Evangelism Training

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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October 10, 2018

00:00: So, tonight we're going to be going over a lesson that is specific to what we are going to be doing as a church over the next 10 days.
00:28: Over the next 10 days our church is going to be at the Northeast Florida Fair in Callahan.
00:34: I know that some of you have already signed up to participate in that event and the schedule is up on the board and at the end of tonight's lesson I want to talk to you about some of those red X's because those red X's represent places where I don't have people and I'm hoping that maybe some of you will be moved by the lesson to want to fill possibly one of those spots.
01:02: I am thankful that you are here tonight.
01:05: You'll notice behind me over my shoulder is the television.
01:10: The lesson for tonight is going to be partially done through a PowerPoint presentation because I do have a few videos to show you.
01:19: One of the things that I think keeps us from evangelism in so many ways is fear.
01:25: I have learned over the years that people are not afraid to do that which they do well.
01:31: The only way to get good at anything is to practice and so that's kind of why we do the fishing hole at the fair.
01:40: It's not only to go out and seek the loss which is the primary thing but it's also to go out and practice seeking the loss so that when this 10 days is up we will take that out into other areas of our life.
01:56: Maybe our work or maybe our home or maybe our family or maybe some friends that we have just been intimidated in regard to sharing the gospel.
02:07: Again as I said in my prayer a minute ago it's like boot camp.
02:10: You go out there and you're handing out gospel tracts.
02:13: You're having conversations and you're engaging people and maybe stepping a little bit outside of what you are normally comfortable doing.
02:20: I will tell you there are many blessings that come with that but also it's just good training.
02:27: Like I said people are not afraid to do that which they do well and the only way to get good at anything is to practice and so that's what this is all about and you'll see the title lesson tonight is fair evangelism.
02:38: That is not opposed to unfair evangelism but meaning actually the fair.
02:44: This is our fourth year and over the years we have given away thousands of gospel tracts in fact this year I ordered 4,000 and that is my goal.
02:55: That would mean we give away over a period of 10 days that we would give away over 400 a day.
03:02: Now that's a lofty goal but that is the goal.
03:05: I'll say this we have had thousands in the past and we've given them all away.
03:09: I opened up a box today because my son and I went out this morning and set the booth up and when we got out there I opened up the box from last year and I had a few boxes that had just a few tracts each which was great because those boxes were full when we started.
03:25: And so I took what was left and combined them all and put them with the new ones and we were going to go out and do that this year.
03:33: Well tonight we're going to look at two things.
03:34: I gave you a worksheet when you came in.
03:36: If you don't have it this is not only a worksheet but this is also a reminder sheet if you are going to go do some evangelism with us.
03:43: If you are going to go out to the booth you might want to put this in your purse or maybe put it in your wallet if you don't carry a purse and maybe have it because what this is is it reminds us of two things.
03:56: It reminds us of our mandate and it reminds us also of our methodology.
04:02: I do think that there are unbiblical methods of evangelism.
04:07: We're going to talk about some of those tonight.
04:09: And I hope that I don't move too quickly but I've got a lot to say so I'm going to be going right along.
04:14: If you have a question feel free to ask but know that I'm going to be moving pretty briskly through the lesson tonight.
04:20: The first thing I want to look at though is our mandate.
04:23: Our mandate for this comes from the scriptures.
04:28: I do think that a lot of churches don't understand the necessity of this mandate.
04:35: I think that when it comes to evangelism people say well there's evangelistic churches and there's not evangelistic churches.
04:42: There's churches that are concerned with evangelism and there's churches that are not.
04:46: And I will say this, I would say there are probably some churches that just simply have more people that are gifted in evangelism.
04:53: But I would say this, any church should be evangelizing because that's the mandate of the church.
05:00: In fact, Charles Spurgeon said that if we do not concern ourselves with the lost then we can be confident that we ourselves are lost.
05:11: If we are not concerned with the salvation of the lost then we are ourselves certainly not among the saved.
05:18: So here are some scriptures to think about.
05:20: Matthew chapter 4 verse 18.
05:22: It says, while walking by the sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting an ed into the sea for they were fishermen.
05:32: And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
05:36: And immediately they left their nets and followed them.
05:38: Followed him, followed Jesus.
05:40: That passage reminds us that when Jesus first called his disciples he told them from the very beginning, I'm calling you to a ministry of evangelism.
05:51: I'm calling you to a ministry of catching men.
05:56: In fact, I always heard the term fishers of men until I saw the Jesus film.
06:01: I don't know if you've ever seen the Jesus film, it's a project that's done and it goes all over the world.
06:05: And it's fairly well done, I've seen it several times.
06:08: But in that particular film, the character of Jesus is played by a man and he says, I'm going to teach you to catch men.
06:16: He didn't say fishers of men, he said I'm going to teach you to catch men.
06:19: I always thought that was an interesting way of rephrasing that particular verse.
06:24: Because that's what we're doing, we're seeking to reach out and catch men for the gospel.
06:28: And we know we can't change a heart, but we can be used of God to reach out and put the line in the water, as it were, and seek to catch them.
06:37: The next verse we're looking at here is Matthew 28.
06:40: This is the Great Commission.
06:42: And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
06:49: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
06:59: And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
07:02: I point out this passage for a couple of reasons.
07:05: One, if you read this in the original language, you'll notice that the actual verb in the sentence is not go, oftentimes the word go is seen as the verb there, but the actual verb is the making of disciples.
07:19: That's the going, that's what we're going to do, that's the work, that's the action, is make disciples.
