And open your copy of Scripture to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. And if you haven't been here for much of this series on evangelism, I'm kind of heading into the teaching mode more than a preaching mode, as we consider some very important aspects of our personal evangelism. And since I last had the joy of talking with you about this three weeks ago, the Lord has allowed me to be in situations where I was able to talk about the gospel or invite someone to church, and I didn't get to lead anyone to Christ in the last three weeks, but my own study and what God's doing in my heart on this topic moved me to action where I might not have gone into action before. So I pray that that's happening with you. In this part of the series, we're talking about the whole time you are engaged in a conversation with an unsaved person. In our previous study, we talked about how to get ready for those times, what to have in place, ready. This is before you even have a conversation with an unsaved person. And we listed out four for you, if you recall. What do you have to have in place before you actually engage the person, before you're even in a conversation with anyone? You need to have open eyes. Open eyes to those strangers, those neighbors, those family and relatives, those around you that are already in your life without Christ. and just pray for open eyes to see them. You and I have unsafe people all around us. Even if we've done, if we've chosen to make, if we've made decisions in our children's education as we did to home school, we still constantly had unsafe people all around us who needed the gospel. So what do you need? You need open eyes. We also saw that you need a simple presentation. The time to figure out what nouns and verbs to put together is not in the moment when someone's asking you about the gospel. I hope at this point you're thinking through that now. What do you think are the main points of the gospel? How would you share them? What verses would you use? What illustrations would assist you? So you need open eyes. You need a simple presentation. You need what we call, thirdly, a tangible footprint. And by that, I mean a business card with an invite to worship with you or a gospel track, keeping them in your car, in your wallet. And if someone doesn't have time to have a conversation with you, you can still hand them something that they can read later. I think you really need to think that through. And the resources we provide for you in the rack, in the lobby, are hand-picked tracks with clear gospel presentations. So you need to open eyes, a simple presentation, a tangible footprint, and then daily prayer. I mean, we need to be praying every single day or at least every single week, Lord, please bring to me people who need Christ and then remind me in those moments, open my eyes and open my mouth to share Christ. Just be praying like that. Just be praying like that. But don't be surprised when God starts answering that prayer. He will answer that prayer because you're praying in the Father's will. So, in our last study, two weeks ago, that's what we talked about. What to have in place before you even get into a conversation. Now, I don't know about you. I've been able to share my faith several times or at least get part into it with different people, even on vacation, just thinking through what we studied together last time. But still, I have to stand in front of you this evening and say I'm not happy with where I am. There are still more people I could have shared my faith with. I'm frustrated, I'm 51 years old, I've been in the pastoral ministry almost 25 years, and I'm still, still frustrated with this part of my life. And you say, well, that doesn't leave me much hope, right? That doesn't leave you much hope. Listen, as long as we all admit that we could be doing better and that Christ would have us be more aggressive with sharing our faith, we're in a good place. You may not know the name Samuel Davies, and perhaps you do, but most likely you don't, because Samuel Davies lived from 1723 to 1761. And Samuel Davies was a Presbyterian evangelist. He was a key player in the great awakening here in the states. And you say, well, what else did he do? Well, you might know the name Jonathan Edwards, who had a very extremely brief stint as a president at the College of New Jersey, or we know it as Princeton. Samuel Davies followed him as president. So you still might not know who he is, but you know this about him already, right? He was a preacher in the Great Awakening. He was an evangelist who he himself was constantly on the road preaching the gospel, but even Samuel Davies wasn't content with his personal evangelism. And I want you to hear it right from him as we launch in back into this topic this evening. These are his own words. Now it's gonna be a little bit older English, but just track with me on this. My glorious and condescending Lord has appointed me the most pleasing work, the work of love and mercy. He only requires me to show myself a lover of souls, souls whom he loves and whom he redeemed, souls whom his father loves and for whom he gave up his own son unto death, souls whom my fellow servants of a superior order, the blessed angels, love, and to whom they concur with me in ministering, souls precious in themselves and of more value than the whole material universe, souls that must be happy or miserable in the highest degree through an immortal duration, souls united to me by the endearing ties of our common humanity, souls for