Please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 16. Matthew 16, verse 18. And I say, also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Let's again look to the Lord. Lord, we come again with the belief that your ear is open, that your heart is open as well. You also have an open hand. You love to give good gifts to your children. And so we come with confidence. We come in the name of your son. We know, Lord, you have even said whatever we ask in his name we shall receive. And so we ask in the name of Jesus that you would give us the help we need. We want to live the Christian life in a more faithful way. We want to be people whose lives shine bright with the truth of holiness. And so we plead, Lord, that you would visit us tonight. We know if you are not here, we meet in vain. And so we covet this more than anything else. We covet your presence and the help of your Spirit, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. When you think of something that excite you or put you on the edge of your seat, stirs up the emotional juices, what comes to mind? A blockbuster movie, a sports team, a last-minute touchdown, July 4th fireworks, maybe it's a hunting trip, a fishing trip, maybe it's a famous place, the Grand Canyon Yellowstone National Park. Now I wonder how many Christians get excited about God and His church. Isn't that the place where people fall asleep? Listen to long, boring sermons, crying babies, they argue over the color of the carpet. But if you're thinking biblically, that really shouldn't be where your thoughts go. There should be a sense of excitement when we think of God and His church. The story of the Christian church is really an amazing story. who would ever have dreamed that it would be what it is today when you think back 2,000 years ago to the very first time that the word church was ever used. It's used here in Matthew chapter 16 by the Lord Jesus, Jesus the carpenter turned preacher, standing in front of a bunch of misfits or ragtag followers And he says, I will build my church. At the time, he didn't have any money to even build a straw hut. He couldn't have equipped his disciples with a new pair of sandals. There wasn't a big crowd standing in front of him, not one brick, not one steeple. And yet he says, I will build my church. And he's not thinking here of a local church. This is one of the rare places in the New Testament where the word church is used in a universal sense. He anticipates the worldwide church, or his church having a global presence, bigger than the presence of any American corporation. And since Jesus spoke these words, church growth has exploded. The most dramatic has been over the last 50 years, more than the previous 2,000. they say. Yet the church, it does appear, is shrinking in the West. It's hard to find a robust Christianity, a clear distinctive witness of a growing church. Dr. Philip Raikin, in a book titled, The City on a Hill, reclaiming the biblical pattern for the church in the 21st century, believes that we are living in post-Christian times characterized by relativism and radical individualism. He believes that we are in trouble, and that America is not as strong as far as its evangelical witness as she once was. There's something of a weakening, even a dying, of the church. And that perhaps explains why it does appear that more are asking the simple question, not only what makes a church a church, but what makes or constitutes a healthy church. And that's a question we've been asking and seeking to give some definition to that very question we have come up with six answers so far. We said that a healthy church is a place where the Word of God is faithfully taught and preached. We said a healthy church is a place where the gospel is cherished and practiced. We said that a church, a healthy church, is where God is the main attraction, His glory, His name, and His kingdom is the great focus. A healthy church is where people are committed. A healthy church is where people love one another and care for one another. And the last time we said a healthy church has a right view of leadership, recognizing, learning, and supporting its leaders. Well, tonight we come back to the question again, what is a healthy church? And I think this is going to be the last time we ask the question, at least in this series on the church. And we're going to answer it this way. A healthy church is evangelistic, or develops an evangelistic culture. And here's the arguments I'm going to use to follow and make the case for that assertion. Number one, the pattern for the church. Number two, the image of the church. Number three, the mandate given to the church. And number four, the purpose of the church. Well, let's then consider these four things in light of this matter of what is a healthy church. And we're saying that a healthy church is evangelistic. Number one, we can say that, I believe, in light of the pattern of the Church. When God made our first parents, Adam and Eve, He gave them a pattern, didn't He? A blueprint for life. And He Himself set the pattern. God worked six days, and God rested on the seventh. Adam and Eve were to regulate their life by that pattern. They were to work six days, and they were to rest on the seventh. He also gave them a pattern for marriage. That was clear by the fact that he made Adam first and God clearly told them that the relationship of marriage would be one