Well, it's very nice to be here. Just kidding. Sorry. It's nice to see that Al Haig got saved and is acting as our emcee. Thank you very much, sir, for that. Anybody ever tell you you look like Al Haig? No. All righty. Fine, I just learned something about Charles Spurgeon that I have to disagree with. I'm looking at this beautiful organ. Does it work? It's a shame if it doesn't. And apparently, Chris Arnson from Iron Sharpening Iron said, there you are, said that Charles Spurgeon, gasp, get ready for this, when he was asked about what he thought about the organ, the pipe organ in the church, he said, I think it's a wonderful idea if the pipes are filled with concrete. What's the matter with the Prince of Preachers? Thank you for sticking around after lunch. I can already tell you're a little bit nappy. All right, I'll speak faster. Thank you, Stephen, for allowing us to be here. I gotta tell you, the team at Sermon Audio have been amazing. You look at a conference like this and you think, well, this is kind of nothing to put together. There's a gazillion logistics, so thank you to you and your team for putting this together. Thank you for traveling here. It is a privilege to be with you today, but I do have to begin with three confessions that I'm not all that proud of. Confession number one, what I've prepared for you. It's a topical sermon. Look at your face. Oh, I know it's a good thing Steve Lawson isn't here or he'd box my ears in. What's the matter with you? Don't tell him. My second confession is the last time that I had the privilege, if you could call it that, of preaching when Phil Johnson was in the room. It was actually in Montana. And my text for the day was 1 Peter, all of it. I bit off a little more than I could chew, and when I stepped up to the pulpit, I realized, uh-oh, I don't have a wristwatch on, and there was no clock in the back. And while I can kind of manage time, I think in my head, I thought I was doing pretty well, I look up from 1 Peter, I think we made it to about chapter one, and I looked up and Phil Johnson was in the back going, You don't want that. You don't ever want this from anybody, let alone from Phil Johnson. That's my second confession. They've got a clock. I've got a watch. I'll try to stay on time. My third confession, which I actually say to you a bit ashamedly, genuinely, and yet a testimony to God's kindness to me. 15 years ago, give or take, I was invited to preach to a room full of pastors and church leaders. And all I could think of back then was, well, it's about time. Because these pastors, they really need me to help them get straightened out. Because if they would just listen to me, the evangelical church would be a lot better. I actually say that to my shame because that was my sentiment, and God has graciously taught me. Look, I'm a fun monkey on TV and radio. My whole desire is to get people to you. He has so changed my heart about pastoral ministry. You are where it is at. You are God's only ordained means for shepherding the sheep, and so I come here today. God has so radically changed my heart, and I honor you, and I am grateful for you. You could teach me. And so I approach you humbly recognizing that you are far above me and your work is so much more important than anything that I do on any given day. And I especially say that because I come to bring you a word of encouragement. Not a word of exhortation, but a word of encouragement, because I'm going to try to persuade you today to maybe do something radical. And chances are you're going to respond to me the same way I responded to a message like this. It was maybe 15, 20 years ago, I can't recall. Here's what I come here to share with you today, to encourage you to consider today. To be a soul winning pastor, who leaves the pulpit, leaves his church one day a week, and brings as many of his sheep with him as possible to go to the highways and the byways to compel people to come into the kingdom. Not into the church, because inviting somebody to church, it's a perfectly fine thing to do, but that is not evangelism. In fact, I'd go even further to say To invite the tares intentionally to come in amongst the wheat is like asking for disaster. We're inviting the rotten fish to come in among the good fish, the foolish virgins to be among the wise virgins. Invite people to church, that's swell, but that's not evangelism. and we have been commanded to go, and I am going to try to encourage you to get out of your pulpit and go to a place you don't want to go to bring a message you don't want to speak to people who don't want to hear it. And yet I believe that that is the mission, not just of a few evangelists, but all of us. And pastor, if you are concerned that your flock is not passionately worried about our culture and people dying and going to hell, that can change. That can change if you lead them, if you show them by example, by leaving your pulpit to go to the open air and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. Now, I know how that sounds, nuts. Because I remember Ray Comfort challenged me to do this, I don't know how many years ago, and I thought Ray was nuts, which he is, actually. But nevertheless, he really is. By the way, if you think Ray Comfort is a phony, I have got news for you. If he came to this conference, he'd witness to you. He'd witness to everybody. He's the most annoying person on the planet to have a meal with. I'm not kidding. Sit down, Ray. There's a waitress over there I haven't seen. I'm going to go into the kitchen. There's somebody who just came