07:26: And so we see in this passage the call to do what we're doing, and that's make disciples.
07:31: And making disciples doesn't mean we go cause people to make decisions.
07:37: Because to be honest with you, there are some other church groups out there, and I'm not here to disparage or bring any negative, but one in particular, I know because I talked to them last year, their main goal is to get people to pray a prayer and sign a card so that at the end of the week they can say we had this many decisions.
07:56: I'm telling you that's not our goal.
07:59: My goal is not to have somebody make a 30 second change for Christ that lasts about as long as the prayer.
08:07: I want to see people be made into disciples, I want to see people made into worshipers.
08:10: You know why evangelism exists? John Piper said it, he said evangelism exists because worship doesn't.
08:16: We're seeking to make worshipers.
08:19: You know, these are people who should be worshiping God and they're not.
08:22: They should be disciples of Christ, but they're not.
08:24: And so we're not just seeking to have somebody make a decision that lasts as long as the prayer, we're seeking to have somebody come to Christ in a real way that's life changing.
08:33: If Christ doesn't change your life, He's not your Savior, He's not your Lord.
08:38: And so we have a different methodology.
08:39: We want to lead somebody to Christ, of course, if somebody says will you pray with me right now, I'll pray with you right now, that's fine.
08:45: But the goal is to put the gospel into their mind, into their heart, into their head, so that the Lord will do what only He can do.
08:51: Only He can take that heart of stone out and give them a heart of flesh.
08:56: So we go and we proclaim the gospel.
08:58: I was telling Cody about this earlier because we were driving away, I said the difference between us is their goal is to get decisions and our goal is to proclaim the gospel.
09:12: And while those two things may sound the same, they're really not.
09:15: Because if your goal is to get decisions, then it is possible that you would manipulate the meaning or the proclamation of the gospel to get that decision.
09:26: If your goal is the decision rather than the proclamation, then your goal is in the wrong place.
09:31: Yes, I'd love to see somebody trust Christ.
09:34: But if that means manipulating the gospel to get them to do so, then I don't want any part of it.
09:40: I'm going to proclaim the gospel and let God be the one who changes their heart.
09:44: The third one is 2 Corinthians 5.20.
09:48: Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
09:55: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
09:58: Now if I had time, I could exegete these verses and spend a lot of time with them, but the part of this passage I just want to point out is the part where we are ambassadors, representatives of Christ.
10:08: So when we are there, we take seriously what we're doing.
10:11: We're not there to be fools.
10:13: We're not there to be entertainers.
10:16: We're not there to put on a show.
10:20: We are there to be a representative of Jesus Christ.
10:23: Now that doesn't mean we can't have fun with the people when they come up, and sometimes we do.
10:26: We talk to them and talk about our lives, maybe tell a little joke or something.
10:31: We might even, with the kids, we have a big bag of dum-dums that we give away, a little candy that we give to the kids to talk to them.
10:39: Those things are fine, but ultimately we're representing Christ when we do that.
10:44: We are there to be ambassadors for Christ, and our goal is reconciliation.
10:52: Not reconciliation between us and them, reconciliation between them and God.
10:57: And how does reconciliation come? It comes only through Jesus Christ.
11:01: So that's our mandate.
11:02: Our mandate is that we are to be fishers of men, we are to go and proclaim the gospel and make disciples, and remembering while we do so that we are ambassadors for Christ.
11:14: Now we're going to look at methodology, and this is where we're going to dig into some of the meat of what we're going to be doing.
11:21: Methodology when it comes to evangelism is far and wide one of the most controversial subjects in the history of the church, because people come up with ideas that they say this is evangelism or that's evangelism, and they come up with ideas of what they think people ought to do, and they get kind of pigeonholed and they say well this is the only way to do it or that's the only way to do it.
11:44: I'm going to tell you tonight, there is no one way that could be right, but there's a lot of ways that are wrong.
11:54: That make sense when I say that? There's several ways it can be right, and I'm going to talk about some of those ways as far as how you engage conversations, how you take them to the gospel, and how you explain it to them.
12:04: But there's a few ways that I would say are wrong.
12:06: And you might say well this really doesn't have to do with the fishing hole, well this lesson hopefully will go beyond that, because here's three ways that I would say are wrong when it comes to evangelism.
12:17: The first way is lifestyle evangelism.
12:20: How many of you ever heard somebody say this, I'm not going to tell people about Jesus, I'm just going to live like a Christian and they will see Jesus in me.
12:31: You've heard people say that? My response is always the same.
12:35: I say you don't watch TV with the mute on, you wouldn't know what was going on if you don't open your mouth, I can't hear what you're saying.
12:43: And I tell people, I say this, I say atheists hold doors for people.
12:49: Atheists give to charity, and atheists love their mama.
12:56: So don't tell me that your living for Jesus is evangelism.
13:00: Because nobody is going to know what your living for Jesus is if you don't tell them.
13:06: Just living a good life doesn't evangelize anyone.
13:11: Now somebody might come at me and say, but Pastor, the Bible says, Jesus said they'll know you're Christians by your love for one another.
13:22: And that is true.
13:23: Our love for one another is one of the ways that we testify to our faith.
13:27: But it's not one of the ways that we win the lost, it's one of the ways that the lost differentiates us from the rest of the world.
13:35: Understand this, we should be good ambassadors.
13:39: We should have good lifestyles.
13:41: We should love one another so that the world sees something different in us.
13:45: And if somebody does come up to you and say there's something different about you, and I want to know what it is, then praise God.
