The Gospel According to Jonah: Lessons from a Reluctant Evangelist

You know, there's just sometimes those prophets that well We wouldn't want to be them and well, one of those prophets would be a guy who knew what

God wanted So much so that he ran away That's we're gonna be talking about on the rap report

Welcome to the rap report with your host Andrew Rappaport where we provide biblical interpretation and application

This is a ministry of striving for eternity and the Christian podcast community for more content or to request a speaker for your church

Go to striving for eternity dot org Well, welcome to another edition of the rap report

I'm your host Andrew Rappaport the executive director of striving for eternity and the Christian podcast community of which this podcast is a proud member

We are here to give you as an audience different Interpretations and applications of the

Bible for the Christian life. We are here to help with that and today We're gonna be talking about the prophet

Jonah With oh, this is gonna be fun to say not just my friend, but now

I can say author John Neffert John and I know each other. Well, I forget where we first met.

Was it Ambassadors Academy? It was yeah Ambassadors Academy 2019. Yeah, so so we met there

Back when you were now you're now you're one of the leaders there So congratulations

Thank you. So yeah, so you were you were there we got to meet We've kept in touch you have

For folks who don't know I've we've talked about on my other podcast apologetics live I think you've been on there not with me, but With different my different co -host

I had I think but I but I know that we've talked and promoted your

Your tulips outreach that you do And that's not a Calvinistic. It's not that you're going out to Christians trying to convince me

Calvinists because it's tulip It's actually the flower folks So John, why don't you introduce yourself for folks who may be new to you?

Let them know a little bit about you How did you get saved briefly and then the ministry you do out there and then we'll start talking about this book that you have coming out

All right. Yeah, so my name is John Nyford and I live in the Midwest in Iowa As a kid,

I grew up as a pastor's kid I know a lot of people are gonna have certain perceptions there and and so on but you know

I actually grew up in a Quaker or Friends Church Right, and then

I went to college at a friend's, you know, the William Penn College Which is a you know,

Quaker, you know college there as well but since then I have

Basically converted over to Calvinist I Do now attend a

Christian Reformed Church and right the CRC North America, you know goes back a ways and and so on but that was one of my my big struggles as You know, my wife and I got married, you know, we came to this new church.

There was no Quaker Church in the area So I kind of started going To where she was going as we were kind of in that dating phase and and so on but you know

It took me a little while to kind of wrestle through a lot of those different things, right? But it's really

You know in high school I started, you know, I mean growing up as a pastor's kid, right, you know

Involved in youth group a lot of different things, right? You know, I made you know, some, you know confessions and became a member of the church, you know there

But I would say in terms of how I came to Christ Right in Christianity.

I would say my college years were much more influential Right, you know there

I'm away from home. I'm kind of Exploring what you know what

I can and can't do and you know different things that I wouldn't have done You know younger years, but you know, really that conviction of you know, seeing my life is not what it should be

That really drew me back to back to the Bible back to Christianity and so on Right, and you know since then right and I think even in the early years of that time

I always had a you know a drive towards missions and evangelism

I read some books and different things, but it never really clicked I mean, there's a lot of books out there that you know just didn't didn't do anything for me and you know, it didn't really help but You know starting to see

Great comfort and the way of the master and seeing that approach, right? I mean that that made all the difference right and it took me a little while to kind of get comfortable with But with some of that stuff, but but that's how

I got started there and probably the the biggest jump into that is

Actually with Tony Ramseck. I mean with answers in Genesis. They got involved in the

Iowa State Fair There's a gospel booth there where we look at the creation of evangelism right a

Scale model of Noah's Ark and right we just you know, so I jumped in I helped him then

You know, that's when it really clicked for me right in in terms of actually doing it and you know

Getting excited about it seeing the joy of sharing the gospel explaining, you know theology and you know different things, you know

To people there and from there I started, you know, my nonprofit ministry to a gospel outreach, right?

what's really started as You know trying to do the same type of evangelism and outreach

At our towns, you know tulip festival every year now We use that and I actually wrote a track that first year you know called tulip the beauty of God's grace right and it actually does go through the doctrines of grace, but If you know it it builds on the history of that town, right that the founders were

Dutch reform who came from Holland fleeing religious persecution, right? So we use those those type of things in history to you know, get into those spiritual conversations and you know

Get the gospel to them, but you know that that's kind of the background and you know, it just continues to grow

You know in the ministry and and you have a podcast too. I've been privileged to be on So why don't you mention that give a plug?

yeah, so we've got a Podcast that we've been doing It's roughly around two years called

Bibles and Bullhorns, right and it's essentially trying to get out there and interview experienced evangelists so that we can learn from them and others can be

Encouraged and equipped from those so those try to be you know, we try to do those about half an hour 45 minutes now we're never really consistent and how long it actually is but Right, you get in a good conversation and it's it's yeah, you want to finish it

You can always do a part two, but right, right, you know speaking of Ray Comfort. He just had his birthday.