in. I'm going to witness to that person. He's the real deal. And he challenged me to set aside my fears, which is really, I think, The number one reason why we don't like to do it. It's a fear of something. It's a fear I can't do it well. It's a fear I'm going to look like a fool. Anybody? Afraid of that? That we could be considered foolish? I would like to try to overcome that objection to encourage you. Pastor, leave your pulpit one day a week. Find a fishing hole. Be strategic. Bill Jones and the gang, they've kind of built their own fishing hole, haven't they? They've got New York City, they've got people in need, so they provide for them so that they can preach the gospel. Might I encourage you to figure out your fishing hole? It doesn't have to be Bill's fishing hole. I don't know your circumstance, so your mileage may vary on all of this. I don't know where you're located. Do you have a university near you? Talk about a white harvest field. These kids are getting indoctrinated in postmodernism like nobody's business. If your church is near a university, one day a week you get out there. You start doing open air preaching, bake cookies for the kids, give them water, be kind to them, witness to them, and I'm telling you, if you are faithful, it will bear fruit. In fact, if you keep at it, the same fishing hole, week after week after week, you're gonna witness to people without even talking to them. This happens to me all the time. If I go to the same fishing hole, even for a few months, then I'll witness to some kid, I'll see him coming toward me, three, four, five weeks later, and he'll see me and go, oh, man, I just witnessed to him. He just remembered, oh, it's that guy. He was the one who, talking about the laws of God and the cross and all of that stuff. You will bear fruit if you stay faithful. Maybe it's a festival. I was talking to some fellas. It's the longest footbridge on the planet over the Hudson. What is it called? Oh, there you are. Walkway over the Hudson. What are people doing there? They're walking. They got nothing to do, clearly. Give them a gospel track. Find a place where people can stop and actually talk to you. Be strategic about this. But find a fishing hole and go and make disciples. And try to do it as close to your church as you can. When I first started doing this, I remember people, they would kind of bust my chops and they'd say, how come you don't tell people to go to church? Okay, immaturity, same sort of attitude that I had toward pastors. I was so much smarter than all y'all. And I was just, who needs the church? What a, you know, just such immaturity. And I used to think, well, I don't want to send people to church. I mean, I don't want people to think that we're trying to get them to church. Duh, that's precisely what we want for them. We want to get them to church. So try to find a fishing hole close to your church. Bring literature that talks about your church unashamedly, because we don't want to just try to catch a fish and then basically throw them back out of the boat. Get them into your flock and shepherd them. And so today, this afternoon, I come to you, especially if you're a Puritan-loving sort of person, you're gonna love this because these other guys, I have to tell you, that have spoken before me, they're amateurs. They're just rank amateurs. What do they have? The most I think I heard was from Joel Beeky, six points. 30 reasons why you should leave your pulpit weekly. Oh, I don't know why you're laughing. Like to see it? Right there on the first page. And I got 14 of them right here. So here we go. Did I tell you about the second point? OK. Here we go. 30 reasons why you should leave the pulpit weekly. Number one, our Savior preached in the open air. Read John 5 through 10. That was basically a series of open air encounters. Consider John chapter 7. During the festival of tabernacles, of booths, the water ceremony is going on. And what did Jesus do with a loud voice proclaimed, I am living water. What was he doing? Open air preaching, man. And I know the thought. Well, it was OK back then, really. They loved it. They loved Jeremiah. They loved Stephen. He got killed for open air preaching. They regularly wanted to kill Jesus. I don't think it's ever been in fashion, ever. John Wesley, he wrote in his journal, he said, today I was honored to have several pieces of dead cat thrown at me. He rode thousands of miles on a horse to bring the gospel to the people who will never darken the doorstep of your church, or frankly, are never going to go to a Christian blog. We go to them, like Jesus did. Frankly, that should be the end of this exhortation. Jesus did it. You think you... He's God, and He stood up in front of people that didn't ask Him to open up His mouth, and He proclaimed the good news that He, the Messiah, the One who was promised, was in their midst. How can we not do likewise? Reason number two. How's about Isaiah doing open air preaching? How's about every Old Testament prophet doing open air preaching? Don't have to go here, I'll tell you when to turn in your Bible. Isaiah 58 one, God said, cry loudly, do not hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins. Open air preaching isn't for the faint of heart, men. We gotta do that. Now we've got to do that winsomely. We've got to do it well. I'm not talking about crazy Turner Byrne kind of preaching. I remember a video of some open air preacher, Lady Gaga. He was at the Lady Gaga concert. Lady Gaga pulled up. She rolled down the window because he saw a sign and he sticks his head in