whom I must give an account to the Great Shepherd and Bishop of my souls." He's like, Souls of men are precious, and I have the amazing calling to share my faith with such souls." But then he says, oh boy, quote, and oh, can I help loving these souls? Why does not my heart always glow with affection and zeal for them? Oh, why am I such a languid friend when the love of my Master and His Father is so ardent, so strong? When the ministers of heaven are flaming fires of love, though they do not share in the same nature, and when the objects of my love is precious and valuable, the owners of those souls often do not love them, and they are likely to be lost forever by neglect. Oh, shall not I love them? Shall not love invigorate my hand to pluck them out of the burning? Yes, I will. I must love them. But, ah, to love them more, glow my zeal, kindle my affections, speak my tongue, flow my blood, be exerted all my powers, be my life, if necessary, a sacrifice to save souls from death. He's like, wow, I know that I have the greatest calling in the world to share my faith, but why am I not more passionate? Why am I not more zealous? These souls are worth the pursuit and they're worth our affections. I appreciate it when someone like Samuel Davies says, yeah, yeah, I tell people about Christ, but I can do and ought to do even more. When I see how precious these souls are. So that's why we're spending time talking about your evangelistic conversation on a very personal level. I mean, we're going to have this music team in to do an Irish concert, and then an evangelist will stand in this pulpit and give the gospel to your friends and families that you invite so that you can go home from that service and keep the conversation going about the gospel. And that's important and we're going to provide opportunities like that. But far more powerful in so many cases is when you get together with an unsafe person in a one-on-one conversation, intentionally. So we've talked about, well, how do I get ready for those moments of one-on-one conversations? We've talked about that. Tonight, and on your notes there, I want to talk about four things you must keep in mind during the conversation. Four things that you must include now that you're face-to-face, nose-to-nose with an unsafe person and you're in a gospel conversation. It's happening now. You've prepared for it and it's happening. What goes on during the contact? And again, I want to just enumerate four realities that you must keep in mind during the conversation. Okay? First of all, it's what I call letter A, an entrance ramp. You need an entrance ramp. And here's what I mean by the entrance ramp. You need to get the conversation trajectory rolling towards a specific gospel question. Now, I'm a big proponent of asking permission to continue the conversation of the gospel. I think as you ask permission, you're showing respect. And as they give permission, you move forward with great confidence. But how do you get to the gospel question? Ivantel, that one presentation I've told you about, has it just this way. The question is, has anyone ever taken a Bible and shown you how you can know for certain you have eternal life? Yes or no? Would you mind if I take a few minutes and show you? That's what I'm talking about, the gospel conversation. How do you get there? How do you get to that point? What's your entrance ramp, if you will? And I want you to look at it this way. Find the unique conversation starter for each unique person in each unique setting. You get that? There's a unique person in front of you in a unique setting that's going to present a unique conversation starter. I mean, I really believe that there is always a way to get from any point to the gospel, any conversation. If you're Mark Meredith, you can figure out how to get from law enforcement, that topic, to the topic of Jesus and the cross and the resurrection. If you are an engineer, you can be able to get from STEM topics to the gospel. If you're an electrician, from electrical talk to the gospel. If you're a chef, from the kitchen to the gospel. You can get from anything to the gospel. Many of you know D. James Kennedy, the founder of Evangelism Explosion, and he always had his favorite method. Whenever he'd get on a crowded elevator, and he'd be the last one on, and the door would close, and he wouldn't turn around. He'd keep facing the people. And he might joke with them. He might say something like, you're probably wondering why I called this meeting. You know, total strangers. And he would get in conversations on the elevator that would lead its way to the gospel. For example, he said once that he asked someone, are you going up? And the person said, yes, please. And he says, are you going all the way up? And he had a chuckle about that, but it ended up being a gospel conversation for him. I like to think through, as kind of an exercise, how do I get from the headlines today to the gospel? How do I get from the headlines? If I were to ask you what were some headlines today or this summer, one of the headlines would be perhaps the World Cup, right? I mean, I know our country wasn't in that, but a lot of people around the world were talking about the World Cup for those few weeks. How can you get from a conversation about the World Cup with a stranger at Kroger's, can you get from there to the gospel question to ask permission? How would you do that? I mean, this is kind of fun stuff to do with your family when you're driving around. Make a game of it. How would we get from