I saw that yeah, I I did I someone had said someone posted that he was

Had posted online he was 84 and so I texted him I'm like I Thought he was like 74 75.

I said, you know Steve says you're you're you're 84. Is that really true?

He goes no, I'm 104 And then he said no,

I'm really I'm really 76 I Was like I didn't think he was in the 80s. But boy if he was 84, he looks good for 84

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean he looks good for 76 too, but he still runs around like a like a little kid and You get him where he's with his little camera.

He runs around like a little kid in a candy store Like what do you let's get this interview? Let's get this It runs around like a 20 year old but maybe with a slow limp or something, yeah

Yeah, so let's talk about this book. So you you have been working on this book

Well for a long time because I remember you you're talking it And so the book's title folks is called the gospel through Jonah's eyes now

I'm just gonna say and by the way, this will be available if you want at striving for training org in our store

It's you can go there if you want to pick it up, but John Let's start.

So you're an evangelist by heart. You want to talk about the gospel, but Jonah? I mean, isn't he the guy that ran away from sharing the gospel?

What are you trying to say? Yeah, he is right, you know, so Getting into this right

I mean the idea about writing about Jonah and evangelism right has been stirring in my head for you know

You know several years And it's probably been about a year and a half two years ago that actually, you know committed to writing it, right?

So the idea initially was hey, there's all sorts of different lessons for us as evangelists, you know in the story of Jonah All right.

I mean there he is going to the Gentiles and you know Preaching God's Word and look what happened, right?

You know that the whole city, you know turned to God right, so That was kind of the initial, you know part of this right and I thought hey

I'll just kind of write a you know, very practical. Here's some lessons from Jonah And and kind of go through that And I decided before I write

I'm going to take this and I'm going to preach through Jonah Right, so that that helped me really dig in a little bit deeper, you know to study and and really

Oh My perception about this and what it actually says sometimes is a little bit a little bit different, right?

But as I did that right I did it in a you know, four or five, you know series you know of sermons that You know,

I went through I used that as the basis Right, but also it's like hey, there's really more to it than this right more to it than just some simple gospel lessons, right?

You know and and that's that's really what shaped where I ended up going with the book

Right, and there are some some key lessons about evangelism and about about the gospel

But through this, you know really want to want people to see the gospel itself, right?

You know and and and that's where right there When I started the book

I you know The first couple chapters really looks at some of the the other information we have about Jonah Besides what's in the book by his name, right?

And a lot of people say oh, well, that's all we really know is those four chapters, you know in the Old Testament But there are a few other places that Jonah is listed

You know in in second Kings it talks about him as being a prophet Right, you know so we have a little bit of that and then also in the

New Testament Jesus both in you know Matthew and Luke, you know Makes the statement to the to the

Pharisees said hey, the only sign you're gonna get is the sign of Jonah Right, so we have those things and I try and write to you know

Get some of that that historical background and context before I you know Jump into you know, the actual story of Jonah and how we see it, you know the gospel coming out in that Maybe a little bit of long answer there, but no and you know

This is the thing a lot of people know the account of Jonah but one of the things

I find a lot of people don't realize and I'm gonna spoil the ending folks if you haven't read all of Jonah, right?

No, but when when kids are in grow up in the in the church they think of Jonah they have this story about a fish and you know, they always think it's a whale we could talk about why that might be but The there's always that talk right?

It's a they just get into chapter one Maybe chapter two where he's running away swallowed by a fish spit up on land goes to Nineveh But the real key to that book is chapter four at the end, right?

Yeah, I mean he explains why He did not why he ran away in chapter four.