her car. They had video of it. Calling her a prostitute. It's entirely unreasonable, awful, shameful, embarrassing. But we can proclaim the laws of God and then point people to a magnificent Savior. It's not for the faint of heart, but the Old Testament saints did it. How's about all of the New Testament saints? I mentioned Stephen. I wonder what he would think of our temerity. and not wanting to go out into the open air. What about Peter? He was shut down for open air preaching, and his response, this is a little bit more of a paraphrase than the message was, sorry, can't listen to you. We listen to God. We can't help but preach about what we have seen and heard. We have a heritage. John Knox, if you've ever been to the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, that's as good as I get at a Scottish accent. If you're here from Scotland, I'm really sorry for that. There's a Royal Mile. It starts up with a castle at the top, and then the Queen's Castle is way down at the bottom, and in the middle as you walk down, a lot of cobblestone, a lot of shops. But there's a pulpit. on the street. It feels like you're in a different era. It's like 1100, and there's a pulpit like this, raised up. It was the pulpit of John Knox, who would finish preaching in the church, knowing that everybody in Scotland was not coming to hear him. He'd go outside, and he'd ascend the pulpit, and he'd proclaim the gospel in the open air. We have a heritage. Spurgeon was an open air preacher. Whitfield, we love to talk about the great revival. the great awakening that happened in our country. Whitfield was a part of that because of open-air preaching. We have a Protestant tradition. Why should you do open-air preaching? Number five, how's about this? You can preach to a lot of people. One-on-one evangelism is sweet, and I have to tell you, it's a lot easier. I'll tell you plainly, I do open-air preaching, and it ain't a party. It's not fun going there. It's not like I'm driving to the University of Georgia going, oh boy, I get to stand up with nobody around and start yelling. But guess what happens when God provides a crowd? And by the way, God must provide a crowd or it is hopeless for you. You can be as clever as you want to. You can come up with all the tricks and shenanigans and whiz-bangery. Put plates spinning on your head. It doesn't matter. You will not gather a crowd unless God gives them to you. But if you open up your voice, lift it up like a trumpet, you can witness to many people. I brought two clips today. Luke, this would be our first clip. Look at the kids. Don't look at me, look at the kids in this clip. Humble yourself. How do I do that? Look at the laws of God. Look at what he's going to do with you. The one who measures the universe by the span of his hand will judge you. If we put a computer chip behind your ear and recorded every thought that ran through your brain for one week, we have reassembled this crowd, but we brought in your family and friends, and then I put the little chip into a display onto a big screen. What would the world see about what goes through your brain? It's messed up, and it's sinful, and it's dirty, and it demonstrates that we've got a problem, and Jesus is the solution to the problem. You know you're a sinner. You know it. You go to sleep at night sometimes feeling guilty, or you wake up feeling dirty. There is forgiveness for you, and I will say this, too. If you're here today, and you think you've committed a sin that is beyond the mercy and grace of Jesus, you don't know Jesus. If you've aborted your baby, He will forgive you. If you have done something dirty, He will forgive you. If you had shameful, horrible activities before coming to this campus, or this morning, He will forgive you. And here's why. Because in forgiving dirty people, it shows how good He is. So if you're here today and you thought, I can't be forgiven. I'm too bad of a sinner. You don't know how good of a Savior Jesus is. Jesus paid it all for all sins. Repent and put your trust in him today. That's a lot of kids who heard the gospel. You could be doing that. Preaching to many as opposed to one at a time. You can impact an entire campus. I heard of a church, they're right next to a, it's actually a junior high school. They started doing a free breakfast program once a month. And it wasn't in a poor neighborhood, but they just offered free breakfast. They now have hundreds of kids coming every month, and they preach the gospel to these kids. We can reach a lot. It encourages Christians who walk by, if they hear the gospel, if it's not obnoxious, and I don't mind telling you, I actually remember this day. I had not nearly prayed enough this day. I can hear it in my tone, and I actually remember it when I was up there. You gotta pray a ton before you do open air preaching. I could just hear it in my voice, that my heart wasn't as broken as it should have been that day. But you could be one of those churches where the kids come or you're going out to them and they just know. Emilio Ramos, he's in University of North Texas, every Friday he's out there. And he sets up shop, kids are waiting for him, waiting for him. You can encourage the Christians who walk by and see it. It convicts the Christians, when they walk by and see it, who aren't witnessing to everyone. When they see you and your labors and your efforts, then they start thinking, yikes, what am I doing for the kingdom? Here's one for you, gentlemen. You preach in the open air, it'll change the way you preach from this pulpit, I promise you. It