the topic of the World Cup, or from the topic of primary elections, or presidential elections, or politics, how do we get, and just think of these different conversations that are common now, and how would we get to the gospel question? You say, how would you do that with the politics? whenever you talk about politics, you either pucker or duck, right? When you talk about the current people in office. And I say use that as an asset. If someone's frustrated with a certain governing official or if someone's really pleased with a certain governing official, you can say something like this. If they're really upset, say, yeah, you know what, That's a big failure on their part. And we've seen other politicians fail and other rulers fail on a regular basis. I'm just telling you, it's frustrating. Makes you kind of hungry for justice, doesn't it? Makes you kind of hungry for righteous rulers. Well, you know, I believe that there is one coming. He's already come once, he's coming back, and he's a perfect king. He's a perfect king. You see what happened? He got from bad politics to the coming Christ. And I believe you can ask a gospel question at that point. With the World Cup, how would you get from the World Cup to the gospel presentation? Might be something like this, and I'm just thinking on my feet here, I'm way off my notes if you can't tell. What happens with the World Cup, it's nations coming together. All these nations coming together for a few weeks to play a game with a ball that you blow up. The rest of the world calls it football, we call it soccer. and what's true, America didn't get there but the teams that are there are really good and this was good competition and it's really good, it's really fun to watch these nations that come from different political philosophies, different levels of human rights, all these nations and languages and cultures are coming together for this one thing of playing a game for two weeks. Isn't that cool? Aren't these a fun two weeks and we're all glued to the screen with people from around the globe? Kind of neat. But you know, there's a day coming when all the nations and tribes and tongues will come together. We're told about this in a book. And it will be to worship someone who has redeemed them. His name is Jesus. And this won't just last two weeks. It'll be forever. There you go. You're at the gospel. You got there from the World Cup. I believe there is a way to get from any point to the gospel. You could think about, how do I get to the gospel when I'm talking to my exterminator? How do I get to the gospel when I'm talking about war veterans? You can get to the gospel from any topic. Now, as you know, I was trained in evangelism explosion, so they kind of taught us what to do when you go to someone's house. When you go to someone's house, they taught us to look around, if they're kind enough to invite you in. look around and people put on display what they want to be noticed. You do on your coffee table. You do on your fireplace mantle. You have pictures that reflect events that are important in your life or people that are important in your life or you have knick knacks that you bought on a trip and these are precious to you and you put them out so that they'll be noticed. and it's usually going to be on a coffee table or in a conversation point in the room. Notice it. Say, hey, tell me about that. Tell me about that picture or where was that taken or who are these people? And as you get conversations going about that, you're making them feel more comfortable with you. You're noticing what they put out to be noticed and they appreciate that. and talk to them about surroundings, maybe relate with them if they share a hobby with you that comes out. And then after you relate with them about a hobby or something like that that you notice in the house, something that you have in common or something you're interested in, say, well, we also have something else in common. And that's that two weeks ago you visited my church. We were in the same service. And I'm just curious, I'm just curious. You've been so kind to have us into your house here. What did you think about your visit to us? I mean, I love your home here and what I'm learning, but what did you think about your visit to our church? And in most cases, hopefully, we pray, they've had a positive experience. We pray. And if they say, well, it was great. I enjoyed meeting people. You can find something in a positive answer. Usually it's going to be people were friendly to me, or the singing was good, or I was really encouraged by the service. Just camp on the good point and say, well, let me tell you why they sing the way they do. Or if they said, oh, it was how friendly the people were, let me tell you why they're so friendly. You see, the people at Calvary Baptist Church know that they have eternal life. They just know it. They understand. There's a great confidence that they have eternal life. That's why they sing like they do, or that's why they greeted you like they did. There's a warmth because it's real. They know they have eternal life. So, you know, say, may I ask you a question? Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know that you have eternal life? Or is that something you'd say you're still working on? See, I got from the knick-knack on their coffee table to the gospel question. And you can do that too. You can get from any topic or any discussion point or hobby to the gospel. I put here in your notes an observation, and this is just a pastoral observation. Often, a counseling setting will really be a witnessing setting. If you, on your job, or in your neighborhood, or even in your family, have, by God's grace, identified yourself, just by how you act and how you talk, that you are a Christ follower. You're living underneath the Lordship of Jesus. You're reading his word, and you think his word, and you speak his word, and you have joy that comes only from knowing Christ. That's going to show up to other people. And you know what's going to happen? When there's a bright light like that burning, people are going to come to that light when they have a problem. When the bottom falls out of their life or of their relationship, and they want to talk to someone, well, guess who's the first one to come to their mind? You. And so they come to you for help, for advice, for counseling. And I'm just saying right now, that's the Holy Spirit orchestrating your steps and their steps to come together. The excuse is their counseling problem, but their real need is Christ. I mean, you want to help them as much as you can and give them advice, but then say, ultimately, though, this is a small problem compared to a bigger problem we all have, and that's sin. and you can share with them the greatest news in the world. All that to say, you need an entrance ramp. And I want you to jot down Proverbs 16, 23 for this, and just listen as I read it. I'm just talking to you in teaching mode here, but the proverb writer says this, the heart of the wise, listen, instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips. You have to think through, how am I gonna get from point A to point B? How am I gonna get from Comerica Park to a gospel question? You have to think through it and add persuasiveness to your lips. So what needs to be in place? First of all, an entrance ramp, an entrance ramp. But secondly, what needs to be in place? I'm just gonna call it public sensitivity, please. Public sensitivity. And I put a little statement after that that defines it. I'm encouraging you here with this one to quietly earn their confidence. Quietly earn their confidence. Turn over with me to John chapter 3. I want you to consider a very familiar text here. And once you notice a point in John 3, you're going to see it jump out in John chapter 4 as well. John 3, of course, is the account of Nicodemus. Verse 1, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. All three phrases are just loaded. This is Nicodemus, not just any Nicodemus, but he was a Pharisee. He was in the upper crust of the religious leadership So much so that he was a decision-maker with his countrymen. I mean, verse 1's just loaded. Verse 2's what I want you not to miss, though. This man, this guy with all the credentials of verse 1, he came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. And Jesus answered and said to him, come back when we're open. This is at night? I'm trying to rest. I've got to have my downtime. Don't you know the Tigers are on at 9? It's a West Coast game. I mean, when does he get a break? Is that what he says? No, Jesus says, I'm gonna talk to this guy. He came to me at night when he could have come during the day. His talking to me at all is highly risky to everything in verse one. I'm gonna talk with him. We're gonna talk privately. I'm okay with that. I wanna protect his privacy and I want him not, listen, I want him to not be distracted by things or people around us. He needs to ask heart questions and I need to give him good news. He came to him by night and our Lord was fine with that. That's what I'm shooting at here with public sensitivity. Look in your notes here. Demonstrate an awareness of the awkwardness many times present in discussing their spiritual lives in public. Stop there. You know what I'm saying? You and I, to a degree, are used to talking about spiritual issues. We are. We do it all the time. We've kind of been doing it all day today. I even had a meeting from 3 to 4.30 today with some of you, and we talked spiritual issues then. It's no big deal for us to talk about reading our Bibles, about praying, about struggling with sin, about needing help to grow in Christ-likeness. Not a struggle at all. But understand, you do it all the time. The person at the bus stop never does. person at your cubicle or on your cul-de-sac never does or rarely does. So kind of tune into that. What's comfortable for you to talk about in public is really uncomfortable for most of the population. And so I'm saying demonstrate a public sensitivity. Let me finish that bullet point here. Your volume and suggestion to move out of traffic will often open them up more to talking with you. Do you get that? Your volume and suggestion to move out of traffic will often open them up more to talking with you. I've seen this a lot. We used to do the religious questionnaires in downtown Richmond, Virginia, with our teams, and we would be on the campus of VCU, Virginia Commonwealth University, and MCV, Medical College of Virginia. Those two schools kind of own downtown Richmond. And so we'd go down to the parks where they would be studying in the parks or recreating, or we'd go to the coffee shops with the religious questionnaires just to get conversations going, hopefully to get to a gospel question and a presentation. And it's interesting, I don't mind going to one person at a time, but if that's a little intimidating, I'll approach a group of guys, three or four guys, and I'll say, hey, guys, we're from Emmanuel Baptist Church over here by the statues on Monument Avenue. You