that would be clearly distinguished by intimacy and unity. The two shall become one flesh. But God very clearly established patterns. He gives a blueprint for life to our first parents. He helps them understand how they are to live. It wasn't as if they had to think it out all on their own. And we could say the same about the church. God gives us a model or a pattern, a blueprint, to tell us how the church should be ordered, how the church should be run. And it shouldn't be run like a local sports team or a corporation. No, the church should be run according to the Word of God. And when it comes to matters like evangelism, we ask the question, where do we see the pattern established? And we can start off with Jesus himself. Jesus had a burden for lost sinners. Jesus even defined his mission in life in these terms. Luke chapter 10, the Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost. We constantly see Jesus engaging lost sinners. We see that in John 3 with a man like Nicodemus. We see that in chapter 4 with that woman at the well. We see it in chapter 10 of Luke with a man by the name of Zacchaeus. And it's clear that Jesus wanted his followers to embrace that mission of reaching the lost world. He sends out the twelve. He sends out the 70 to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. So even Jesus himself sets the example, his disciples, for us to follow. Maybe this is the most important thing to ask or to think about when we think about evangelism. We need to have something of the Savior's heart. His zeal for God's glory in seeking and finding lost sinners. If there ever was a soul winner, it was Jesus. He was the best evangelist there ever was. He was constantly building bridges, overcoming obstacles to talk to the unconverted. We see that again in John 4 with that woman. We see it again with Nicodemus. If you read through that whole section of John chapter 3, where he has that conversation with Nicodemus, it appears that John 3.16, that great gospel text, was preached to Nicodemus. Jesus sets the pattern. We can ask ourselves the question, are we being like Jesus? When we speak to our family, our friends, maybe our unconverted parents, an unconverted wife or husband or children, what about the occasional strangers, the store clerk, the bank teller? Jesus made sure that he got close to people. He interacted with them face-to-face about the deepest needs of their soul. He is our example in everything, even in this matter of evangelism. But it shouldn't surprise us, should it, that when we open up the book of Acts to look at the church, that it is following in the footsteps of Jesus and his disciples. We could turn to Acts chapter 2, for example, Acts chapter 2, where we get our first snapshot of the early church. Here's a passage we've gone back to several times. We see a committed church. They continue steadfastly. We are told in Acts chapter 2, verse 42, but notice verse 46 they continue daily with one accord in the temple breaking bread from house to house they ate verse 47 praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved So obviously evangelism was going on. We see the early church engaged in what could be called organized evangelism or intentional evangelism right from the get-go. It's interesting, even while there's a strategic plan, an approach that comes through again and again in the book of Acts we could call organized evangelism, there's also unorganized evangelism taking place. what sometimes have been called providentially inspired evangelism. One of those incidents is in Acts chapter 2. You might want to turn there and see for yourself. Here's a man by the name of Philip. It doesn't appear he was a formal preacher of the gospel but a church deacon but this man engages in evangelism verse 26 notice how it starts off Acts chapter 8 now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza this is desert so he arose and he went and behold a man of Ethiopia a eunuch and we're told in verse 29 The Spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake his chariot. Verse 30, so Philip ran to him, heard him, reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, do you understand what you are reading? Clearly a providentially inspired event. God's at work. God's moving upon the heart of Philip, but also upon the heart of this Ethiopian eunuch. How many people do you run into or come across who have an open Bible? But in a desert of all places. Philip engages, does he not, in evangelism. We are told in verse 35, he preached Jesus to him. The man is baptized right there on the spot. That pattern continues. Acts chapter 13. It's a more formal context. Verse 32, we declare to you. glad tidings, Acts 14, verse 7, and they were preaching the gospel there. Acts 14, verse 15, we preach to you. Acts 15, verse 35, Paul and Barnabas remain at Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of God. Acts chapter 16, the apostle is strengthening the churches. They are increasing in number. He's preaching the gospel. in places like Philippi, chapter 17, another case where Paul goes, preaches at Thessalonica, then Berea, and then in Athens, he preaches to those philosophers, those Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, but again and again the gospel is being preached. And I should say this, it's not just the apostles, is it? And that seems to be the ones who are doing it the most. But if you turn back to