13:52: But you don't just say keep watching, you tell them about Jesus.
13:56: This lifestyle of angelism has become very popular because it removes the onus, it removes the responsibility of opening our mouths.
14:07: How many of you have ever heard the phrase, preach the gospel often and when necessary use words? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
14:17: Preach the gospel often, when necessary use words is what people say who don't want to preach the gospel.
14:26: The gospel is words.
14:26: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
14:32: So I would say lifestyle of angelism, that's no good.
14:37: And if somebody wants to argue, we'll do it after.
14:40: But that's number one.
14:41: Number two, friendship of angelism, sort of like the first one, but this one's a little different.
14:46: This got real popular in the 90s.
14:50: Friendship of angelism says this, it says before I can share the gospel with anyone, I have to spend time with them and develop a friendship first.
15:00: And you know, some people say, well that sounds good, that sounds right.
15:03: You know, you should spend time with somebody, you should love them, you should become friends with them.
15:06: Here's what happens though.
15:08: You spend time with somebody, you become friends with somebody, then you say this, oh well now we're too good of friends, if I tell them about Jesus I'm going to mess up our friendship.
15:16: You go from, we're not good enough friends to share Jesus, to we're too good of friends to share Jesus.
15:24: On the thirteenth page of this book, The Way of the Master by Ray Comfort, he tells a story and I don't want to read the whole thing just because of time, but he has a little story here about a man and a woman who are sitting at lunch and they're both Christians and they're at lunch at work and they're talking about a friend who they've been living before and making friends with, but they haven't told him about Jesus yet.
15:47: And they keep saying, well maybe it'll come, maybe one day he'll ask us.
15:50: Maybe one day he'll ask us and they're going back and forth.
15:52: But maybe one day he'll ask us and they're at work, they're having lunch and the lady walks by.
15:58: And this is part of the story, you can take this book and read it if you want, but the lady walks by and they said, hey where's Jim today or whatever the guy's name is.
16:05: And they said, well Jim died last night.
16:08: How long you got to take and make friends with somebody? I love the fact that Ray Comfort said you can share the gospel with somebody within five minutes of meeting them.
16:17: That's what the fishing hole trains us to do.
16:19: Cut to the chase.
16:24: Get on with it.
16:24: Let them know who you are.
16:26: Let them know what you're about.
16:27: Well, they won't want to be my friend anymore.
16:29: Is being your friend more important than you sharing the gospel with them? That's an important question.
16:36: The third one is God has a wonderful plan for your life, evangelism.
16:40: God has a wonderful plan, evangelism.
16:43: You say, well what is that? That is what I say the unbiblical message.
16:49: People will say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
16:55: I would like for anyone to show me where that was the message of the Apostle Paul.
17:02: Or that that was the message of Peter in the book of Acts.
17:06: Or that that was the message of any evangelist in any book of the Bible.
17:14: You say, well is it wrong to tell somebody God has a wonderful plan for your life? Define wonderful plan because when I'm talking to an unbelieving person, their idea of wonderful and God's idea of wonderful are probably going to be different.
17:29: How do we explain, how do we understand how we're going to explain the gospel? That's what we're going to get to, the biblical methodology.
17:34: But I would say the unbiblical methodology is to sell someone a bill of goods.
17:41: Ray Comfort has a great story about this actually.
17:44: He talks about somebody being on an airplane.
17:48: He said, imagine a person's on an airplane and a stewardess walks up and has a parachute.
17:54: And she said, I want you to put this parachute on because it's going to make your flight better.
18:01: I guess, I believe you, you're the stewardess, you're the flight attendant, you know what you're doing.
18:07: I'll trust you for a minute.
18:08: So he takes and puts a parachute on and immediately realizes it's very heavy.
18:14: Now he's lurched forward in his seat because he's got this big parachute on his back, he can't sit comfortably in his seat.
18:19: And the people around him are looking at him and making fun of him because who's this fool wearing a parachute? And eventually the parachute becomes a burden to him.
18:28: And that promise of wonderful life that the stewardess gave to him starts to look more and more like an untrue statement.
18:37: And eventually he gets frustrated and he stands up and he takes it off and he throws it down.
18:41: And he says, I don't know why I ever did that to begin with.
18:47: But what if the flight attendant came up and said, sir, in 30 minutes, we're going to push you off this plane.
18:57: And here's a parachute, put it on and get ready.
19:07: They say, well, is that the gospel? No, but we got to remind people there's a jump coming.
19:14: The Bible said it is appointed unto men once to die and then comes judgment.
19:18: Everybody's got a jump coming.
19:21: And you tell that man you're going to get off this airplane at 30,000 feet.
19:24: He might hold a little tighter than that parachute.
19:26: He might realize there's only one thing in the world that can save me and it's on my back.
19:29: And even though it's heavy and even though people are making fun of me and even though it's making my seat uncomfortable, I got to hold on to this parachute because this is my life.
19:39: You understand the difference between that and God has a wonderful plan for your life? When you tell him what Jesus really is, he's the only person who can save you and you deserve the wrath of God.
19:49: And one day you're going to face that God in judgment and there's only one who can save you.
19:55: You understand the difference? You understand what I mean by this? Because these are what I say, the unbiblical methodology.
20:00: And I've learned a lot from Ray Comfort.
20:01: I'm going to tell you tonight I would testify to this if it weren't for Ray, if it weren't for Kirk Cameron, if it weren't for the men of Way of the Master.
20:11: There's even Todd Friel who came out of that.