know where it is, right? Yeah. Well, we're out tonight, we're doing a couple questionnaires, religious questionnaires, and we really would love to get your feedback on some questions. And most of the college students would always say, well sure, especially if they're with their friends. And then we just start reading through some of these questions. And by the fourth or fifth question, you're into a gospel question. It's by design. And by the time I got down deeper into the questionnaire where I'm starting to talk about the gospel, I might lose two or three or all but one of them as far as interest and focus. And I'm watching for that. And at that point, I'll let it die off graciously, except for the one who's kind of leaning into me. And I'll continue a conversation. And after his buddies leave, I'll say, hey, you know what? You got five minutes, ten minutes? Let's just go sit over here for a minute. Let me just finish talking to you about what we're out doing tonight. And I'm taking him away so that he's not being embarrassed by talking with me in front of his friends or where others might hear. I'm showing a real sensitivity to him. And I have found that they really appreciate that. They really do. And they open up more. I want to put another thought in your mind here too, though, and it's in your notes. On the other hand, be aware that in some settings, others may be necessarily within earshot and will benefit from your private conversation and witness. Sometimes you may be sharing the gospel with someone at a bus stop. And they're just of the personality make where they're talking a little loud and you want to realize that that conversation is going to go beyond just the two of you, well, okay, do it then. Let the people that are around hear the conversation. You've listened in on conversations, too, on an airplane and at the bus stop. Shame on you. Hey, that's the gospel going out, okay? Don't be obnoxious with it, and you don't be elevating the volume, but you are speaking to this one person. I remember, I think I've shared this on a Wednesday night with you before, but I was on a flight from Detroit to Green Bay to teach a class at Northland Baptist Bible College years ago. And on this flight, there were a lot of students that were going to be in my class, but there were just a lot of people. The plane was full. And there was a man from India that sat next to me. You know, the flight between Green Bay and Detroit Metro is two seats, aisle, two seats. And they just keep jumping over the water and back and forth all day. And this man from India was sitting in the window seat, and I was kind of studying, getting ready for the class, you know, just getting my ducks in a row on that. And he engaged me in a conversation. And I'm like, oh, and they always ask, what's she studying? I'm like, well, wow, this is teed up right over the plate. I said, I'm studying to teach a class. I'm kind of feeding him a little. Really, you teach? What are you going to teach? I said, I'm teaching a counseling class in a grad school. Where? Northern Baptist Bible College. You're a Christian? I mean, he's elevating. Keep in mind, two seats, aisle, two seats. OK, we're kind of stuffed into a tube. And he's elevating and getting animated. And he says, well, I'm a religious man, too. And I'm like, yeah, I believe that. I believe that. And I said, as a matter of fact, do you hold to what you were brought up in India? Because he had told me about being from India. He goes, I do. I said, well, that's really cool, because now I know you're interested in what I believe, aren't you? He goes, I am. How did you know that? I said, because you hold to many gods. And you should be open to hearing about mine. He says, exactly. And I'm elevating with him, figuring he's not going to be quiet. And it's only a 45 minute trip. So we're just having this loud conversation in the middle of the plane. People are looking at us. And I found out later, some of my students were on that plane, too. And they're praying for me. And I give them the whole gospel. And every time he'd try to object to something, I'm like, oh, no, wait. You wanted to hear what I believe. Oh, yes, that's right. And every time I wanted to debate, I'd just say, back off, man. You want to hear the whole picture, don't you? Because you're an intelligent man that wants to know about all deities. And I declare to you the real one. And I gave him the whole gospel. And I couldn't get him to come to a point of faith in Christ in that short conversation, that short flight. But it was interesting. I gave the gospel to eight people, probably, in that moment. And the lady next to me across the aisle wasn't one of my students. She was slightly older than I was and I remember her as we came to a stop at the gate in Green Bay and we're getting up and she leaned over to me and almost hugged me. She says, I was praying for you. That was beautiful. I'm like, well, thank you. You know, and it's really easy to do. Sometimes you have to take them away from traffic. and lower your voice so that they won't worry about what their friends think. Other times they're going to elevate. Just have a public sensitivity, like Jesus did. And guess what? He just didn't have a public sensitivity in John chapter 3 with Nicodemus. He also does in John chapter 4, doesn't he? With the woman at the well. We're all going to witness differently. I mean, I don't mind, maybe it's my leftover youth pastor in me, but I don't mind walking up to a group of teen guys and just going for it. Okay, just