"Sharing Jesus' Love With Others" | June 14, 2026 | Ps Joel Lowery

There's something transformative that happens when we truly encounter the Holy Spirit. It's not meant to stay contained within the walls of our hearts or our churches. Like water filling a vessel until it spills over the edges, the presence of God in our lives is designed to overflow into the world around us.

The early church understood this instinctively. When the Holy Spirit descended on Pentecost, the believers didn't gather in a circle to admire the experience or write blog posts about their feelings. They immediately went out. They moved toward people. The Spirit, by His very nature, is missional - always sending, always reaching, always drawing people toward the Father.

Seeing People, Not Projects

Before we can share the good news with anyone, we must first learn to see them. Really see them.

Jesus modeled this perfectly throughout His ministry. He noticed Zacchaeus when everyone else walked by, looking straight ahead. He saw Bartimaeus when the crowd told him to be quiet. He recognized the woman with the issue of blood in a pressing throng of people. He stopped for the Samaritan woman when cultural norms said to keep walking.

The Holy Spirit helps us develop this same vision - the ability to see beneath the surface, to recognize the iceberg below the waterline rather than just the tip showing above. When we walk in step with the Spirit, we begin to see people as God sees them: not as projects, statistics, or evangelism targets, but as beloved children desperately in need of hope.

This is where mission truly begins - not with a program or a script, but with genuinely noticing the people God places in our path. The Spirit will often point you toward someone before He speaks through you to them. Pay attention to those moments when someone keeps crossing your mind or appearing in your path. That's rarely coincidence.

Love That Transforms

Seeing people is only the beginning. The next step is loving them - and sometimes we need the Holy Spirit's help to do even this.

Our natural tendency is to judge people based on their actions, their choices, or their differences from us. But the Spirit creates something supernatural within us: compassion that defies logic. You might find your heart breaking for a complete stranger, someone you would never normally approach or befriend. That's the Spirit at work, turning your heart toward others the way God's heart is already turned toward them.

Romans 15:13 captures this beautifully: "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

Notice that word: overflow.

When you're genuinely filled with God's presence, you don't need a training manual on how to love people into the kingdom. It just happens naturally, like sharing your favorite restaurant with a friend. Nobody has to teach you how to recommend something you genuinely love. The enthusiasm is authentic, the recommendation sincere.

The early church was known for its generosity, hospitality, joy, and love. Jesus Himself said that the world would recognize His disciples by their love for one another. Not by their arguments, their theological precision, or their social media presence - but by their love.

Love must lead in everything we do.

Speaking With Spirit-Given Words

Eventually, there comes a moment when we must actually speak. The bumper sticker alone won't save anyone. Acts of kindness are wonderful, but at some point, words become necessary.

Peter's sermon on Pentecost is remarkable not just for what he said, but for who said it. This was the same man who had denied Jesus three times just weeks earlier. He hadn't attended a seminar or completed a training program. He didn't have time to craft the perfect message or research his audience. He simply opened his mouth, and the Spirit gave him the words.

Jesus promised His disciples this very thing: "The Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said" (Luke 12:12). The Spirit has always empowered ordinary people - Moses who stuttered, Jeremiah who was too young, Gideon who felt too weak, Peter who had failed spectacularly. God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.

You don't need all the answers. You just need your story. Revelation speaks of overcoming by the word of the Lamb and the power of testimony. People can argue theology all day, but they cannot argue with what God has done in your life. Your transformation is evidence of His goodness.

Whether your story involves dramatic rescue from addiction or the quiet faithfulness of walking with God from childhood, it matters. Some testimonies shout of deliverance from the pit; others whisper of preservation from ever falling in. Both glorify God. Both point to His goodness in the land of the living.

The Invitation That Changes Everything

Finally, we must invite. Not manipulate, not coerce, not guilt - invite.

God's entire relationship with humanity is built on invitation. "Come, follow me." "Come to me, all who are weary." "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."

But we must be clear about what we're inviting people into. Peter didn't sugarcoat his message on Pentecost. He called people to "repent and be baptized" and to "save yourselves from this crooked generation." The invitation wasn't just to feel loved or belong to a community - though those are beautiful byproducts. The invitation was to turn from sin, receive forgiveness, and be transformed.

This is good news precisely because it offers freedom. Freedom from bondage, from generational curses, from destructive patterns. But that freedom requires repentance - a genuine turning away from the old life toward a new one.

A cheap gospel that says "bring your sin, Jesus doesn't mind" helps no one. The true gospel says, "Come as you are, but don't stay as you are. Be transformed."

Beggars Finding Bread

An Anglican bishop once said, "Evangelism is simply one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread."

We're not called to be the smartest, most talented, or most extroverted person in the room. We're simply called to share the food we've found with other hungry people. We're called to overflow what God has already poured into us.

Most eternal decisions hang on simple invitations. Invite someone to coffee. Invite them to church. Invite them into your home. Invite them into spiritual conversation. And ultimately, invite them to bow their knee at the cross and follow Jesus.

The kingdom is always at work. The question isn't whether God will do something. The question is whether we'll participate with Him.

Will we see people? Will we love them? Will we speak? Will we invite?

The Spirit is ready to empower us for all of it — if we're willing to overflow.