Episode 105: The Best Sermon on Evangelism I've Ever Heard

Rural Church Podcast 2.0

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom

00:05

I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

00:13

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

00:21

The church is not a democracy. It's a monarchy. Christ is king. You can't be

00:26

Christian without a local church. You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the

00:37

Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible -believing church, and spend your life serving

00:44

Jesus in a local, visible church. Welcome to the Ruled Church Podcast. I am your host,

00:50

Alan Nelson. I am one of the pastors at Providence Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas, a great metropolis of, what, 15?

01:00

It depends on what side of the city you're coming in. So if you come in, if you wanna call it a city, if you're coming in from the west, then the population says like 13 -something.

01:10

If you're coming in from the east, from the Conway side, the population says like 14 -something.

01:16

So we have been a church since 1996, although we changed our name recently.

01:25

We subscribed to the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, and just trying to do ministry here faithfully.

01:33

We believe Christ is worthy of a healthy church. One of the things that we do as a church is we try to have a consistent commitment to evangelism.

01:46

And part of the reason for that is because it's biblical, but part of the reason that that happened here, one of the things that God used in our life as a church, and in my life as a pastor, is the sermon that you are about to hear.

02:03

You're going to hear a sermon in this episode from Pastor Randall Easter. He is the pastor at By the

02:09

Word Baptist Church in Azel, Texas. I had him and my friend, Michael Coghlan, come for a conference on evangelism three years ago, and this was

02:20

March of 2022. And I wasn't ready for this message in the sense of knowing what

02:28

God would do with it in my life. I understand when you hear a sermon, lots of things come to play.

02:34

The sermon itself, the faithfulness of the sermon itself, the delivery of the sermon, but also what factors in is your mindset, what's going on in your life, and those sorts of things.

02:47

And so when I say that this is the best sermon on evangelism that I've ever heard, I understand that some of that might be a bit subjective, but I want you to listen to it.

02:57

I want our listeners to listen to it. I want you to give yourself time to listen and digest.

03:03

You know, when it comes to preaching, there are probably two big things that you can hit if you want to convict people.

03:13

One is prayer, and talk about prayer. No one's satisfied with their prayer life. The other is evangelism.

03:21

Not a lot of, I'm talking about faithful Christians, Christians who are truly Christians and who care about the church and Christ and lost souls.

03:29

Most of us are not satisfied with our state of evangelism.

03:35

We want to be better. And so in this message, you will hear a challenge.

03:41

We talk ourselves out of evangelistic opportunities all the time, but the premise of the message that you're going to hear is this, sow nothing, reap nothing.

03:52

You don't leave the track. You don't have the conversation where you can be guaranteed of 100 % failure.

03:58

Now, if you have the conversation, if you preach the gospel, if you pass out of track, does that mean all of a sudden you're going to see a lot of fruit necessarily?

04:08

No, but if you don't do anything, you won't see anything. So do something.

04:13

And that is the premise of what you're going to hear from Pastor Randall. I've had the blessing of actually hearing this message twice.

04:20

So I heard it in 2022. And then last summer in 2024, we were in Mexico and Pastor Randall preached this sermon there as well.

04:32

And I can tell you that it wasn't just my experience in 2022 that I thought this was the best sermon on evangelism, it's the same experience in 2024.

04:42

Surprisingly, it's not from a New Testament text, but from an Old Testament text.

04:47

And not just any Old Testament text, but from the book of Ecclesiastes. So you probably haven't heard very many sermons from the book of Ecclesiastes.

04:56

And then you probably haven't heard very many evangelistic sermons from the book of Ecclesiastes. And you probably didn't imagine that one of the best sermons that you could hear on evangelism would be from the book of Ecclesiastes.

05:10

Okay, you've heard enough from me. I'm gonna turn it over now to my brother, my friend, a faithful pastor, faithful expositor.

05:19

Listen now to Randall Easter preach the best sermon on evangelism that I think I've ever heard.

05:25

And I hope that you're edified. I hope it changes your life when it comes to sharing the gospel.

05:31

Here we go. Greetings from Texas. Good to be with you tonight. I know it's certainly not about me, but just where you have some parameters.