having a conversation, get loud, talk about whatever they're into in that moment, basketball or skating or UFC or whatever, talk to them, and then turn the corner and see who bites and talk about the gospel. But still, even though I'm willing to do that, my preference is a one-on-one, quiet, eyeball-to-eyeball, normal conversation, voice. And go heart-to-heart. So there needs to be a public sensitivity. Thirdly, just real quickly, this one's gonna be heavy, but we're talking about what to remember in the middle of the conversation. I call it gospel honesty. You must have gospel honesty. And I explain it here with the short phrases afterwards. I say, mark it down, no easy believism. And I know my predecessor, Pastor Graham, was big on this. No easy believism. We don't want to give a message that coming to Christ will cost you nothing. Now listen, what He offers you is eternal life and to be clothed in His righteousness. The fact that He died for all your sin and that He clothes you with His righteousness, I'm not saying that's cheap or without cost. Don't hear me wrong here. But I want to be honest with them that if you accept His gift of eternal life, listen, it's going to cost you the rest of your life. No easy believism. I have a quote here from John MacArthur in his book, Nothing But the Truth, and I think he just nails it here. Follow along. Another reality that's crucial to including your gospel presentation is some honest mention of the cost involved in following Christ. While stressing that salvation is absolutely free and includes everything people need for their spiritual life, you must also tell them about the cost of discipleship that results from salvation. Obeying the Lord, like joining the army, can cost us our freedom, certain relationships, some independence, and maybe even our lives. A careful evangelist, like a good army recruiter, will tell potential inductees the full story. Christ himself did not hesitate to tell people the cost of discipleship. You say, well, that might scare them off. Listen, if I give someone the gospel presentation, and I include the cost of discipleship, I tell them, in the interest of full disclosure, this is going to change your life. You're going to be redeemed and rescued from your sin, but understand, your life will never be the same. You're going to have the power of Christ indwelling you. You're going to have Christ himself in the person of the Holy Spirit indwelling you. You're going to have treasures to look forward to in heaven. But for the rest of this life, you can expect resistance. And you have to count the cost. Let me give you a couple bullet points to spell out specifically what I'm saying here. First of all, carefully explain that faith has consequences. We can't just say, oh, okay, I'll believe that. Faith has consequences. Look with me at James chapter 2. I figured I'd take you to James tonight because I heard that you are experts in the epistle of James at this point. James chapter 2, verse 17. Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself. But someone may well say, well, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works. And then look at verse 19. You believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder. You can't just say, OK, I believe the I believe the points of the gospel. Well, you know what? Demons believe the points of the gospel. They believe that those are true statements that Jesus died for man's sin and rose again. And if man repents of his sin and places his faith in Christ, they will be saved. Demons believe that, but they're not saved. You see, when someone comes to faith in Christ, that faith will be a living faith that's beyond just, listen, it's beyond just a mental assent to historic facts. It's placing your complete trust in Jesus alone for eternal life. Explain that faith has consequences. Secondly, carefully explain that repentance is radical. Repentance is absolutely radical. I want to share with you three passages here. I want your eyes to look at them. Go with me quickly to Luke chapter 3. Remember John the Baptist talking about repentance and defining it? I think very well. Luke chapter 3 and let's go to verse 7. So he, John the Baptist, began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And look at verse eight. Therefore, bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham to our father, for I say to you that from these stones, God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed, the axe is already laid at the root of the tree, so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." I mean, you can feel his breath almost. He's intense here, and he's saying, you must repent. And understand this, if you repent, there will be no question about it. You won't continue on the way things were before you were a Christian. You'll struggle with them, yes, but they won't define you. Explain that repentance is radical. And then look at verse 10. We have a few story problems. They're listening to him. They're hearing that repentance must be present. Verse 10, the crowds were questioning him, saying, what then shall we do? And he would answer and say to them, the man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none. And he who has food is to do likewise. And then the tax collectors also came to be baptized. And they said, teacher, what shall we do? And he said, collect no more than what you have been ordered to. And then the soldiers wanted in, verse 14, and they were questioning, saying, well, what about us? What shall we do? And he