will change you profoundly. Yeah, this probably doesn't come as a shock to anybody, but I'm the biggest jerk on the planet, and that changes me. You look at the faces of these lost kids, you go and talk to these postmoderns, it's, oh, it's very easy. to call them snowflakes and to write them off as just postmodern and feeble-minded and ridiculous. They're lost, and they've simply been indoctrinated. And you go talk to those kids, you see their faces, and you know it, because 60 to 80% of kids who go to an evangelical church, they attend youth group, they get filled with lots of pizza and silly games, they run up to the university, and they notoriously backslide. We all know what it means. It's because they never slid forward in the first place. And you can talk to them. They're just waiting for you, and you see their faces. And when I went through that litany of sins, and many more sins, the issue of pornography, I mention pornography when I'm out there preaching, and I just watch this. because they're immersed, they're saturated in it, and it will change you. You will start pleading from your pulpit for people to be saved, and you're not gonna talk about those people out there. Look at how awful they are. Look what they're doing to our country, perhaps. They're lost. They're not our enemy. They're the harvest field, and they're probably not going to attend a little Reformed church someplace. Let's go and preach to them with more fervency. I'm telling you, you will return to your pulpit. I promise your sermons are going to be different. You will be fervent in your exhortations, and it will grow you. I don't know if this is a problem for you, but it is for me, humility. It will humble you to do this, because let's face it, that is foolishness. It'll humble you and change the way you preach. It'll grow you in compassion. Your heart will break for people. I gotta tell you, guys, I don't know how you do it. I've just learned the world is so hurting, so lost. I don't know how you deal with the people who are coming to you just looking desperate. You'll preach differently to them with more compassion than you already do. We're at number 11. Unbelievers hear the gospel as they walk by. Okay, they don't hear much, but they hear some of it. They hear something. Now, Phil was telling me that he was walking just a few blocks away and he heard some preacher. He was doing some open air, just reading the Bible. If you want to do that, you go ahead and do that. It just doesn't happen to be my thing. I want to be strategic. I want to go to a place where people can actually stop and listen. I don't want to be obnoxious. I don't want to go stand where people are at a cafe. They're trying to have a meal, and there I am going, has anybody ever told a lie? Anybody ever stolen anything? I think that goes to that table. Anybody ever looked with lust? To not be obnoxious, find a place where you can talk to people and where they can gather around. And if you want to just read the Bible, that's fine by me, but study up on it and preach to the people going by. Soul winning is what Jesus was all about. That's it. That's it. Jesus was a fisher of men. And he calls us to be fishermen. And here's why this is a little tricky for me today. What you're doing, please don't hear that this is a sermon like, okay, all that other pastoral stuff you're doing, get rid of that and start open air preaching. I'm not remotely suggesting that. Maybe some stuff could go. I'm not telling you how to run your church or how to apply this. You need to figure that out in your dynamic. But I would suggest to you that you somehow incorporate it and make it a part of your church fabric. It's just what you do. So maybe some stuff has to go. Maybe a program here or a program there. But be about the business that Jesus was about. He wants you to be a fisher of men. And I know that pagans come into our church. We get that, right? 1 Corinthians 14, some actually get saved. We understand that. But that's not going. And that's not compelling them to come in. That's doing your pastoral ministry. So you're going to have to figure this out for yourself, how this plays into it. I don't want to tell you to stop doing all of your pastoring, but all of your counseling has to stop. No more board meetings. Just go open-air preaching one day a week, gentlemen, and bring as many people with you as you can. It's going to change your church. because we're gonna be about the business that our master was about. Open air, it brings God great glory, even if nobody responds. Nobody gets saved. 2,000 years after the cross, some fool is standing up in the open air proclaiming Jesus is Lord. Brings God glory, whether people fall to their knees or not. If you're taking numbers, keeping track, God is glorified even when nobody is saved. Number 15, to keep the good news to ourselves. Very selfish, very selfish. We've got the message of good news. Y'all, we're not the IRS. I'm from the government, open up the books. We've got the good news of the gospel. Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Don't we care, don't we care? Are we gonna let them drown? How can we be so numb not to care if they come? How can we not care about these people? We close our eyes and pretend the job is done. Bless us indeed, bless us indeed. It's all we ever hear, but no one aches, no one weeps, no one even sheds a tear. But he weeps and he pleads and he takes care of our needs and we keep sitting back and soaking it in. Can't we see it as such sin? He's told us to speak, and we keep holding it in. Can't we see it as such sin? Do you remember the sewer that he pulled you out of? Remember the joy of salvation? You've got that. It's in a clay pot, to be certain. We've got the message of good news. Do we need more evidence? The world is broken, confused, hurting, and damned. Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Persecution is gonna come from that. You might have pieces of dead cat thrown at you. It's good for us. It's just good for us. You want to have a holy huddle, go out and do some open air preaching. Let me tell you something, you huddle when you're out there. Persecution is good. Look, we don't go out looking for it. It's not like, we're dopes. We just say, there's some horrible, I was, Phil and I were sharing, talking about some open air, Brother Jed, I mention his name because he's just an abominable open air preacher. He goes to a university campus and he takes his two Bibles, he smacks them together in the quadrangle so it echoes. You children need a Bible banging. You boys and girls need a scripture spanking. It's dreadful. We're not talking about going and doing that sort of foolishness, but when you go out and proclaim, you're a sinner. they don't usually jump for joy, and it's good for us. It also provides an opportunity for the church to do something kingdom-worthy together. Going out to do open-air preaching should be a team effort at your church. You figure out the details. You'll get that figured out. But, you know, going out to open-air preach, it's not just you going. You have to have somebody to go do it. Let somebody go out and do reconnaissance. Where do we go? How do we get this set up? Am I going to be in a soapbox? Is there a loud system? How are we going to, how should we do this? So somebody goes, they come back, like Joshua and Caleb, they bring a report. And then people are praying for you. And then you've got people who are organizing it to go out, transportation. And then you bring some extra people with you from church who maybe don't have the courage to do open air preaching, but when the kids walk away, they could actually walk alongside of them and say, so what'd you think about that guy? And witness to them. You could have somebody at your church, they're baking goods so that you can go out and give stuff away to the kids on the campus so that they get gathered around. Evangelism and open air preaching can be a team effort, and it's a joyful one, and it brings joy to you. Ray Comfort says, I go witnessing, dragging my feet, but I come back clicking my heels. There's a joy in being obedient. Phil, I haven't done this on purpose. Would you be kind enough? I don't know if you saw the picture that we had of Phil Johnson on our website. It's a picture of Phil. He's got a huge megaphone in front of his mouth because he went to an abortion clinic and he was preaching life. Please don't kill your baby. Please don't take the life of your child. And he was preaching to the women in the abortion clinic. Now, I didn't ask you this, Phil. How much fun was it on your way there? On your way there, were you thinking, yippee skippee, I can't wait to open up my lungs? Get a little pumped up. Now when it was done, were you glad that you went? Yeah, God doesn't have to do this. We're gonna talk about this in a bit, maybe. But God gives joy, the reward that he talks about for open air preaching, there is an eternal reward, but there's also the reward of, it's a joyful thing. I'm telling you, when you're done open air preaching, it's amazing how tired you won't be. It's a blessing God doesn't have to provide. Evangelism clarifies the gospel for the church. You lead, your church will follow. Why? Because you're not gonna be able to help but talk about it. It's gonna get woven into your sermons. I know it is. You go out and witness to people this week, go out this week, and I'll bet it shows up in your sermon. I was witnessing to this fellow today at the ice cream parlor. When you pray, your church can start praying for these people, evangelistic prayers, petitioning God to save people. What about through the internet? You can send out little emails letting people know, somebody got witness to, please pray for this guy. And you can share in that joy as a congregation. Be an example to your flock because if you don't care for the lost, they won't either. That is a fact. And we are so distracted. Look, this is hard because I know it. I know you're busy. But programs are not getting the world saved. Politics are not getting the world saved. I don't know if you heard the news blast about this, but Karen Handel, woo-hoo, she won. Beating John Ossoff in the 6th District in Atlanta. Nobody got saved from that. Not one person. but your church is gonna start caring more about the lost than politics when you lead them with evangelistic fervor. Your fervency of prayer will increase. We've been talking a fair amount about prayer. I think I've been hearing some sermons about prayer today. You'll start praying. Let me tell you, you pray hard on your way to go witnessing to people who have no desire to see you show up. You pray a lot. Fervency of fellowship will increase. We're loving our neighbor when we evangelize. You'll start thinking more outwardly than inwardly. Here's one. The culture will change. What would happen? If the person who's gonna be the president in 20 years gets saved because of you preaching on a campus, do you think our country might be different? We all wanna see culture change, nothing wrong with that. I don't think the mechanism is politics, but what would