What needs to happen if I want to be saved?

Answer:

In our services, we generally leave open an invitation to those interested in being saved to come and make their desire known. It doesn't have to happen at a service; in fact, most of the time it doesn't. We just prefer to make the most of every opportunity.

When the gospel message appeals to a person, what happens next depends on where a person is at in his relationship with God. If a person is unfamiliar with the Bible, I will sit down with that person and study basic principles with him from the Bible. My goal in those studies is for the person to see for themselves what God wants them to do (I Peter 4:11). Some of that basic information that deals with the subject of salvation can be found in the Notes on Salvation. In addition to this, I usually cover the basics of understanding how the Bible is organized, how to determine what the Bible is saying to me, how the early church was organized, and how God wants to be worshiped.

If a person understands part or all of this, we start with where he is at and continue from there. You can see this same method used in the examples recorded in the book of Acts. Peter's audience was convicted of their sins and believed the message that Jesus was the Christ. In response to their question of what they must do, Peter told them what the next steps they needed to do. "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:37-38). When Philip taught in Samaria, he had to cover the nature of the church and the authority of Christ. "But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized" (Acts 8:12). But when Philip encountered the Ethiopian eunuch, he had to start with an explanation of who was Jesus. "So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth." So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?" Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him" (Acts 8:30-38). Each audience required a different starting point, but they all ended with the same finish.