So let I mean Let's discuss that because you know, we're gonna talk about the gospel. I mean John I know you you don't exactly do this, but you've run into others who may want to run away when

God calls them to evangelize Maybe a little hey, you know,

I've probably done a little bit here and there too Right Yeah Yeah, and and I think one of the interesting things as I looked at this whole story, right it's it's portrayed in in the first chapter, but also very much in the fourth chapter, right is our sinful nature our humanity or our natural tendency to run away from God or not want the same things as God wants

You know comes out in Jonah Right there. There he is.

He you know, and actually one of the interesting things about chapter four is It shows that Jonah was faithful completely in the command that God gave him right because it says

Afterwards then he went out to the east side of the city. Well, where was he coming from?

He was coming from the west right from from Israel from you know, Joppa and all that. So He went all the way through the whole city and proclaimed, you know,

God's message to him, right so there he comes out at the end and he sits down and he waits for God to bring the destruction that he wanted

God to bring. Yeah, I mean I There's this the view I have of this and it's just my sanctified

Imagination, but I think he went up on a high hill for a reason, right? He wanted he wanted a good view of that destruction.

He was waiting for Yeah, you know and and the fact that he says this is why

I didn't want to leave my land Right because I knew you would be a god of mercy you know that just it's like What kind of prophet is he?

hey I want you to go to Nineveh and and deliver the gospel to to these people and and the very

Reason he didn't go is because he knew God's nature was to he knew that well

God if you're telling me to go to these People you're gonna give them mercy and I just don't want them having mercy right

And and and part of what I say in the book is he loved God's mercy. He wanted

God's mercy He accepted God's mercy. He just didn't want it for Nineveh. Yeah, he wanted it for himself and Jewish people

But not for those Ninevites Yeah, yeah, so You know and and the other thing that we see in chapter 4, right?

I mean we see God's compassion for the lost right? You know should I not have you know pity on these people that you know, you know, he goes through that We see his compassion right and he's patient with Jonah Because he's going through Jonah says

I'm angry and you know rather than telling Jonah you're wrong He asked questions and you know kind of leads him through and eventually gets to telling him.

Hey, this is this is why I did it right But the interesting thing is there's a little part in there, right?

You know the the little part where Jonah builds a booth to go out and look over there, right?

I mean, that's that's really interesting because you see his attempts to Save himself his attempts to you know, provide shade and comfort and everything else.

They're futile Right, you know, they're inadequate Yeah, when

God sends the vine It's his his vine that provides the shade and comfort and he loves it and then he takes it away, right?

Yeah, so yeah a little little aspect of the gospel right there in the middle of that chapter as well

Okay, John, how much is this like us? I mean, let's not be too hard on Jonah, but you know

I mean, we're sitting there and we we have the people we know, you know our our church family

Right and here we have that God sends us to go to lost people and it's just like I don't want to talk to them

Like or even worse like maybe maybe they're like a Democrat. You don't want them getting saved, right?

I mean like I'm saying that tongue -in -cheek but there are those people that I have seen that you get someone that comes up and says they're they practice homosexuality and I've seen

Christians on the street that won't share the gospel with them. They just want to judge them And why don't you share the

God they don't want them to be saved they just want to condemn them I'm like, well, then why condemn them like if you're not gonna share the gospel

But but that's so much like what Jonah had to learn I think when you look at this is one of the things where I say like Certain books you could tell are written by God and not men would any human being in the book the way

Jonah ends where it's just like He's upset that God showed mercy because he didn't want them having mercy, right?

So that's the first problem, right? He's he and and it's a thing where God ends up just reprimanding him because it's like you cared about this vine this plant to give you shade and yet Here's all these human beings that God wants to regenerate and you didn't care about them like Which one's more important here?

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely and you know We see a lot of people and hear a lot of people talking about revival today, right?

Now look what Jonah did right I mean arguably the the largest known revival

In history, right, you know, he went into the city You know a large city and you know, you could you could debate over the actual size of none of it, right?

Various different interpretations on that but the whole city came came to God and they repented now

It was only for a time but you know in the story we see that right? Why would

Jonah not be overjoyed? Why would we not be overjoyed when you know instead of avoiding talking to that homosexual?

You know, let's let's talk to him. It may go well and may go poorly, right?

But if God chooses to save them, we should be overjoyed, right? We should and and this is the thing

I mean folks I Look at Jonah and go. Yeah, I could see a lot of myself in him.

I I just can you know, it's and and So I don't want us to be too hard on him.