05:40

My wife is with me. We've been married for 32 years. I have four children and then

05:46

I have four grandchildren as well. I have only pastored one church in my life and I'm still there by the

05:54

Word Baptist Church, just west of Fort Worth, Texas. I've been there for 22 years.

06:01

And it's a good church. We love it there and raise their kids there. I love church.

06:07

I love everything about church. I really do. I've been in church for 53 years. 53 years old.

06:13

So I don't know that I've ever missed church or been out of church for anything in my life. And so I have no regrets about that.

06:21

Church is the best place in the world because it's the only institution that God is going to send

06:26

His Son to gather unto Himself. It's the only institution that matters. Church is worth living for. It's worth dying for.

06:33

It's worth everything because, I mean, you look at the Scriptures. Christ purchased her with His own blood.

06:39

There's that much value in her. We ought to value her that much as well. And I'm not speaking superficially.

06:47

I've been through enough church fights and all kinds of dilemmas and problems to know that even through all that, there's still nothing better than the church.

06:54

And so I'm certainly not going to leave her. Alright, so let's get to the text tonight.

07:01

You can find your place in Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 11, verses 1 -6

07:08

Cast your bread upon the waters. Cast your bread upon the waters.

07:16

Ecclesiastes 11, verses 1 -6 I'm going to give you a heading and I'll give you four words to try to make it as simple as I can make it tonight.

07:29

And so if you are a note taker, you can take it. If not, you should be able to remember because I'll try to say the words enough for them to stick with you.

07:38

But the heading tonight is the Great Commission. The heading tonight is the Great Commission. The four words that I have for you tonight, number one is faith.

07:48

Number two is fear. Number three is finite. And number four is future.

07:57

So you have a heading, the Great Commission. Four words, faith, fear, finite, and future.

08:06

And so hopefully we'll get some parameters on that tonight. The Great Commission, as you know, is found in Psalm 96.

08:16

O sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord, bless His name. Tell of His salvation from day to day.

08:25

Declare His glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all the peoples.

08:33

Why? For great is the Lord. That's the motive. For great is the

08:39

Lord. That's what drives us, if you will. His name is great and is greatly to be praised.

08:46

He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the

08:51

Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Tremble before Him, all of the earth.

08:59

You can go through that Psalm 96. You can go through that on your own time. But 17 imperatives, 17 commands in that one chapter.

09:09

Commands have two responses. You can obey or disobey. But the

09:15

God of heaven has commanded. Whether you believe it, whether you like it, whatever your position is, it doesn't matter.

09:22

The command has been given by the Sovereign. The King of heaven has commanded.

09:28

Tell of my salvation day after day. That's the command.

09:33

Declare my glory among the nations. That's the command

09:39

God has given to His church. It's not something that we can negotiate with.

09:44

We either bow in submission to the Sovereign King and say, yes, Lord. Or we rebel and say,

09:51

I'm not going to do what you command me to do. It's not oversimplified.

09:57

It's just the truth of the matter. God has made His gospel of such great importance. He has commanded us to tell of it, to declare it among the nations.

10:09

Now tonight, our text is Ecclesiastes 11, 1 -6.

10:14

And the text reads this way. Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

10:25

And I'm just going to give light commentary as I read. But notice in the text, not you might find it sometime in the future.

10:37

You've got a 50 -50 shot that it may come back someday. The text does not read that way.

10:44

The text says you cast your bread and you will receive. Do you see the promise that is inserted in the text?

10:53

There's a responsibility upon you. You must cast the bread. If you don't cast it, then it is not out there.

11:01

But if you do, the promise is returned. You will receive after many days.

11:07

A lot of you are not receiving because you have not been doing any casting. Cast your bread upon the waters.

11:13

You'll find it after many days. Then notice verse 2, Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.

11:24

You give the gospel. You give the gospel. Well, I gave it five times. I gave it eight times. I gave it twelve times.

11:29

I gave it to this one person three times. Give it to them four times. Give it to them five times. You say, well,

11:35

I've already told them. Well, just tell them again and tell them again and tell them again. Just keep giving because you do not know what may happen.