20:14: These men, when I was young, I was 24, 25 years old.
20:18: I was in seminary and Jennifer and I began to watch and learn about evangelism from a man who I would say is the most passionate evangelist I've ever seen.
20:25: That's Ray Comfort.
20:27: And I've known a lot of men who love to share Jesus.
20:29: I've never met a man that I thought loved to do it more.
20:34: And so if somebody says, well, you sound a lot like Ray Comfort tonight, good.
20:39: If I've got to sound like somebody, I better sound like somebody who's good.
20:43: But there's other men, you know, D.
20:44: James Kennedy had a heart for evangelism.
20:46: An evangelism explosion back in the 70s and 80s was very powerful.
20:50: And he had the same attitude.
20:53: And the attitude was you go to somebody and you say, if you died tonight and you faced God and God said, why should I let you into heaven? What would be your answer? That was the question of evangelism explosion.
21:04: And most people say, well, I'm a good person.
21:06: And that's when you say, no, you are not.
21:10: You see, though, that so so Ray Ray didn't invent this, but he spent all this time making all these videos.
21:19: And for guys like me, I learn a lot from listening and watching other people.
21:22: I'm a I'm very much a monkey see monkey do type of guy.
21:25: I see somebody else do it.
21:26: I can do it, you know, so I get out there and I do what they do.
21:29: And that's part of what this is about.
21:31: This week of fair evangelism is so you can be monkey see monkey do you come out there do it with us.
21:37: Man, you want to see somebody who loves to evangelize? Look at Mike Collier.
21:42: Sometimes I get tired.
21:43: I have to sit behind the booth.
21:44: My knees get tired and I get tired and I'm old and he's older than me, but he doesn't look like it.
21:49: He just hops up there that he just chasing people down to give him the gospel in a good way.
21:56: But he does.
21:57: He just he goes and gets them.
21:59: And so so anyway, I just there's unbiblical methods.
22:02: Let's go very quickly through the biblical method.
22:04: There's two parts to the biblical method of evangelism and how you introduce the conversation, how you have the conversation that's going to be different every time how you engage a person might be different every time.
22:14: But here's the parts, the high points, the parts you do not want to miss.
22:18: Number one, the part one is the bad news.
22:22: You know, you know, gospel means good news, right? Well, that it's good news predicated on an understanding of the bad news.
22:27: And if somebody comes up to you and they already understand the bad news, you can skip this part.
22:32: If somebody comes up and says, I've broken the law of God, I'm a sinner and I'm going to go to hell.
22:37: You ain't got to tell them again.
22:39: They got it.
22:40: Move on to the good news.
22:42: But not everybody does.
22:43: In fact, most people don't.
22:44: The Bible says almost every man will testify to his own goodness.
22:48: So most people don't understand this part.
22:51: And that's why this part is so important.
22:52: We have to help people understand that they're lost before we can get them saved.
22:57: So the first thing is explaining law-breaking as the definition of sin.
23:03: Understanding law-breaking as the definition of sin.
23:07: People think, if I ask people, what is sin? People, it's doing bad things.
23:10: It's hurting God's feelings.
23:11: I've heard that one a lot.
23:13: It's doing anything God says don't do.
23:16: And that's close.
23:17: But the Bible says in 1 John 3, verse 4, that sin is breaking the law of God.
23:24: And when you present it to somebody in that way, it's, I think, very convicting to the heart.
23:29: Because if people know about law and justice, and you can paint a picture of a courtroom, and you can say, think about a courtroom.
23:36: Think about how courtrooms are.
23:38: If a man goes before a judge and he has broken the law, what is the judge going to do to him? He's going to punish him for breaking that law.
23:47: And that's the next step in the line.
23:49: First you explain the definition of sin is breaking the law of God.
23:52: Then you explain the righteousness of God.
23:54: You say, if God is righteous, will He punish law-breaking? And if they say, well, I don't think so.
24:01: I think He's forgiving God.
24:02: I don't think He would punish law-breaking.
24:04: I say, if you go home tonight and you found out that your mother had been beaten, and they caught the guy who did it, and they brought him in front of a judge, and the judge said, we know you did it.
24:15: We got the evidence, but we're going to set you free.
24:18: You're forgiven.
24:20: What would you say about that judge? Oh, he's a rat.
24:23: That judge needs to be disbarred.
24:25: And I say, you say he's unrighteous? Yeah, he's unrighteous.
24:29: Well, God is righteous.
24:33: You know the scariest thing about God? Is that God is good, because a good judge will punish sin.
24:46: He will punish the breaking of the law.
24:50: The scariest thing about God is He is good, because we're not.
24:57: Third thing, explain the predicament of mankind.
25:00: All mankind stands guilty before the righteous judgment of God, and are subject to His penalty, which is eternal hell.
25:07: What is the penalty of breaking God's law? Hell.
25:13: You say, are you a hellfire preacher? Yeah, Jesus was a hellfire preacher.
25:19: Now, I don't always just say, well, you're going to go to hell, and point my finger at Him, or something like that, but I explain to them, here is the law, here is the breach of the law, here is the punishment for that breach.
25:31: Why is it eternal hell? Because you have offended an eternal Creator.
25:35: You've offended an infinitely good God, making your sin an infinitely bad transgression.
25:44: And that's worthy of His punishment.
25:48: So you stand worthy of the judgment of God.
25:51: That's the bad news, and that's where you want to bring them to.
25:56: You want to get them to understand where they are.
26:01: The Bible teaches, we give the law to the proud, and grace to the humble.