said to them, do not take money from anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely and be content with your wages. He's saying, listen, if there's repentance in the heart, there's going to be a difference in your life. Carefully explain that repentance is radical. Acts 26.20, again, written by Luke. as he writes this volume two, if you will, of the gospel, Acts 26, verse 20. And they kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea and even to the Gentiles, look at this phrase, that they should repent and turn to God, and what does repentance look like? Performing deeds appropriate to repentance. And you see this again in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9. Number three, when I say gospel honesty, I mean this. Carefully explain that lordship requires exclusivity. When you say that Jesus is your Savior and your Lord, understand you only can have one Lord. Matthew chapter seven, we were in this passage earlier today in the Sermon on the Mount. Our Lord, as He's winding down this sermon, comes to verses 21 and following. and brings us these familiar words. He says, verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. As a matter of fact, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me. And it's an interesting phrase he quotes from the Old Testament. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. What does lawlessness means? It means this. No one's going to tell me what to do. I am a law unto myself. I am my own Lord. That's called lawlessness. And Jesus says, don't call me Lord, Lord, if you are a person of lawlessness, if you are your own Lord. Things change under the Lordship of Jesus. As a matter of fact, Jesus himself says in Luke 6.46, why do you call me Lord? And you don't do what I say. Luke 6.46. I find it interesting that Paul puts it this way in Romans 10.9. If we confess with our mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. You'll be saved. Well, number four, what does it mean? This gospel honesty, it means this. Carefully explain that disciples have persecution. Disciples will be persecuted. Listen to this, this is in your notes, Philippians 129. It's been granted unto you not only to believe, but to suffer. Philippians 129. Or remember what Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy, he says, all those who are godly in Christ will suffer persecution. We're going to suffer. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says, if you are a peacemaker, if you mourn your spiritual condition, if you hunger and thirst for a righteousness outside of yourselves, if you're a person of mercy, If you're salt and light, you're gonna stick out, and when you stick out, the world that rejects me will swing at you. We will suffer. Don't say, if you come to Jesus and just pray this prayer, repeat after me, then every day will be happy, and everyone will love you, and everything's gonna be great. Well, you know what? Eternity will be great if they truly understand what it means to accept Christ. But the rest, that's not true. you will suffer persecution. You have to. According to Romans 5, James 1, 2 Peter 1, no affliction, no growth. I love what Paul says in Romans 8.18. He says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time aren't worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. We've got to suffer. So as you're given the gospel, Don't sand the corners off. Don't sand down the offense of the gospel message. I've even told people before, you understand that even Jesus himself says that the gospel in some families will bring a sword down. But you know what I've found? When you're honest like that, that's radical. People appreciate that. And I think that they're more eager to come in. If someone says, well, I don't know right now, I'll affirm that. I'll say, hey, I know this is heavy. I know this is heavy. And I want to give you time to pray about it. And I'm going to pray with you as well. But I'm telling you, don't let a lot of time pass. Don't let a lot of time pass. Because the gospel of Jesus, and we've said this a million times in this series, it's not merely an offer not to get burned for a long time. The gospel of Jesus is a command to believe and repent. So you, as you have these conversations with all the grace and all the love and all the sensitivity, you have to be honest. Be honest with it. And then one more thing. In the moments during the conversation, you need to be ready with a concluding prayer. That's the fourth item. A concluding prayer. I want you to follow me with what I'm trying to communicate here. I'm putting your notes. Lead the way in demonstrating the presence of Jesus in the discussion. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, do you believe that person's in the room with you? Yes. How do you know? Because you're talking to them. Do they believe you're in the room with them? Well, yeah. How do you know? Because, well, they're talking back. So at the conclusion of your presentation of the gospel, what does it communicate if you say, can we say something to Jesus? He's here. And we can talk to him. Now, there are two different scenarios that might be coming out of your gospel presentation. The first bullet point says, prayer after conversion in order to rehearse the gospel. What does that mean? This means that you came to a place in the presentation where, for example, in Evangelism Explosion, you say, does this make sense to you? Yes. Would you like to receive God's free gift of eternal life? Yes, I would. Okay. And I'm just clarifying