what’s gonna happen? He’s gonna wanna know who have you led to the Lord. It is a culture of evangelism and discipleship that we are seeking to win people to the Lord.

Let’s pray.

Father, I thank you. I’m grateful for your love and kindness to us, that you have forgiven us of our sins, that you have justified us from that which the law could not justify us from. I pray today, Father, now in Jesus’ name, that you would help us leaders and as a movement, that you would cause our movement of churches to be excited about the mission and being united with winning people to Jesus is my prayer. I pray heavenly Father, that you would put a hedge of protection around every heart in every life. That we would remember these two critical, vital points that we would begin to speak these things to our relatives and our coworkers, and our friends and our neighbors, and tell them that they can be forgiven and justified and let us preach it in our churches. In Jesus name, amen.