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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.
Key Elements of Evangelism: During the Contact
Series Personal Evangelism 101
| Sermon ID | 527211554365106 |
| Duration | 51:38 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Language | English |
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