with you. You understand what we talked about repentance and lordship? You understand that I'm not saving you, that Jesus is here, He's the one doing the saving? Yes, I understand that. Okay, then I want to pray with you. But here's how we're going to pray. I'm going to pray first. I'm going to pray first. And then I want you to pray. And you tell Jesus in your own words what you said you believe now about sin, about Jesus, about faith, about God and His holiness. You put that together in your own words, these things I've shared with you. And then after you pray, I'm going to pray again. So like there's three prayers at the end of this presentation. Now, how do I handle those three prayers? My first prayer with them is, I'm praying with all the intensity of the moment, that Jesus, who's right there with us, will give them faith and repentance. I'm just praying all out on that. Lord, they say they believe this, open their heart and their mind and their affections to receive it, right now, right now. And Lord, they're going to call on you right now. Amen. And then I let them pray. It'd be easy for me to give them words and just repeat after me, but I want them to strain through this. And you know what, I find that it's awkward, it's like trying to walk before you learn to crawl, but they make it up, they make it through. They might look up and you can help them with a few words, but it's their prayer, their expression of faith and desire to become a child of God that they're saying to Jesus. And then it's always awkward, they look up and, can I say amen now? Yeah, that was good, amen, okay. And then I'll say, I want to pray one more time. And my second prayer goes something like this, Lord, thank you for answering my first prayer. And you've heard their heart. You've heard their prayer. And I will, again, rehearse the gospel points in my final prayer. I'll say, Lord, they understand that heaven's an absolutely free gift. It can't be earned or reserved. And they've said to you in their own words, Lord, that they believe they're a sinner and they can't save themselves. And they believe that you are merciful, but you're also just, and you solved that problem in the person of Jesus, your son, who died on a cross, paid the penalty for sin, and rose again. And they're asking you to save them. And they're turning from their sin, they're turning to you. So Lord, thank you for answering that prayer. And see, what I've done in my praying is I've prayed for them to believe, and afterwards, I rehearse the gospel again in that second prayer. That's if they accept Christ. What do you do if they say, I need more time? That's not for me. Or even if they say, well, I can obviously tell you're a little loony. And you know what? I'll still ask if I can pray with them. I'll still ask if I can pray with them, even if they rejected it. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, that's the second bullet point here. Prayer after rejection to rehearse the gospel. See what I'm doing? Few people who have granted you time to converse with them will refuse a closing prayer for them. I mean, just think of that. They let you talk to them for 4 minutes or 25 minutes. And they're still saying, no, not now. I tell them, I really respect your hesitancy because this is called counting the cost. I get that. But can I still pray with you real quick before you go? Rarely will they say no. And sometimes I have had people say, well, I don't believe there's a God to pray to. And I said, I know. I know that. You told me that six times. But I do. And if you don't believe there's a God, would you just listen to me talk to him? And then I'll pray, and I'll rehearse the five points of the gospel again, and then hopefully send them off with some contact information for me. And I'm not doing that to set a stage or to make an optic point with them that I'm going to pray in their face. I really believe Jesus is there. And I really believe that He can even turn their heart in 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 to 26, grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. So they just get to listen to me talk to God about them. Again, let me close with this quote from MacArthur on this point, from the same book, Nothing But the Truth. Quote, people have asked me if I get distressed when individuals don't always respond and receive Christ as Lord and Savior when I preach the gospel. I tell them that there is a sense in which I'm saddened and disappointed, but I also point out that God didn't call me to save people. He simply wants me to preach the gospel to them. Saving people is His business. So in a conversation, even when they reject the gospel, I'm leaving that in God's lap, and I'm going to talk to them about it at the conclusion of the contact. So as you can see, when it comes to personal evangelism, we've got to think about being ready before the conversations even happen. But these are four things I think you need to keep clear in the actual conversation. Now when we come together a few weeks from tonight to conclude this part of our series on keys to evangelism, I want to talk to you about four things to keep in place after the conversation. We're not done with this guy or with this girl yet. Even though they got on the bus and drove off, even though the plane deboarded, even though our conversation is over, God's not done with that person and our confidence in that gives us work to do even after the conversation. And we'll talk about that, Lord willing, when we come back to this series.