Acts chapter eight, it's interesting here, something. of a different context. We saw Philip in the back end of that chapter, but look at the very front part here, the front porch of Acts chapter 8. We see the whole rank and file of God's people engaged in evangelism. The chapter opens up with a note of persecution. God's people are being uprooted from homes and villages, and Saul is on a violent rampage. Verse 4 tells us they are scattered. It sounds like a showstopper, doesn't it? Remember, this is in the aftermath of Stephen's martyrdom. That's followed now by this intense persecution. Sounds like two nails in the coffin of this new upstart religion. It can't survive. It's too small, too fledgling, too weak, too vulnerable. What would you do if your fellow Christians were being dragged off to prison? I'm sure like them you would run. You would probably also like them, not that all of them did this, but you would probably be tempted to hide and become as quiet as a mouse. But that's not what they do. This persecution becomes something of a launching pad for vandalism. Look at verse 4 of Acts 8. Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. The gospel goes further and further. Dr. Stott says, instead of smothering the gospel, persecution succeeded in spreading the gospel. Another man puts it this way, the wind increases the flame. But there's a pattern here, isn't there? The early church evangelized. Someone has given a different kind of title to the book of Acts. It's called evangelism in the hands of sinners. The face of persecution. These brethren didn't adopt what Dr. Stott calls a prudential silence, but they become even bolder. In fact, that's one word that will pop up throughout the book of Acts. They were emboldened. They spoke boldly. They spoke boldly. They spoke boldly. Today, we're told to bring the gospel to sinners in such a way to make them feel comfortable. Maybe it's because we want to feel comfortable too. But according to the book of Acts, expect opposition. Expect persecution. Didn't Jesus shape one whole beatitude with the concept of persecution? Blessed are you when they revile you and say all manner of evil against you. The devil doesn't want the church or the Christian evangelizing. And he will do everything he can to try and stop the church. But the church in the book of Acts appears to be unstoppable. And again, it wasn't just the apostles or preachers or missionaries in the full sense of that word, but it appears that everyone was sharing the good news. Again, nothing stopped them. Not even the worst of things, martyrdom or persecution. The pattern for the church. Secondly, in terms of arguing for a culture of evangelism and a church that is healthy will be evangelistic, the image of the church, the image of the church. Now we touched on this weeks ago, you might recall we examined several of the images, the more dominant images found in the New Testament, you might recall the ones we focused on were the body, the family, the bride, all of those images are rather comforting, no element of danger or threat, but we did mention another image you might recall, the army. Is that an appropriate image for the church? You might remember that we argued that it is, that there's such a thing as the church militant. In fact, historically that has always been understood or a given. We even have a hymn not the one we sang tonight, but onward Christian soldiers marching as to war. The church historically has been sacrificially aggressive. But that seems to be changing. Dr. Piper says, the evangelical church, if in the past was too confrontational in its evangelism The days are gone. The pendulum has swung in the other direction. We are quite as aggressive as our forefathers were. But it's interesting as the church, at least in the 21st century and maybe the back end of the 20th century, has pulled back in its more aggressive approach to evangelism, the world has become more aggressive. Have you noticed that? They become emboldened as we become less bold. But the answer isn't run and hide, is it? It's not make peace with the world, and we can certainly say that in light of what Jesus says. Go back to Matthew chapter 16. It's interesting, the very first time the word church is used, is used by our Lord Jesus, and he does put it here in a, you could argue, a military context. That's right, a military contact. Look again at the words of Matthew 16, verse 18, I will build my church and the gates of Haiti shall not prevail against it. The gates were the defensive portion of the city. That's the picture that I've always understood here, I think has been a little skewed. I always thought the church was sort of hiding behind the gates. And we're under attack. But that's not the picture. The church has gospel battering rams here. And we're attacking the city. And it's the devil and his army, if you will, that's behind the gates. They're hiding. We're on the aggressive here. The picture that Jesus draws here is not the church on the defensive, but we're knocking down the gates. The one other picture to give buttress to that militant element turned to Ephesians chapter 6. We looked at this, you might recall, where we're told to put on the whole armor of God. And again, a very familiar passage of scripture, but I do believe it has often been looked at through the eyes of radical Christian American individualism. That's not what this passage is