happen, I don't know, if Bernie Sanders got saved, do you think that he'd grill Russell Vought for wanting to be the deputy director of the Office of Business and Management about being a Christian? Do you think maybe if Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, got saved from open-air preaching, that Planned Parenthood would be a big worry? What if Hillary Clinton got saved? Barack Obama could get saved, you know? That could change things. Do you want to see your culture changed? We are the change agents. Politics doesn't, look, do whatever you want to do with politics. But you wanna see the culture changed? It's the power of the proclaimed word by the power of the Holy Spirit. Administrations come, administrations go. When people get saved, that lasts for eternity. Reason number 27, ha, you didn't think we were gonna get through this. Reason number 27, and this should pretty much seal it, because Charles Spurgeon said so. Other than the organ crack, he was very good. Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself, be sure of that. We should all tremble at that. Look, we're gonna leave here. Look at all of us with the knowledge of the gospel. We're gonna leave here. Chances are very good we're gonna walk by about 1,000 people on our way to our hotel, to our car, to our train. Will we witness to anybody? Will we talk to anybody about the gospel? I can't tell you, look, I'm not, this isn't a finger point, really it's not, but I go to conferences, and there'll be like a hotel or something, where they'll rent it, and I'll find somebody who's just working there, making a living, and I'll ask them, has anybody ever, they've talked to you about the gospel, anybody who's here? No. Filled with Christians, filled with Christians. Have you no wish for others to be saved? I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ than unravel all the mysteries of the divine word. Salvation is the one thing we are to live for. Lost, lost, lost. Better a whole world on fire than a soul lost. If sinners be damned, let them leap to hell over our bodies with our arms wrapped around their knees. Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Don't we care? Charles Spurgeon, God save us from living in comfort while sinners are sinking into hell. And we must school and train ourselves to deal personally with the unconverted. We must not excuse ourselves, but force ourselves to the irksome task until it becomes easy. It is an irksome task. I once heard Alistair Begg, I think most of us know Alistair Begg, I was so impressed by this. Every day when he's at his church, he leaves and goes to McDonald's or to Chipotle or wherever to have lunch, you know why? So he can find one sinner to share the gospel with him. Did you know that about Al Begg? I call him Al Begg because he's not here. D. James Kennedy, I was told. He was showing the campus all of the work of his hands that he had built, and he said to the man who was with him, all of this will be gone within a decade after I die. The one thing that will last is when I ring on doorbells. Do you know that D. James Kennedy was a doorbell ringer? Till he died? You know the only people who are doorbell ringers? Where's our friends from Bob Jones? Fundamentalist Baptist. They're bell ringers. I gotta tell you, I love that about you guys. They got those ratchety buses that they load up and they take them into the inner cities and they gather up the kids and they preach the gospel to them. Why are our denominate, my Southern Baptist friends, why is the denomination shrinking? I heard it went down a million, a million. And maybe the numbers are inflated regardless. A million? Southern Baptists used to be bell ringers. Ding dong, we're from the church down the street. Do you know the gospel of Jesus Christ? Oh, that's what the Mormons do. Yeah, and they're growing. They're advancing. The Jehovah's Witnesses, man, overseas in Ukraine, they're bell ringers. They're soul winners. Now, they're not winning anybody, but we could. I wonder if that's why our denominations are shrinking. Number 28, consider the life of Paul. I brought so many verses for this. Let's just try this one. 2 Corinthians 5, if you would be so kind to turn there, 2 Corinthians 5. 16, while you're turning in Ephesians 6, Paul asks the Ephesians and the Colossians in Colossians 4, to pray for him that I may proclaim boldly as I ought to speak." Paul needed prayer. Look, he came to the Corinthians with what? Fear, much trembling, and no eloquency of speech. Anybody here qualified? Fear, trembling, no eloquence, but he came and he preached Christ and him crucified. And as you jump to 2 Corinthians 5, we see why he did what he did. Verse 16, therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh. In other words, when he'd see people, he didn't assess them, we're in the fashion district, didn't check out their clothes, what sort of shoes are they wearing, what kind of car are they driving, how much could they, nope, none of that. He sees them as a lost sinner. We recognize no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. All of these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave me, Us, the ministry of reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Verse 20, therefore I, nope, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. Clay pots. It's a privilege to bring the gospel. Jump over your fears. Get past it. We must humble ourselves. We look like dopes. I get it. But here's what I know, people hear the gospel and people get saved. In fact, that's our next point. Would