26:09: But the reason why we give law to the proud, is to humble them, so we can give them grace.
26:13: That's the whole point.
26:14: So now we're going to move on to Part 2, and I'm going through these quickly.
26:18: If I have a person that understands the law, they understand they've broken the law, they understand where they are before God, then I can explain Jesus as the only sinless person ever.
26:26: Jesus, the Bible declares, never sinned in any way, not in thought, word, or deed.
26:30: Hebrews 4, verse 15 says, He was like us in every way, yet without sin.
26:35: He was without sin.
26:37: And so the only person who ever broke the law of God was Jesus.
26:40: So the only person who ever lived a righteous life was Jesus.
26:43: And guess what we did to Him? We killed Him.
26:45: The only guy who didn't deserve death, because the Bible says the wages of sin is death, the only guy who didn't deserve death was the guy who got it the worst.
26:53: Jesus.
26:55: And Jesus died for one reason.
26:56: He died as a substitute for sinners.
26:58: That's the next thing on the list.
26:59: When Jesus died on the cross, He was the substitute for sinful people, taking the punishment they deserve, and giving them His righteousness.
27:07: If you don't have any other Bible verses memorized, I say memorize this one.
27:10: 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21.
27:12: God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we could become the righteousness of God in Him.
27:21: That passage is the gospel.
27:23: It's the great transaction of the gospel, encapsulated in one passage.
27:28: And if that's the only Bible verse you know, you can give them the gospel right there.
27:31: Jesus is sinless.
27:32: He is righteous.
27:33: He takes our sin and gives us His righteousness.
27:36: It's called double imputation.
27:38: Our sin is imputed to Him, His goodness, righteousness, holiness is imputed to us, whereby we now stand before God, not only forgiven, but righteous.
27:49: Not only forgiven, but good.
27:52: Because we got Jesus' goodness.
27:55: Last but not least, we explain the necessity of repentance and faith.
27:59: God calls all men to repent.
28:03: That means to turn from our sins, to change our mind about our sins, to understand that our sin is an offense to Holy God.
28:08: To change our mind about God, and about sin, and to trust in the finished work of Christ.
28:17: It's not something that has to be repeated.
28:18: It's not something that has to be done again.
28:20: It's not something that's going to go over and over.
28:22: It's the finished, absolute finished work of Christ.
28:24: Now, I've got a couple quick videos to show you.
28:27: And I hope nobody, I mean, y'all ain't got nowhere to go.
28:29: Y'all stay here.
28:31: Just let me have just a few more minutes of your time.
28:33: This stuff is so important.
28:34: But I've got just, this video is four minutes.
28:36: So it's only got a few minutes.
28:37: And then I've got a few things to go with it.
28:39: But this video, it's a cartoon.
28:43: It was put out by Way of the Master Ministries.
28:47: And it explains just a little nice way of how you might, I'm thinking when I'm out there, I might bring my laptop and have this just playing.
28:56: Hopefully, as people walk by, they'll stop and watch it here.
29:10: Meet Mr.
29:11: Nice Guy.
29:11: You think you're nice? This guy is really nice.
29:15: Well, I try to do what's right.
29:17: He's so nice that if good people get to heaven, he'll be the first in line.
29:23: Aw, shucks.
29:24: So, Mr.
29:25: Nice Guy, have you kept the Ten Commandments? Pretty much.
29:31: Do you mind if we take a look at them and maybe see how nice you really are? Okay.
29:37: Great.
29:37: Here's one.
29:38: You shall not lie.
29:40: Mr.
29:40: Nice Guy, have you ever told a lie? Well, yeah.
29:45: Who hasn't? What do you call somebody who tells lies? A liar.
29:50: All right.
29:50: How about another commandment? You shall not steal.
29:55: Have you ever stolen anything, even once? Nope.
29:58: But you just told me you're a liar.
30:01: Well, I did steal some candy once when I was a kid.
30:04: And what do you call someone who steals? A thief.
30:08: All right.
30:09: Let's try another one.
30:09: You shall not commit adultery.
30:12: Oh, that's easy.
30:13: I'd never cheat on my wife.
30:16: Hi, handsome.
30:20: Oh, baby! Jesus said, if you even look at a woman with lust, you've already committed adultery with her in your heart.
30:30: Oh, uh, right.
30:32: One more.
30:33: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
30:36: Have you ever used God's name to curse? Oh, my! That, Mr.
30:44: Nice Guy, is called blasphemy.
30:47: God gave you life and breath and everything you have, and you dragged His name through the dirt.
30:55: So, by your own admission, you're a liar, a thief, a blasphemer, and an adulterer at heart.
31:01: And that's just four of the Ten Commandments.
31:04: Okay, okay.
31:05: So I'm not perfect.
31:05: No, actually, it's worse than that.
31:08: Suppose we could put a chip in your brain that would record all your private thoughts for an entire week and then play those thoughts on a giant movie screen for all your friends and family to see.
31:20: That would be embarrassing.
31:21: Yeah, I know.
31:22: The Bible says God knows everything, even the secret thoughts of your heart.
31:27: Well, compared to some people, I'm a saint.
31:33: Yeah, that's true.
31:34: But the standard is God's law, not other people.
31:40: Besides, even if you sin just five times a day in one year, that's 1,825 sins.
31:48: And if you live to be 70 years old, you'll have broken God's law over 127,000 times.
31:56: You'll have to answer for every sin on Judgment Day.
32:00: When the Bible says, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
32:06: But God'll forgive me, right? Well, let's try that in court.