11:43

You don't know what disaster is coming. They may be dead in the morning. You don't know. You don't know. They may have terminal cancer right now.

11:50

You don't know if tonight they may be hit by a car. You don't know. Just give them the gospel because of the fact that you don't know.

11:57

You have no idea what's going to happen for the rest of this day. So many times you've got the gospel opportunity and you clam up and you're like, tomorrow, tomorrow may never come for them.

12:09

Verse 3, If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth.

12:15

And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

12:23

Just a side note. That's the verse that led to R .C. Sproul's conversion. Verse number 4, He who observes the wind will not sow and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

12:37

Now a word change in verse 5 in my text, but as you do not know the way the wind, instead of spirit, the way the wind comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, note this, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

12:58

I'll gladly claim ignorance upon this issue. I don't know how God works all the time, but I know

13:05

He works. And that's enough. Verse 6, In the morning, sow your seed.

13:12

And at evening, withhold not your hand. Pretty much taking up the compass of the day.

13:18

For you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

13:30

I simply don't know, but I do know this, if I don't do anything, I will never reap anything.

13:37

I know that. Now tonight as we look at this, I just have one question to set the stage, and we'll just go through this text, and hopefully we'll be encouraged and gain some things along the way.

13:48

My question is this, and it comes from my text. Are you looking at the clouds, or are you wondering who's going to move the tree?

14:00

Are you looking at the clouds, or are you wondering who's going to move the tree?

14:08

Number one is our word, faith. Stepping out in faith.

14:14

Cast your bread upon the waters. Several possible interpretations, two of them

14:21

I think kind of work together a bit. Some think that he's perhaps talking about giving to the poor.

14:28

In reference to Luke 6 .38, Nehemiah 8 .10 has this idea of giving to the poor, and it would be given back unto you.

14:36

It's a possibility. I don't think it's a strong one, but it is one that might be rendered. Another one is agriculturally on this bread on the waters.

14:46

This view is based on the thought that after a flooding rain, seed is sown when the ground is fertile and ready, and when you sow at that time, then a good harvest would come.

14:58

I'm not totally opposed to that interpretation, but I think there might be a little bit more here. And so my third thought is this, probably thinking about the shipping industry.

15:10

The shipping industry. So in Old Testament times, and the understanding of shipping and receiving, it would work like this.

15:17

This is 1 Kings 10 .22. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram.

15:30

Once every three years. I think we're in this modern technological age where everything happens instantly.

15:38

Once every three years, a fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

15:49

You say, what on earth does that have to do with anything about evangelism? It has at least this to do.

15:55

The ship will never return with anything unless it's sent.

16:01

If you don't send an empty ship, there's no chance that a full ship is going to return.

16:09

And the thought is this, that the ship is sent, and after just a moments of hours, it goes out of sight.

16:17

For three years, you don't get a text message. For three years, you get nothing on social media.

16:23

For three years, you don't get a phone call or an email. For three years, what do you do? You just pray, hope, and believe that the ship will return with some merchandise that would be prosperous.

16:37

There's the heart of evangelism. There's not this instantaneous conversion that happens on a regular basis.

16:45

This doesn't happen every day. We share, we verbalize, we give out tracts, we talk with a family member, we talk with a spouse, we talk with a kid, we talk with a grandkid, and we don't see immediate repentance.

16:57

We don't see an immediate baptism. We cast the bread of the gospel unto them, but when we do, we believe and we pray, and then maybe in one year, maybe in two years, maybe in three years, here they come, and their heart's been changed, and all of a sudden, they have a love for Christ.

17:14

But see, that happens because somebody cast the bread upon the water of their heart, if you will.

17:22

Now, also, I want to share that the idea of bread is connected with the

17:28

Word of God. In Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3, bread is a word in Scripture that points to goods or to livelihood.

17:40

It says in Deuteronomy, And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the

18:03

Lord. Think. Man obtains life from the

18:10

Word of God. Part of what we do in evangelism is we take the living

18:17

Word of God, which is manna from heaven, which is a living Word, and we communicate that Word to another person, trusting that the power that is in the

18:29

Word would bring them from death to life, quicken them, and show them the beauty of Christ.