you play the next clip if you'd be so kind? and will not perish, but have everlasting life. By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, so that nobody can boast. In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as a sacrifice for us. God demonstrated His love by dying for us while we were yet sinners. He did it all. Then, when I rest in His works, then I want to do good works because of what has been done for me. So, if you're striving to please God with your works, you cannot. Jesus did. Jesus will see that your sins are forgiven, you're credited with His righteousness, and then when God looks at you, even when you're sinning, He sees you as righteous because He sees you through the work of Jesus. That's grace, and that's the Protestant distinctive, and that's why the Reformation happened. And so, if you are feeling a burden of doing, striving, kind of, and maybe God will, I'm here to declare to you, come unto Him, and He will give you rest. People get saved. I talked to the kids afterwards. Is it a revival? No, I don't have a white Nehru jacket and I can't knock people over and set them on fire and have them flow in the river and have glory dust glitter down. It's not that, but kids get saved. They get saved from this. Why does Paul do all things? 1 Corinthians 9, 19. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I may win more. And he repeats that phrase five times, that I might win. We are fools for Christ's sake. What was he willing to endure? You know the laundry list in 2 Corinthians 11 for beatings. And from shipwreck, he was imprisoned. He was put in chains. Why? That he might make some rich. Paul's heart was obedient to the command. He'd seen the resurrected Jesus. And he was willing to be a fool for Christ's sake. And that leads us To our final point, the words of our master, he didn't just model open air preaching and witnessing and evangelizing, he commands it of us. Matthew 10, 7, as you go preach saying the kingdom of God is at hand, 27, what I tell you in darkness, speak in light and what you hear in the air, proclaim on the housetops. Matthew 28, 19, you know, Acts 10, 42, Peter said, while doing open air preaching, Jesus ordered us to proclaim to the people and to testify that this is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. Do we need more than that? Do we need more motivation? Why have we lost our zeal to be soul winners? Maybe, just maybe, today is the day when we refocus. Let me suggest a few things that might help us do that so that we leave this place desiring to be proclaimers of the good news. How many of you are not from New York City or from this area? How many? Okay, I don't know if you had the same feeling. I was grieved walking around here last night. This is the best. This is the best the world has. This is it. This is fashion and theater, high rises, expensive real estate. I've just watched people out the hotel window today and it's like they're traipsing up to their jobs and they're thinking, this is as good as it gets. and they die, and they go to hell, and they realize that was it. And that should motivate us. That would be one of my encouragements to you. Consider the fate of the ungodly. What faces them? Eternal, conscience, torment. Just reading a great Cripplegate article talking about hell, what a shock it is gonna be to the sinner who wakes up from death to be standing in front of their judge. a stern judge who opens up the books to a name with their page on it, uncontestable evidence because it was seen by the judge himself, evidence of their guilt, and proclaims to them swiftly, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, and they are gone. Fast, and they realize judgment has come. It is thorough and it is sealed. And after a week of weeping and gnashing their teeth, and after 10,000 years when we've been singing about the joys of God forevermore, 10,000 years, they won't be a millisecond closer to the end. Consider the horror for these people. I know they rail. I know what they think of us these days. They are going to die. and they are going to beg God to simply grind them to powder. They want the mountains to fall on them rather than to face the wrath of the Lamb. Who is going to come on a white stallion Inflaming fire with a sword coming out of his mouth, with blood dripping down his thigh, furious at sinners. God is not fury. God is love, but he is angry at the wicked every day, and he will not change his tune, and he will pour out his wrath day after day after day on the people who might be getting up your nose in your neighborhood or on TV. They are going to hell. We need to ponder their eternity as much as we ponder ours. What else might need to happen? It's possible that we become the Church of Ephesus. Revelation chapter two, what was the critique of the Church of Ephesus? And it's very likely, it could be describing us. They were a high-minded church. They were the discernment bloggers, hopefully better than ours today, but they were the discernment bloggers of the day. They were doing church discipline, pointing out evil men. They did not put up with any false teaching. Sound like us. But they lost their first love. This is a hard... When you get saved, do you remember how you felt when you got saved? Do you remember witnessing to people when you got saved? You maybe should have been locked in a cage when you first got saved, like I should have been, but nevertheless, you had to tell people about this. Where did that go? Where did that go? Now, I get it. Like in marriage, it grows deeper and