32:11: Hey, look, I know I keep breaking the law, but hey, can't you, well, you know, just let it slide? Only a corrupt judge would buy that.
32:20: A good judge would say, Justice demands that you pay for your crimes.
32:27: God's not a corrupt judge.
32:29: He's a holy, righteous judge.
32:31: He hates sin.
32:34: Jesus warned that on Judgment Day, everyone who had sinned against God would justly end up in a terrible place called hell.
32:43: And there will be no escape for all eternity.
32:47: Well, then how can anybody get to heaven? There's only one way.
32:52: God loved the world so much that He sent His Son Jesus to live a perfect life.
32:57: He never sinned, not even once.
32:59: Then Jesus offered to take the punishment for guilty sinners.
33:04: He was whipped and beaten and nailed to a cross and died so that justice would be served and sinners could go free.
33:14: Then Jesus rose from the grave and defeated death.
33:18: You can't earn eternal life.
33:20: It's God's gift to everyone who will humble themselves and come to Jesus.
33:24: He'll forgive you, wash you clean, and give you a new heart with new desires.
33:31: The Bible says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
33:36: So stop living for yourself.
33:38: Turn from your sins and come to Jesus.
33:41: Then read your Bible and obey it.
33:45: Find a good church to help you grow.
33:47: And then go out and tell other people the good news.
34:00: I don't know about you guys, but I like that video.
34:04: It's simple.
34:05: I think it tells the message well.
34:09: And I've shared that with many, many people online.
34:12: I posted to Facebook and different things.
34:14: I really do like that.
34:17: And like I said, hopefully it helps you understand how we might share the gospel with somebody.
34:21: And I'm not saying it's a script.
34:24: If you don't get around to going through the commandments like he did, or if you just talk about one particular sin.
34:30: Like I said a few years ago, the lady who said, I'm a lesbian.
34:33: I'm going to go to hell.
34:34: I don't care.
34:35: And then the next day she wanted to talk.
34:37: And we talked to her.
34:38: And we talked about her life.
34:42: But we talked about the fact that she had broken God's law.
34:46: Not just because she was a sinful person in regard to homosexuality, but because she was a sinful person through and through.
34:53: She's a fallen daughter of Adam and needed redemption.
34:59: And so when we talk about sharing the gospel, it does begin and end with helping people understand their need for a savior.
35:07: If a doctor came in to you and you were in his office and he said, Here, I want you to take this medicine.
35:12: It's going to make you feel really bad for a long time.
35:15: And it's going to hurt for a while.
35:17: And you're going to be really sick because of it for a long time.
35:21: You'd say, What in the world? I don't want to do that.
35:25: But if he came in and he said, You have cancer.
35:30: This medicine, it's going to make you sick for a while, but it's going to make you better ultimately, right? You say, Well, how does that apply to the gospel? You go to somebody and you say, Yes, we're calling you to repentance and faith.
35:39: That's difficult.
35:40: That's not an easy thing.
35:42: The whole idea of easy believism is false.
35:44: We call people to a life of following Christ.
35:48: Is it difficult? Yeah.
35:49: In fact, I tell people some of the most difficult years of our life are going to be after we start following Christ.
35:57: Because the devil doesn't fight us when we're on his team.
36:04: So, moving on, I just want to say a few last little thoughts.
36:08: There are two issues that usually keep people from evangelizing, whether it's at the fishing hole or whether it's in your house or whether it's at your job.
36:14: There's two things that usually keep.
36:15: Number one is fear.
36:17: Fear will keep us from evangelizing because we fear that folks will reject the message.
36:23: I want to tell you something.
36:23: People will reject the message.
36:25: And until God changes their heart, that's all they're going to do.
36:28: The Bible says in John 6.44 that Jesus said, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
36:38: God is going to have to draw the person for anything we do to have effect.
36:42: So my expectation in general is that people are going to reject the message until God opens their heart.
36:49: You say, So you go out with a defeatist attitude? No, I go out with a victorious attitude because I also believe God's not going to lose one that is His.
36:57: So I have an attitude of the victory that the victory is in the proclamation.
37:02: That's why I say if I go out to get decisions, I'm going to go home disappointed every time.
37:05: If I go out to proclaim, I'll never be disappointed because I'm there to proclaim the truth.
37:11: How they respond to it is between them and God.
37:15: So that's it.
37:16: Fear will keep us.
37:17: Fear that they'll reject.
37:18: But also here's another fear, and the fear that folks will ask a question we don't expect.
37:23: And I would say this one is even worse because people say, I was going to talk to him, but I was afraid he was going to ask me something, and I wouldn't know the answer.
37:31: Here's the deal.
37:33: I don't always know the answer to every question everybody asks.
37:37: You'll never know the answer to every question anybody's going to ask.
37:41: That's okay because you're never going to argue someone into faith.
37:46: Even if you know every answer to every question they ask, that's not going to get them to come to the Lord.
37:54: That's not going to get them to be saved.
37:58: I've heard too many atheists say, well, if I just had enough evidence, I would believe.
38:02: That's a lie because the evidence is all around us.
38:06: The evidence is in us.
38:10: And just because they have an argument that you can't necessarily answer, and here's the thing.
38:13: If somebody asks you a question you don't know, guess what the right answer is.
38:16: It's three words.
38:17: I don't know.
38:21: I can ask.
38:22: I can study.
38:23: I can find out.
38:23: I'm confident there is an answer, unless it's an obtuse question like, can God build a stone that he himself can't lift? That's a philosophical question.