But at the same time like let's let's look at this and see Where where are we? right, so so What is let's let's work through this book now with the gospel, how do we see the gospel with Jonah?

Yeah, so there's there's a number of different things and you know, we can look and we know certain doctrines, right?

We you know, you know, how many times have you heard right salvation is by faith and not by works

Right. Well that comes out very clear in Jonah, right? A lot of people miss that right, you know, when you when you look at Jonah he went in and he and he you know spoke the words that God gave him and the people responded and And it was the way it says they responded.

The first thing that says is The Ninevites believed God. Yeah, right.

So it's it's it's their belief right their faith first That says hey, you know

You know, he's bringing this message of destruction We believe him right, you know, and then that's what what turns, you know, some of this

I think back to You know when when God gave the law through Moses right and it says hey, you know do this and practice it and When you do that all the nations around will see and recognize that you have a great and just God, right?

So Assyria who would have been interacting with Israel, you know over and over they would have you know

At least had a surface knowledge of the law of God, right? They would they would have seen that And now

God's bringing a message to them of judgment They could have turned

I mean here's here's here's one guy in the midst of a whole city that hates him right

Yeah fear Yeah, you know Jonah could have easily had that fear, right

But you know You know the day instead because God went before him

He turned their hearts right and and they didn't turn and you know attack him and you know

Depend on all the you know, the torture and cruelty and everything else that they were used to They believed

God, right? So so we see that aspect of the gospel And and I'd like to point out too that we see that we're bringing

God's message Right. So God gave Jonah a message right God gave us a message right the gospel and that's what we bring now

You know, you could argue the you know, the the pros and cons of telling your testimony or things like that But in the end, it's the gospel.

It's the message that God gave that is the power of the salvation, right? So we see that aspect of it of it as well

But even in the first chapter you know and And this is not really

I don't think the intent of Jonah or the book but Jonah was in the in the belly of shit.

They brought him up and you know They they drew lots and then they started peppering him with a whole bunch of questions, right?

What do you do? He testified to God? Yeah, right and and it says they feared him that doesn't necessarily mean that they were saved right but Being faithful in doing what

God calls us right to testify to God and his works and who he is

It is part of our responsibility as Christians, right? You know, that's just the Base beginnings of the gospel is is pointing people to Christ and raising his name

So that I mean those those are the big things that I think about through there But there's lots of different things that we could kind of explore through there, you know

I'm seeing the gospel But so Let me ask

I mean for people who may Well, they just they're they're not the type who think about Sharing the gospel.

They're a little afraid Look, how could this book be an encouragement to them?

That's it. Yeah, that's a really good question. I mean Part of it is, you know what

I said before right, you know, here's Jonah Going in the midst of his enemies, right? And you know, it's just like the

New Testament when they say hey I'm sending a sheep to my walls, right? You know, that's just kind of the nature of The Christian life where we're here, right?

You know and and it's not nothing new right because this has been going on since you know

The very beginning of the Garden of Eden, right? It's a it's a battle between You know that the seat of the serpent and the the seat of the woman it's a battle between Christian and non -christian, you know people of God and you know, the

Gentiles or you know, whatever term you want to use, right? And typically

I'll you know when someone talks about their fear I Help encourage them that hey

God is gonna be with you just like he was with Jonah Just like he was with you know, many others, right?

But do you really want to you know Stand back and let your neighbor be

You know Continually in that sense of hopelessness Right, you know and and we see that in Jonah, right the you know, everybody calling on their own gods, right?

And you know, they really expose their their hopelessness in that you know in you know through this story, but And I think unbelievers are not afraid to Share their own ideas and their opinions.

Why should we as Christians be afraid of that, right? Yeah, and I don't know how to explain that Really, but you know that that's a that's a key aspect.

I think of you know, seeing that God is with you no matter what Right and and it's gonna bless your efforts.