teaching. It's like the Lord's Prayer. It's a call to battle, but it's jam-packed with plural pronouns. When you pray, our Father Jesus wants us to pray corporately. And this picture is a corporate picture. Notice verse 10 of Ephesians 6. He says, hear my brethren. That's a collective noun. He's speaking here to the church. Verse 11, you have second person plural pronoun. We are to put on the whole armor of God that you, plural, Church, you plural, will stand against the wiles of the devil. Verse 12, for we, another personal plural pronoun. The soldier here is not an individual Rambo-like guy. This is the church. The church. Yes, every individual Christian is engaged in warfare. We're involved in skirmishes every day, but the picture here is the army, an organized infantry, or phalanx of the congregation. It's interesting, when the Old Testament people gathered, and they often gathered because there were trumpet blasts to tell them to gather, and when they gathered, they gathered for two reasons. You know what they were? To worship. and to go to war. To worship and to go to war. When we gather on Sunday, are we worshiping or going to war? I guess you could argue both, right? It's a day of rest, but I do think someone's using the sword I think all our Sunday school teachers are picking up a sword and using that as they teach and instruct. The Word of God is likened to a sword, is it not? Here in Ephesians chapter 6. What about Wednesday night? Are we going to war? I said that recently to a young couple. I said, think of it this way. When your husband walks out the door, He's going off to war. Not for three months, but for maybe two hours. Can you think of the Christian soldier or the church going to war without praying? That's emphasized here, is it not? After he tells them what to put on, piece by piece, Closes it all off there in verse 17, take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. In verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. People have often said the greatest weapon we have as Christians is the weapon of prayer. We're fighting the greatest battle, brethren. We're fighting the greatest of enemies. And we have the greatest of weapons when we fight for men's souls. That's why on Wednesday night we pray for the unconverted. That's why we pray for the preaching or the missionaries and the Sunday school teachers who stand on the front lines on Sunday fighting the battle, picking up the sword. Prayer is not an easy thing, is it? Because we're engaged in a war. stepping on a battlefield, picking up our swords, picking up our shields. A healthy church is evangelistic. It seeks to reach the lost world. It has a burden for the unsaved. How can you be so sure? Well, the pattern of the church, the image of the church. But thirdly, thirdly, we can argue for a soul winning church or a church that fosters an evangelistic culture by considering the mandate given to the church. Let me ask you, what words did Jesus leave ringing in the ears of his apostles, the last final words? We often think of the last words of Jesus as the last words that he spoke on the cross, right? Well, those were the last words before he died, but there were words after that, weren't there? There were words that he spoke after he had rose from the dead, before he ascended to heaven. Those were really his last words. And what did he say? What did he say? Well, the Gospel writers don't let us miss what he said. In fact, five times, five times they tell us what he said. Matthew 28, Mark 13, Mark 14. summarized version there in those two chapters of Mark, but Luke 24 and Acts chapter 1, we have what is called the Great Commission. Turn to Matthew 28, it's probably the one that is given most attention because it's the most detailed of all the ones that we have recorded in the Gospels and even in the book of Acts, but notice here Matthew chapter 18, but it's given at least five times. That tells us something, does it not? Whenever you hear God repeating Himself, take ear of what He's saying. It's something very important. Someone has shaped the Gospel commission here by seven questions. That's a good way to look at it. Number one question. Who? Who stands behind the Great Commission? Well, it's Jesus. Verse 18, And Jesus came and spoke to them saying Jesus gives this mission to his disciples and it comes straight from his mouth. He wanted to give it directly face to face so they wouldn't forget. They often forgot what he said. Didn't they? At least before he died he told them he was going to go to the cross and they didn't listen. But they did listen this time. I mean the book of Acts proves it. They listened. But it's Jesus who speaks. Second question, why? Well, the Great Commission is given by Jesus. It's because Jesus has power and authority. Notice, he says, all authority have been given to me in heaven and on earth. This mission would be an absolute failure. The most foolish thing that we could engage in, if Jesus did not stand behind his words and the church with his power and authority, it would be crazy to witness. What right do we have to tell people they must submit to King Jesus? Well, King Jesus gives us the right. He has the right. He's the King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. Third question, what? Well, the Great Commission here consists of, you've got four action verbs, or four action words, verbs, preaching, teaching, making disciples, baptizing them. We could spend time opening up every one of those activities, but we won't. The fourth question, where? Where do you send them? Notice that it does say, we are to send. It doesn't say come and see, but go and tell. We can't simply wait for them to come. Now, sometimes they do come. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, but he doesn't say, wait for them to come, but go. Remember, he told his disciples to go into the byways and highways and compel them to come in. Fifth question, how? Well, it's dependent upon God, the triune God, the power of the Holy Spirit, the submission to the Son. We're dependent upon the Father. Sixth question, when? Well, right now. There's an urgency with the gospel commission. Go! And notice that Jesus tells them it's going to be a long time, even to the end of the age. The commission is going to take place until Jesus comes back again. Final question, or seventh question, to whom? to all the nations. It could be translated, all the people groups. It's a gospel for the world. It's pretty clear what we are to do. And it's His plan. The great comfort here, we don't really have to worry because Jesus says, I'm not going to ever abort the mission. I'm with you always unto the end of the age. But brother, if we had only this one command in the Bible, it would be sufficient, wouldn't it? God is giving us the privilege to be involved in the most glorious enterprise in the world. Even in our lifetime, if you've been here for any length of time, you notice the gospel is going further and further. We are praying more, brethren, than we ever have for places around the world. China. Ten, fifteen years ago, we didn't know anybody in China. Pakistan. India. The Philippines. Africa. Italy, Sicily? And while no one has been sent from here, we've certainly supported men who have been sent from other churches. The church is to be evangelistic. It's to cultivate a mission or a vision for world missions. We can argue that, brethren, from our Bibles. The pattern of the church, the image of the church, the mandate given to the church. But, fourthly and finally, the purpose of the church. What's the purpose of the church? Well, the purpose of the church is to glorify God, right? Ultimately, that's what you read in Ephesians chapter 3. The church is to bring glory to God. Dr. Piper says, missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. The ultimate goal is the glory of God, but then he says this, he says that the ultimate goal that we are to have as a church is to worship God. We were made to be worshipers, right? You can't glorify God unless you're saved, and you can't worship God unless you're saved. Evangelism is a means to an end. The end is worship. Worship. Bring glory to God. It's interesting, and I never thought of this before, but in Isaiah chapter 6, remember when he gets his evangelistic call or his mission call? The context, Isaiah has this vision. He goes into the temple and he sees the God high and lifted up. And he hears those creatures, those seraphim, praising God, holy, holy, holy. And then soon after he has that sort of overwhelming experience where he has a sense of his own sin and his own undoneness. God speaks to Isaiah the prophet and says, Who will I send? Who's going to go for us? Isaiah raises his hand and says, But what precipitated that? It was seeing God. God high in the sky. That glorious God, that holy God, the God in all His beauty, the beauty of His holiness. It's in the context of worship, you see, that Isaiah received this missionary or evangelistic call and has now this eagerness to go and bring the gospel to the world. that's what every evangelist or every evangelist or missionary should desire to bring the gospel to people so they will glorify God, that they will worship God, the God who made them, the God who saved them. I never thought of this either, but in John chapter 4, when Jesus speaks to that woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, he engages in one-on-one evangelism. He's seeking to bring that woman to know the Savior He puts himself, you might recall, under that beautiful image of water. John 4, verse 13, Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will never thirst again. He tells her that. That's a picture of himself. He puts himself under that wonderful picture of water. A fountain. If you drink of me, you'll never thirst again. But she doesn't get it. So what does he do? Well, he's tried the tender approach. We've been hearing a little bit about that in Sunday school. Then he does a tough approach. The tender was the gracious invite. Drink, drink of this fountain of water. That's a tender approach to evangelism. But that doesn't work. She's not listening. So he uses the tough approach. What does he do? He says to her, Go call your husband. What's he doing? He's using the law of God. He's probing her conscience. And she says, I haven't got a husband. And he says, you're right. You've had five, and the one you're living with now isn't your husband. He's using the sharp scalpel of God's law to expose her sin. She's an adulteress. He knows she's a serial adulteress. And it appears now she's listening, at least at some level. She's convicted and she begins to run. She bolts And it's interesting because she uses religion to run and hide, as it were. She changes the subject. She starts talking about worship. John 4, chapter 20. John 4, verse 20. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. And you Jews say in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. She's off topic. But is she? She thinks she is. She thinks she is. She thinks she's getting away. But it's exactly where Jesus wants her to go. Because that's her problem. She doesn't worship God. She doesn't worship God. She's been seeking to find her happiness in all other things. She's an idolater. It showed up in her broken cycle of failed marriages. She needs to worship the true and living God, and Jesus tells her as much, doesn't He? He says in verse 22, you worship what you do not know. And then He puts it positively, verse 24, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Jesus is evangelizing her. He tells her about her sin. What is he doing? Well, he wants her to become a worshipper. You see, that's the ultimate goal. You want to bring the sinner to a place where they see their need of Jesus. They'll be reconciled to God and begin to worship God in spirit and truth. That's why the church exists ultimately, brethren, to bring glory to God. Again, Ephesians 3. 21, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations. Let me ask you, is there anything more glorious than when blind sinners see God for who he is and begin to worship him? Is there anything more glorious than when a dead sinner is raised to newness of life and becomes a worshipper of the one true God? In the words of Isaac Watts, we long to see thy church full, right? So they will sing of thy redeeming grace. We were made to worship God. The goal of missions and the goal of evangelism is to bring glory to God so that sinners will become worshipers. And when a sinner gets saved, the focus shouldn't be upon the sinner, should it? It often is, especially when it's a celebrity-like person. Some famous person gets saved and out comes the microphone and the photo ops. An awful lot of attention is focused upon the sinner, but that's not really what should happen. This focus should be upon God. To Him be the glory. A healthy church is evangelistic. It has a burden for lost sinners. It wants to reach the unreached. How can you be sure? The pattern of the church, the image of the church, the mandate to the church, the purpose of the church. Let me simply close, brethren, by making or giving some encouragement to be evangelistic. Certainly, we can say, who is sufficient for such things? When it comes to evangelism, it's sort of like we feel the same way we do when it comes to prayer. Right? If you want to make Christians feel guilty, focus on either one of those issues. We haven't loved God as we are. And we haven't loved sinners as we are. We haven't loved the lost sinner. Now that's what lies behind the coldness, the apathy, the indifference, sometimes even callousness. Some would say that we need better methods. I think the answer is more profound than that. We need more grace. We need to have hearts with more love. Love for God and love for sinners. Here's a few things I would say in terms of developing an evangelistic mindset or keeping these things before our minds as Christian. Number one, to develop a culture here in our church. Remember what God has done for you. Remember what you once were. how you once lived, that seems to be the emphasis, or dominant emphasis, in some of the epistles written by Paul. He does that quite Clearly, in Ephesians chapter 2, you were once dead in trespasses and sins. This is how you once lived. You were alienated from God. You were once walking in accordance to the prince of this world. Romans 6, you were once under the dominion of sin. But God, we need to remember what we once were before God found us, before God saved us, before God brought the gospel to our ears in His kind providence. And if we think back, I'm sure most of us, if we think back to how the Lord saved us, or what he used to bring us to know himself through his son Jesus, most of us, I'm sure, could point to human instrumentality. Right? Maybe it was a dad, maybe it was a mom, maybe it was a brother, a sister. The Apostle Paul underscores that in Romans 9, how shall they hear without a preacher? God sends people, individuals, into our lives. Someone opened their mouth and told us about Jesus. Someone had the courage. Someone had the compassion to tell us about the Savior. I'll never forget. I was 60, lying in a hospital bed. Never saw the guy before. Never saw him again. Came in my room. His son knew me at school. Gordon, if you had died in that car accident, would you have gone to heaven? That took boldness, courage. I'm glad he asked the question. But God brings people into our lives. Someone, someone to tell you about Jesus. Don't forget what you once were, and how God in his grace, using human instrumentality of flesh and blood evangelist, told you about Jesus. Second thing, to cultivate an evangelistic mindset or culture, we need to keep our thoughts wrapped around eternal realities. Probably nothing deadens evangelism more, brethren, than this present world and its cares. We get so focused on the here and now, things we can see and things we can touch. And Paul could say, could he not meditate or think upon these things, things above, things of heaven? That's a wonderful thought. Think about heaven itself. There's another eternal reality. There's a place called hell. Jesus talked about hell more than he talked about heaven. Hell