38:37: God doesn't exist because the Bible says God can do anything, and God can't build a stone that he himself cannot lift, so God does not exist.
38:44: Say, hold on, Mr.
38:45: Philosopher, let me say this about that.
38:47: The Bible doesn't say God can do anything.
38:49: The Bible says God cannot lie.
38:51: It says he cannot look upon sin with approval.
38:54: There's a lot of things God can't do, and God cannot do the ridiculous.
38:57: And what you just asked for was ridiculous.
39:00: Next question.
39:01: But that's, you know, it's one of those things.
39:04: People, they want to throw something at you.
39:06: Just say, I don't know.
39:08: What you do know is the gospel, and that's more important than anything you don't know.
39:13: So that's it.
39:14: If fear is what's keeping you from doing it, I can't tell you just overcome your fear, just get over it.
39:21: That's not going to work, but I will say this.
39:22: Pray that God will give you the confidence to overcome your fears because he's the only one that can.
39:28: He's the only one that can.
39:29: Number two, the other question, people just don't know how to start.
39:32: I just don't know how to start.
39:36: For fair evangelism, it's actually easy because we've given you a place to start.
39:40: You're standing in front of some big banners that say Sovereign Grace Family Church.
39:43: You're standing in front of a table that says Sovereign Grace Family Church.
39:46: Let's talk about God.
39:47: It's printed right on the thing.
39:50: So you've got, I mean, if there's ever a time, you've got a little table full of tracts.
39:57: This is it.
39:58: You've got it.
40:01: But still, though, people will walk by you, and especially when they see Sovereign Grace Family Church, they'll do this.
40:06: They'll be walking, and they'll go.
40:10: They'll go.
40:12: So we do have some icebreakers.
40:15: Icebreaker questions.
40:16: I wear a T-shirt.
40:18: Dale's got one.
40:19: Do you understand the Gospel? And I'd be surprised how many people.
40:22: We have a sign that says that.
40:24: How many people come up and say, Yes, I do.
40:26: Can you share it with me? I'm not trying to test you, but I do want, when you say you understand the Gospel, can you share it with me? I just want to see if we understand the Gospel the same way.
40:35: It's a good way to start a conversation.
40:37: And oftentimes, they don't understand the Gospel.
40:39: They just didn't want to seem like they didn't know.
40:42: Another good question, and I'm probably going to put this up on the board, because we have a big whiteboard that we ask people to come up and take a survey.
40:50: And one of the questions I'm going to put on the board is, Would you sell one of your eyes for a million dollars? Would you sell one of your eyeballs for a million dollars? And people come up, and they'll either put yes or no, and say, Well, what made you come to that conclusion? Somebody says, Well, I can do without one eye, but I need a million dollars.
41:09: Or somebody will say, Well, I don't want to give up my eye.
41:12: But that begins a conversation.
41:14: You know what you ask them right after that? Would you sell both of them for twenty million? The answer is always no.
41:20: Because nobody would give up their sight for all the money in the world.
41:24: And you say this, You know what Jesus said? He said, Our soul is so much more valuable than our eyes.
41:32: Jesus said, If our eye causes us to sin, we should take it out and throw it away.
41:35: Our soul is more valuable than our eyes.
41:37: Have you considered the value of your soul? Right there, you're in the conversation.
41:42: Simple.
41:44: And it's fun, because they've answered a question they've had to think about a little bit.
41:48: Would I sell an eye for a million dollars? So that's just a fun little icebreaker, but it gets you into a conversation relatively quickly.
41:56: Like I said, this is not a methodology I'm saying has to be tried, but it's one.
42:03: On the board I just changed.
42:05: The question board.
42:09: You can put a survey question up.
42:12: How many people do you think die every day? And have a little list.
42:17: How many people do die every day? About 150,000 people die every day.
42:23: So you can put up a list.
42:24: You can say, How many people die every day? 1,500, 15,000, or 150,000.
42:29: And see what people guess.
42:32: 150,000 people thought they were going to have it tomorrow, and they didn't.
42:37: Are you ready for your last day? It's a quick question.
42:41: It's a good way to get them.
42:43: We use that board.
42:44: I really like that board.
42:45: And it's there for you.
42:46: You just have to pull it out and put it up.
42:48: It's underneath the table.
42:50: It's just one of those big Post-it boards that folds over.
42:52: And there's already some that have gotten started.
42:54: One of the questions we had last year was, What is the major problem of mankind? Is it society? Is it upbringing? Or is it a bad heart? Or an evil, wicked heart? And you know, I've still got the list.
43:08: Almost every person said it was society.
43:10: It was society.
43:12: What did I respond? So you think that society is what causes people to be evil? Yes.
43:18: Well, what caused society to be evil? Don't you think it might be that wicked heart? And there you're in the conversation.
43:26: So that board, I really like it.
43:28: It's a good conversation starter.
43:30: But the best one, and this is it.
43:32: I promise I'm landing the plane.
43:36: The best one is gospel tracts.
43:38: In my heart of hearts, I can tell you a gospel tract has so much value.
43:47: And that's why we spend so much money on it here.
43:49: This church, we spend hundreds of dollars a year.
43:51: Sometimes more.
43:53: We buy tracts to give away.
43:55: We want tracts to go into the hands of people.
43:58: One, a tract can accompany no speech at all.
44:03: And I will tell you this.
44:04: The vast majority of what you're going to do if you do go to the fair, take this.
44:07: Hi, nice to meet you.
44:08: Here, can you take.