I'm not gonna say You know, you're not gonna have an unpleasant experience, right because I've had people throw ice cream at me, you know

You know lots of different things. Well, there's ice cream. I might not mind. I'm had just a great. Thanks Street, that's a different story.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah but you know and you know part of that is hey, you know, remember that when

When they hate you it's because they hated Christ first, right and it's it's not us that they hate really

It's it's not directed at us. It may feel like that But it's it's really, you know, their hatred of God and Christ and who he wrote it

You know what he represents and and so on and we're just the mouthpiece there You know, but right

God doesn't call us to a life of luxury It's you know a life that's filled with suffering and persecution, you know, what is it second

Timothy? That says hey if you seek to live a godly life, you will receive persecution

Right then, you know just like you know Ray explains, you know in hell's best -kept secret right with the parachute

The parachute is not there to make your life more comfortable is to prepare you for what is to come

Right, so yeah, we recognize as Christians that that's part of our life But I would say, you know my own experience and probably yours as well going out and sharing the gospel

Most of it is not others yelling at us, right? I mean, it's it's not that uncomfortable

I mean, it's it's it's you always have to get over that that first Word that you get out, you know, and and that's hard, but once you start talking

You know, it gets a lot easier and you know, you become more the more you share the gospel the more comfortable it is you know, that is an interesting topic for us to talk about because I Think there's a lot of people

Who just bring it to right now? Charlie Kirk's murder a lot of people saw what

Charlie Kirk did and They think wow that there's something special about that guy No, I think there was some things where he had a good memory

He a lot of what it was. I mean he was a voracious reader from what I understand

He constantly said he didn't waste any time You know One of the things that I've heard about him from multiple people who knew him very well like his wife is that he lived every minute as if it's his last and so he he he never wanted to waste a minute and Because of that he was constantly reading and studying and preparing and A lot of people go.

Well, I could never be like a Charlie Kirk now, you know I know a lot of his stuff. He dealt with political things and and you know

Ethical issues moral, you know abortion things like that but The thing is is that a lot of people think well, they can't he shared the gospel

His foundation for all of his arguments were from Scripture where were the underpinnings of you know a presuppositional argument and so the thing that I think is

There's a lot of people who think well I could never do that and so You know what we could do it.

So after this break, I wanted to dive into a little bit more about the fact of You know, how do we get to be like knowledgeable like Charlie Kirk Some people think that's not possible.

I think it is. Let's come to that after this announcement from our sponsors

We are proud to be sponsored here by my pillow They are one of our sponsors not because they contacted me and said hey

We we got kicked off of all of the big -box stores and we want to you know Advertise with you.

It's more because I've been reaching out to them for years when they finally got kicked off to the big -box stores they said okay, we'll work with you because They weren't working with the little guys and yet the reality is is that they they are working with us

They sponsor us. So for that reason I love their products. That's why I've been reaching out to them right now

They're they're running a bunch of sales because well, it's Christmas time and people don't always Have an idea of what to get for people

The I have over and over again said that my favorite product they have is their their mattress toppers and They have their mattress toppers that are the lowest

I've seen right now They're they're their lowest mattress topper. They have is going for a hundred and fifty dollars and you go.

Well, that's a lot It's like getting a brand new bed so you're saving a whole lot if you have an older bed and you're thinking of replacing it get this mattress topper and you'll be

Like oh, I got a whole new bed. I Think I I ended up paying a lot more. It was three or four hundred for mine

When I got it, so, you know, it's a they're having a great sale So now would be a great time if you want to experience that get it now

You're they have some 50 % off on there on their premium pillows right now. They're Giza sheets their

Premium towel sets which I I've given for away for Christmas. Their slippers are really nice I'm wearing some right now.

And so if you want to get some of their products, they got a whole lot of products Go to mypillow .com

and use the promo code SFE it stands for striving for eternity that gets you the discounts and so if you use that code you go to mypillow .com

and You would be able to get yourself. Not only a great pillow that I use

I actually travel with mine wherever I go when I went to Israel. It was with my my pillow I left some clothes behind but I didn't leave my pillow behind and so go to mypillow .com

use promo code SFE Also, we are sponsored by Lagos Bible software.

They they are a great product I have a very large

Lagos library a lot of books I use it very much to be able to do a lot of different things if you wanted to say well

You know, I'm really curious of where Jonah is mentioned in the Bible outside of the book of Jonah a quick search

And you'll get all of that. In fact, what you could do is you say, you know, I Want to dig more into Jonah you want to learn about it?