is a terrible place. If you believe in a place called heaven and a place called hell, you can't be silent. If we really believe there's a place of eternity, a place where we never die, a place where our souls live forever, a place where the worm dieth not. That's what Jesus said. A place of utter darkness. That's what Jesus said. If we really believe, then we will not be like the priest or the Levite in Luke chapter 10 who walked past that man who was in the ditch half dead. Will we? We'll be like the Good Samaritan. Stop and try to bandage up his wounds with gospel bandages and gospel wine and oil The third thing brethren as far as developing maintaining a soul winning Desire and taking practical steps to reach the lost world Be convinced and never lose sight of the fact that Jesus is the only way to heaven The uniqueness and supremacy of Jesus Christ is under attack in our day as never as it ever has been. It's becoming quite offensive, in fact. It's the one thing that the religious pluralist views as intolerance. But if we fail to anchor our souls and our evangelism on the fact that Jesus is the only way to God, we lose our urgency, we will capitulate to the world and fall prey to the pressure of religious pluralism. Brethren, we must constantly have our minds saturated with those gospel texts like John 3.16 or John 4.16, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. Matthew 1.21, they shall call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins. 1 Timothy 1.15, Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Acts 4.12, there's no other name but Jesus under heaven whereby men will be saved. We have to tell sinners that Jesus is the only person who can save you. You need someone this great You need someone this perfect. You need someone this holy. You need someone this powerful. You need someone this merciful. You need someone this compassionate. You need someone who loves sinners this much that he laid down his life for them. If you don't believe that Jesus is the only remedy and that the cross is the only way of reconciliation, then you will become embarrassed of Jesus and his gospel. We will fall prey to the epidemic of fear and live for personal safety and security. And finally, brethren, to develop and maintain an evangelistic culture, we need to get on our knees. Jesus said, pray to the Lord of the harvest. Luke chapter 10, pray for laborers, pray for missionaries, pray for preachers. Pray for opportunities. Pray for inspired opportunities. Pray as we plan. Pray as we strategize. Pray that God would give wisdom. Pray that God would give courage. God would give us compassion. God would give us love. Pray that we would be focused upon lost sinners. that God would help us to fight the sins that cripple us and paralyze our evangelism, laziness, fear of man, apathy, sometimes hopelessness and despair. If you've been telling someone about the gospel for 10, 15 years, you almost want to give up, right? We need to pray as we go forth sowing in our backyards, in our homes. I hope you tell your children. in the workplace. You need wisdom. Pray for opportunities. Your doctor, your car mechanic. Pray that God would open the hearts of the sinner. Pray that God would prepare the soil. May God help us, brethren, to be more equipped for a vandalistic service. Not everyone is called a vandalist. God allows for flexibility in terms of opportunity and where he's placed us in life and gift and talent. I realize that. But we should have a burden for the law. And may we have a life, brethren, that really backs it up. So even before you open your mouth, the person knows you well enough. And again, there can be other situations where you don't have time to let them get to know you on a plane. I realize that. But in most situations where the person knows you well enough, they know you live differently. They know you think differently. So when you open your mouth, you have some level of credibility. And they might ask you for the reason of the hope within. You can say, well, it's Jesus Christ. I wouldn't be who I am today, I wouldn't be the person I am today, but for Christ. I lived a very self-centered life, but now I live a very God-centered life. He changed my whole way of thinking. I always thought just of myself, me, myself, and I, but now I think about Him and how I can please Him and serve Him and glorify Him. I own everything. I own my life. He died so I could live. He set me free. And now I want to live for Him. A Christ-centered life. A cross-centered life. To put it in the simplest terms, I want to make Jesus famous. Isn't that what we do when we glorify God? Glorify our Savior? I want people to know my Savior. That's how I want to live. For His glory. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, we do pray you would bless the Word to our hearts and minds. It's so easy to hear and not put into practice. It's so easy to hear and forget. And so we ask you, Lord, to write it upon our hearts. Cleanse us, wash us from those sins that have plagued our relationships with sinners. Help us, Lord, to be more thoughtful, more prayerful, to take advantages of those opportunities. And may we see, Lord, even sinners brought into this place, sinners who have heard the good news, who have heard what they so desperately need, Jesus Christ, and they believed on him and turned from their sins. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.