44:09: Hey, hey, you, little guy.
44:10: You, big guy.
44:11: You, don't say big girl.
44:12: That's not good.
44:13: But when you're handing them out, be nice.
44:20: Because some people aren't going to want to have that conversation.
44:21: Those people who are running away from you, they'll do this like they're in a marathon.
44:25: They'll take a tract while running away.
44:27: And I have seen people go off in the distance and sit down and read it.
44:33: So they will read them.
44:34: You give it to them.
44:36: I've seen people tear them up and throw them away, too.
44:38: Don't take offense to it.
44:38: They're not rejecting you.
44:39: They're rejecting Christ.
44:42: And ultimately, you don't know what God's going to do with that.
44:46: As I said, our goal is 4,000 gospel tracts.
44:48: That's our goal.
44:51: A gospel tract can begin a conversation.
44:53: And often it does.
44:55: Can I give you this gospel tract? Do you understand the gospel? Because that's what this is about.
44:59: There you are.
45:00: You're in the conversation.
45:01: The bookmarks talk about how to get into heaven.
45:04: Are you sure you're going to go to heaven when you die? Here it is.
45:06: You're in the conversation.
45:08: A gospel is, according to Jeff Pollard, the leader of Chapel Library, which is a gospel tract ministry in Pensacola, Florida, a gospel tract is what he calls a paper missionary.
45:19: A paper missionary.
45:21: It can go where you can't, and it will go where you won't.
45:26: It can go where you can't, and it will go where you won't.
45:30: So don't ever discount the value of gospel tracts.
45:34: This is, Jeff, this is only a two-minute video, and then we're going to end right shortly hereafter.
45:40: This is Jeff.
45:40: He's preaching on the value of gospel tracts.
45:43: He just tells a quick story.
45:44: The whole sermon's available online, but I want you to hear this.
45:48: Number three, gospel literature is not the alpha and omega of biblical evangelism, but it is powerful use of God.
46:01: Nothing, nothing takes the place of solid biblical preaching, and gospel literature should never be viewed as a replacement for it.
46:15: It should never be viewed as a substitute for word-informed, spirit-empowered gospel proclamation.
46:26: But they should always work together.
46:31: Now, having said that, gospel literature is helpful, especially when accompanied by personal, caring Christian communication.
46:46: Sometimes, however, gospel literature can build bridges that personal contact cannot.
46:51: Some people don't want to talk to you, but they'll take your track and go away, hoping you will not follow them.
47:10: Moreover, gospel literature can become a voice for those who do not know how to express themselves well.
47:18: I know big-hearted people that can barely get three sentences coherently out, but with the very joy in their face and the sincerity of the love of Christ, they outgive with tracts what a lot of men ever do by preaching.
47:41: And moreover, as we see throughout history, God is pleased in some way beyond our ability to understand to take someone sitting down, maybe angry at the person who gave it to them, or maybe at a point of despair in their lives, and when they're away from everybody else, begin to open that little booklet, or that tract, or that book, and in time, the Spirit of God woos them to the Savior.
48:22: Praise the Lord.
48:24: Number four, not every tract given to unbelievers will bring a response of repentance and faith.
48:31: However, as we all know here, that happens with the best of preaching.
48:37: It's not endemic to literature.
48:41: We never know, though, when a gospel seed that's been planted will bloom.
48:47: At chapel, we heard of a person receiving a gospel tract on the street, tossing it over his shoulder once he got past the guy who gave it to him, and someone walking behind him picked it up, read it, and was converted.
49:05: He became a missionary and a distributor for Chapel Library all in the same day.
49:14: I love that story.
49:16: I know Pastor Jeff, and I was actually in the audience when he preached this message that was done in Milton, Florida.
49:22: Jennifer was with me, and I just have always appreciated...
49:26: Chapel Library puts out some of the best tracts, the best literature there is, and I just love this man and what he does, and he's right.
49:34: The giving of gospel tracts is so valuable, and that's where I'm going to end tonight.
49:39: As we prepare to go to the fair, keep this in mind.
49:41: Please keep this in mind.
49:44: If you pass out tracts, don't ever say to yourself or anyone else, and especially me, don't ever say, I'm just distributing tracts.
49:56: Mike's got the great ability to engage people, and Pastor Keith, you're good at talking to people, but all I can do is just distribute tracts.
50:06: Let me tell you something about that.
50:09: You may not have the same gifting as another person when it comes to engaging in conversation, but that does not make the wholehearted distribution of the gospel of Jesus Christ any less valuable.
50:20: You have to understand that.
50:21: You're not just giving out tracts.
50:25: You are proclaiming the gospel in written form to every person you hand a gospel tract to.
50:31: So don't say, well, you do this, Pastor, and Brother Mike does this, and Brother Andy can do this, and others can do this, but all I can do is just hand out tracts.
50:39: Don't ever say that.
50:41: You are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, even if all you can do is hand it to them in written form.
50:51: Beloved, there is value in everyone participating in that.
50:56: Let's pray.
50:59: Father, I thank you for tonight.
51:00: I thank you for this lesson.
51:01: I thank you for the attention that's been given.
51:04: Lord, may it be that as we close tonight that you bless the efforts that we're going to do the next ten days.
51:09: And Lord, may it be that unbelievers will hear the gospel.
51:14: And Lord, by your grace, that some might come and believe.
51:21: And Lord, that they might know that they have eternal life through Jesus Christ.
51:27: For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved than through the name of Christ.
51:34: And it's in his name we pray.
51:36: Amen.