What you could do is go into them in Lagos They have a fact book you go into the fact book and just type

Jonah You're gonna get everywhere in the Bible Jonah's mentioned You're gonna get everywhere that Jonah's mentioned in in your books and commentaries and so you could pull that all up and the neat thing is if you don't have

Lagos at all and You start with their subscriptions You can get it actually as inexpensively as like seven or eight dollars a month

That's if you pay for two years up front, but that's how much so one cup of Starbucks For a day can get you

Lagos for a month I mean just think about it. And so if you're spending seven bucks at law at Starbucks a day

Let's talk but other than that You could get You know great

Bible software be able to quickly search and if you get the the larger Subscriptions where they have the original languages things like that.

You're able to do a whole lot more with it one click You could get into the Greek in the

Hebrew. So go to Lagos comm slash SFE Obviously again

SFE stands for striving for eternity that gets you the discounts that they have going on The you get the same discounts that you'd get

Through them, but you you're helping them to realize that we sent you and that helps them to continue

Sponsoring us here, which we greatly appreciate and so if you would want to get some great software go to Lagos Comm slash

SFE to get yourself some great Bible software so John Talking about evangelism, you know

Because you've experienced this guys that would talk to see Ray comfort out there and be like I can't do what he does looking at a guy like Charlie Kirk who goes out and I think that the thing is for me and and you know

Mark Spence he would always say this Hey, you don't have to learn the answer to everything just learn the answer to the last question

You didn't know the answer to right and like why is Ray comfort so good?

Well, he does it every week for 40 plus years now, right? Why is it

Charlie Kirk is so good because he went to college campuses and and what a lot of people don't realize they think

Of the videos they see of Charlie Kirk that are recent But when Charlie first went to college campuses, he didn't do a breath a huge breath of topics

He stick to one topic So he studied a topic and got really good with one topic and moved on to another and so when we see him after doing that for 18 years or Was it about 18?

I get however, he started when he's 18, I guess and he was 32 So or 31 so when you know

When you look at that when you're doing it day in and day out on college campuses You get good at that You're you're someone who's you've been doing evangelism for a long time

How how do you view like what Charlie Kirk did? How can other people get as good as him or a ray comfort or some of these other people at sharing the gospel?

Yeah, I think there's a couple questions in there right when you narrow it down to sharing the gospel Yeah, absolutely.

I mean that's that's You know a very narrow right but when you talk about the breadth of stuff that the

Charlie Kirk has I think the big piece is Doing it over and over right?

You know that the more you do it right you and I have both had Situations where you know when we were early on and sharing the gospel and someone comes with a question and we're just stumped

I don't know if you remember the first time I got up and did open air in Ambassadors Academy. It was embarrassing

Right. Yeah, I got a little ways in and then I was kind of stumped and tongue -tied

And you know, it wasn't so embarrassing because I don't remember that. I don't remember you being tongue -tied Yeah, well, but but you learn from those things, right?

Yeah, and and I think The more you do it, you know the the more you're going to you know

You know grow in that you recognize more quickly that hey, I've had this question before You know, you recognize it and just cut to the chase, right?

You know a lot of times I get into something and someone will ask a question and I'll start going down you know two or three different paths and You know, they don't always go the way

I expect them, but I've learned from that So next time I run into a Jehovah's Witness or you know, whatever whatever the situation is

I can say Oh, well, you know that path is fruitless. I can you know focus in on on this other right?

So just the experience right and doing it over and over You know helps a ton

You know, and that's why With my ministry right we do outreach events right, and and there's nothing like an outreach event to Solidify your ability to share the gospel because if you just try and share the gospel

Once in a while when you run into the after the opportunity or someone in the grocery store or whatever

You might do it here and there and every so often and it's like you're relearning it every time Whereas if you go to an event, hey, we're there deliberately to go out on the street and start talking to people and you might do it ten times in a day and Every time you do it, it gets more and more comfortable

Right and and and then it's just there where it's it's just kind of a natural, you know flow.

I think Ray's approach to Helps right, you know,

I don't know that I could do what Charlie Kirk did right? He even with a lot of practice and memorization and stuff like that You know one of the one of the secrets of you know,

Ray is stick to the gospel Always come back to the conscience, right? You know, and I would make that same comparison with Jonah.

Well, God gave Jonah one message Yeah, hey, you know 40 days until He's gonna be overthrown, right?

You know He didn't have to learn and study and you know All these different things that you just had to deliver the message, right?

And if we think about it that way and that structure right? The gospel is very simple and And you can watch a hundred of way the master videos and see how it's done

But then still I've seen so many people on myself even the first time you actually try and do it with a real person

You're stumbling through the words, right? But you get over that that first time and then you get better and better, right?