more profound, and you can't expect to walk around like, hoo-hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo-hoo, all the time. But where did that first love go? We need to repent and return to our former deeds. How can you do that? How do you do that? How do you find that joy again? Suggestion number one, let's take a trip to heaven, a real one. No malarkey about this trip to heaven. Turn your Bible to Isaiah chapter six, and we're gonna close up here. Isaiah chapter six, please. Let's go to heaven. Isaiah chapter six, very familiar story to you. But let's take some time, just a bit, to make our way through this. In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord seated on a throne. This is Isaiah, chapter six, verse one. Lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple, seraphim stood before him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and one called out to one another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. And Isaiah's response, woe is me, for I am ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. What just happened? The gospel, a picture of the gospel. Everything about me is unclean, and the angel cleans him, forgiven. Look at the response of Isaiah. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, verse eight, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Isaiah. Here am I. Send me. Why? Because he'd been forgiven. Pastor, you've been proclaiming forgiveness. Have you been reveling in forgiveness? I know what it's like to study to deliver. I get that really well. Sir, do you go to the trough of grace and feast yourself? Are you feeding your own soul? Are you remembering forgiveness? Are you remembering that you are naked, wretched, blind, and you have a Savior who forgives day after day? Are you applying the gospel to yourself? It's so easy to get off course with this. What happened to Isaiah when he remembered forgiveness, when he realized his sins were forgiven? Here am I. Send, I'll go. That's what'll happen to us. When we remember the grace of God, when we think about it ourselves, like it happened yesterday, you were forgiven, you're being forgiven, you're gonna be forgiven, we must remember that because the response is, I'll go. I'll look like a fool. You want me to go? I'll go because I remember forgiveness. Pastor, has it been a while since you've been to the cross? It's so easy to write about it and preach about it, but have you been there lately? May I ask? Let's go. Let's go to the cross right now. Let's use our senses to take it in, because it's a visual spectacle. It's a horror to the ears, and we need to go to remember what our God has done for us. Listen, listen to the lashes of the cat-o'-nine-tails rip through the back of the Prince of Heaven. Cat-o'-nine-tails lashing his back. Can you hear them? Can you hear the dull thud of the Roman soldier's fists? as they hit the face of the diamond of heaven. Do you know what a fist sounds like when it hits somebody in the head? It's not like a movie. In a movie, it goes, psh, psh. It's a sound effect. You know the sound, don't you? Got a gym at your church? All the parents are gathered around the gym. Kids are playing. Everybody's having a good time, but somebody falls, and they hit their head on the ground, and it goes thud, and it stops the whole place, and everybody goes, oh. That's what it sounds like when you're getting hit in the face. Our Savior was so beaten you couldn't tell He was a human being. Do you hear the sound of the fists? What about the screams that must have come out of His mouth when those thorns were being smashed into His head? Turn your eyes away now as they strip the Creator and mock Him, the Creator being stripped naked and mocked by His creation. For you, pastor, for you, deacon, for you, elder, it's not done yet. Listen to the nails, listen to the nails being driven through the wrists from the carpenter of Galilee. And what about the nails going through the feet? Do you know where the nails went through? Just saw a documentary on this. They didn't probably go through the two feet because they've been finding the crucifixion nails aren't long enough to hold two feet together. So instead, they would have the criminal straddle the cross and bang the nails through the Achilles of the beautiful feet who walked on water. Listen, can you hear him gasping for breath? dying on a cross, because that's how you die on a cross. Everything gets pulled down and you can't breathe. And he gasped for breath and proclaimed, paid in full. It's finished. For you, pastor. For us. He did that for us. Who will go? Who will go? Who will say, here am I, send me, send me? Hark the voice of Jesus crying. Who will go and work today? Fields are white and harvest waiting. Who will bear the sheaves away? Loud and long the master calleth, rich reward he offers thee. Who will answer gladly saying, anyone? Let's pray. Father, we are unworthy to approach your throne, but for the blood of Jesus Christ, our God, we have been unfaithful. You have given us a glorious message, a message that saved us. Would you please rethrill our souls with that good news? Will you please grant us compassion so that we can see the world not as the enemy, but as the harvest field? Will you please help us in our daily studies and work to remember to take out time to enjoy you ourselves as we study your word and prepare for your people? Please give us the words to speak, the courage to go, that you might be glorified and receive the full reward for your suffering. Jesus, it's in your name we pray, amen.