So the so the experience makes a big difference Yeah, and the focus narrowing the focus on you know, just like Paul said

I seek to know nothing But Christ and him crucified You know focus on that right you you broaden out, you know through the you know

The rest of these things and God does call us to study and learn and be prepared, right?

You know you have do not conform to the patterns of this world in Romans 12 but you know the the renewing of your mind or in Jude where we have the contending for the faith and Right.

We're all called to do that as Christians And there's lots of different ways and everybody has a little bit different personality and an approach to that So we can't say oh, you're not if you're not doing it the way

Andrew does it you're doing it wrong Yeah, it's not you'd like to say that But yeah, it's you're you're bringing up a really good point, which is it's actually the reason many years ago

I started Jersey fire and then Ohio fire NorCal fire is These outreaches something like what you do it at the tulip outreach which

I recommend people to go to and and and get involved in because what that does when you're at an event with a couple dozen hundred other

Christians that are all out there for the purpose of evangelizing It is so much easier because you go with it you go with another person and if you get stuck

You could just go. Hey, John. What do you what do you think about this? Right mid -sentence?

You're stuck John Can you can you help me out here right and then someone else to help you there's people you cannot but you're emboldened to do it

And it's something you said that I learned many many years ago If if we take people out and we keep them out there for roughly three hours

Or talk to more than six people. They start to love evangelism and What it is is they start realizing wait,

I've already answered this four times already Right and the reason the three hours the three hours is because it's something for some people take some two hours to get into a

Conversation enough to have the six conversations, right? But you're you're suddenly realize I'm not

Hearing anything new now the sad thing is the next time we go out We're just as nervous and it takes us the same six people to get that feeling again, right?

But That's the thing is that when you go with groups it is so much easier

To to share the gospel and you know, one of the things Mark Spence who works at Living Waters Fun story that he had told me once is that when he was starting to share the gospel

He was not really comfortable to doing it in the open. So what he did was he got a cell phone now granted

He says when you do it, make sure your cell phone is off So he would carry like a fake cell phone and he'd go on a train and he put his phone to his ear and he would

Pretend like he's talking to somebody and saying, you know Either how someone shared the gospel with him or how he shared the gospel with somebody now

He knows there's no one on the other side of the phone He always says you told me he's like make sure the phone is off because like if it rings then it's really embarrassing but but you know, we had that experience

I was in London and For the Olympics and we're sharing the gospel and we'd get on this train But we did like an hour train ride to get to where the

Olympics was And so we're sitting on the train and especially afterwards

We're all spread out around the train talking about the conversations the gospel conversations.

We had we're talking with other believers But every day we're there for like two weeks every day

Someone was listening in Every once in a while someone would ask, you know, like kind of interject and I mean sometimes they're they were you know disagreeing

But it was amazing how I still remember this one woman as I was talking with this

This guy Bobby McCurry where he and I are just next to each other and we're talking And this lady turned around And she said, you know, my mother used to say to say things like that I didn't believe her

You know, and it's like and she so she she had somewhat of a christian upbringing but she had said but Things have in her life

Have caused her to think maybe she should have been listening to her mother, but her mother was gone then and so it was like You know, so she comes to us and she started talking and Bobby just sat there sharing the gospel with her now

That wouldn't have happened had we not been just talking amongst ourselves But if we're so afraid to even do that, right

Yeah We got to get out of the comfort zone Yep But there are so many different crazy ideas you could do to share the gospel because here's the thing

I know john you're you're not this way. It's it's just everyone else So many people love to eavesdrop when someone's on the phone in a public setting

You know Um, it's it's the very reason when I pray for my meal in in a restaurant I mean,

I just raise my voice so everyone can hear because they want to listen in anyway And I make it very gospel centric, you know,

I thank god for you know, saving us and explain it There's a lot of creative ideas we could do

Yeah So praise god for uh, those who listen in when you're talking to someone else because it happens a lot it typically even you and I do open air when when i'm

Very well aware that the person who's heckling me or the person i'm talking to when I do open air Is not the person that's listening

It's usually the dozens of others who are just sitting there and they never say anything But they're listening right and you never know

You never know how that's going to go. I mean, that's the thing handing out a gospel track. It's an easy thing to do Yeah, right.

And so so what for folks that may want to do the tulip outreach? What would be the website for that?

Um, so it's kind of long it's tulipgospeloutreach .org, right it's it's uh, you know on the book

So if you get the book, you can you can do that. Um, but uh Tulipgospeloutreach .org,

you know gets you there. Um, And then yeah, we have on the front page kind of events coming up and and things like that And if you and if you want to get the book just go to strivingforeturning .org

The book again is the gospel through jonah's eyes So you can pick it up there and then you know the website for for the outreach

So then after reading the book you could go to the outreach good idea Love to have you so Let's let's just wrap up with what are some

In your opinion, what are some things that if i'm gonna read your book for the first time? Maybe i'm not comfortable sharing the gospel.

Maybe I am what what was your goal? What were you thinking? Who's the audience? What do you want them to walk away with?

Yeah, um and and really there's multiples, uh, right so for Someone who's shared the gospel before right?

I think this can be a very encouraging and uh, you know You know book, you know to reinforce some things you already know, maybe learn some new things along the way

Um, you know actually when my my pastor was reading it for the first time to do some editing

He uh, he made a comment and he said I felt like I actually learned something

You know, there is there is stuff there to learn. Uh, you know as I kind of unpack things, um

A little bit more of my audience i'm not looking for I didn't write it for The one who's really theologically deep and right, you know, you know all those different things.

Um, Right. I I did write it a little bit more for the the lay christian

Um, maybe who hasn't been in the word as much right so when i'm making a reference to a scripture passage

Most of the time I put that scripture passage in there so you can read it and see what it's saying and make sure that uh, right i'm not leading you astray with you know, just saying hey it says this over here and Then I tell you something about it, right?

Uh, you know, so I want people to see the gospel

Right in the pages of scripture Uh, right because it's there, you know, I grew up and you know,

I hear hear the gospel and you know a lot of these just you know, but I still struggle with different things like well Is it the law or is it the gospel?

Well, really it's both and here's how they fit together, right? But um, You know, so so going through this in jonah and and stepping through all of these different things um,

I wanted to point out the gospel, uh in all these things, you know along the way so that Reading this if you didn't have a clear picture of the gospel, you would have a more clear

Uh understanding of what it is, right? And when you understand it better It's it's a lot easier to step out and explain right?

I want people to see that in scripture, right? You know, um, I i'm not a seminary graduate or an ordained preacher, but I do preach

Uh right in my own church and you know various churches around, you know as well um

And you know the the advice over and over is stick to the word, right? You know go back to scripture, right?

You know when when when people see These things in scripture, right? It's it's reinforced.

It's it's not my opinion. It's not my words. It's it's it's really What god is saying here and and seeking to understand that right?

So um And the other thing is if some, you know by chance some unbeliever

Is curious. Hey, what's this guy writing about jonah? I've heard right? I mean jonah is one of the you know, better better known

Uh, you know characters in the bible. What's what's this guy writing about? You know, um, I want them to be able to read it and right they're going to hear the gospel along the way and hopefully that's

Uh going to cause them to think and right. I mean, it's another way of sharing the gospel with with the unbeliever

Who happens to to come across and read the book right but but really it's it's to help the christian see the gospel um, and and see how we can uh, you know

Explain it and you know teach it and you know Spell it out, you know to people and uh, you know

You know in scripture and and be able to make that real, you know, and it's in a real conversation so There you go, so again folks if you want to get it it is the book is called the gospel through jonah's eyes

Um, you can get it at striving fraternity .org in our store. It'll be up there um, so John any any other things you might want to share close out with um

Yeah, I mean there's probably a few different things that we didn't touch on but and I think that's okay um

I did touch a little bit on right. It's it's god's message Now when we look at the message that god gave to jonah a lot of people say oh, well, that's you know

Just a hateful message, you know God's gonna bring judgment on on nineveh, but mixed in that message is god's mercy as well, right?

He says 40 days You know you have so right he gives them time

He's telling them this for a reason Not because he wants to condemn them like jonah wants him to condemn him but because he wants them to come to him

Right, so he shows his mercy by giving them time, you know and mercy to turn

That was in his intent. He's showing compassion, right? And as we go out and share the gospel

We've got to have that same heart of compassion for the for the lost as well. So That's a good word

So folks go and get a copy of this book Go out please to the tulip gospel outreach so that you will get more trained up for sharing the gospel because the

More you practice the more Comfortable it will become