18:35

That's sowing the Word. Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

18:42

That's why we memorize text. We memorize gospel text. We memorize passages where when a situation comes up,

18:51

I have something to say. I'm in a tight spot, and I say, I implore you by the mercies of God.

18:56

I implore you by Christ to be reconciled to God, because the verses in the heart can use it.

19:03

And we trust God's Word to be planted down in the heart and make an impact there and come forth and to bear fruit in one year, two years, three years, or get this, it may bear fruit and you never know it.

19:19

Look, we share the gospel because we love Christ and we care about the souls of men. I don't have to see the result.

19:26

I like to see them, but whether I see them or not, have the joy of making the gospel known to someone else.

19:35

Even here, just the other day, I arrived here in Arkansas. I love to ride bicycles, and so I arrived at the top of this mountain.

19:42

I get on the top of this mountain, here's this weirdo in spandex riding a bicycle down a gravel road to the top of this mountain, and there's a lookout point, and there's four people standing there.

19:54

And so you go up, oh it's pretty, it's pretty. You get out your phone, you take pictures, and the four people say, hey, will you take our picture?

20:01

On one condition. Oh, and they said, any condition.

20:07

What's the condition? I said, I get to declare something to you. Now get this, all four people are from India.

20:15

Four people from India on top of a mountain in Arkansas with a goofy guy in spandex on the side of the mountain, and the gospel is declared to them, and they're called to repentance and faith.

20:27

What's going to happen? I have no idea, but I know that God's Word is powerful, I know it was sown in their heart, and if I didn't cast my bread,

20:36

I can tell you this, nothing would happen. If you just take the picture and say, thank you, and I'm a nice guy, it doesn't help.

20:44

But if you declare the gospel, then there's hope that four people from India may be converted, and I may see them in heaven someday.

20:54

Promise, you send out the ships and a good return will come in due time.

20:59

You will find it after many days. You sow corn, you get corn.

21:07

You sow wheat, you get wheat. You sow nothing, and you get nothing.

21:16

That's just the way it works. If you never evangelize, you never communicate the gospel, you never give a tract, you never tell anyone about Jesus, you will receive no evangelistic harvest ever in your life.

21:29

You'll never have the joys, the pleasures that come along with evangelizing and preaching. You'll never experience those.

21:35

Do not let fear silence you. Allow yourself to step out in faith, cast your bread upon the waters, and just trust

21:45

God. It's His gospel. It's His plan. It's not on your performance.

21:51

It's not on your intellect. It's not on your looks. It's not on your abilities. It's not on your family bloodline.

21:56

You just take the gospel and point people to Christ and trust that He will bring a harvest.

22:02

But I do know, if you sow nothing, you'll receive nothing.

22:08

Live a life of faith. Be kingdom minded. I think about the talents of 10 and 5 and 2.

22:14

Maybe 90 % of the church, I'm just making up a percentage, 90 % of the church has the gospel and they buried it in the ground because they knew

22:22

His judge is going to come back and they don't want to lose this one thing. Stop hiding the gospel.

22:29

Don't bury it inside of this church here. Don't bury it in your heart. Take this thing and put it out and have it increased.

22:37

Have it multiplied. Have it 10. Have it 20. Have it multiplied. Take this gospel and distribute it amongst the world.

22:44

That's what we're supposed to do. Churches are dying and closing every day.

22:50

Why? Predominantly because there is no evangelism in the church. Pastors don't evangelize.

22:56

Deacons don't even know what the word evangelize means. There's not any evangelism going on in the church. All we're doing is passing out waters and having picnic lunches for people to show up and eat barbecue sandwiches.

23:06

No, there's more to the church. We must engage the culture with the gospel. You do not have to be a street preacher.

23:16

You do not have to be an orator. It's not the message, but look, you can pass out gospel tracts.

23:23

You can go on missions. You can support missions. I'll give you this. I've been gone since March the 3rd.

23:31

I've been all over Mexico. I'll be glad when I finally get home. Here's the thing. Two of my church members go to Mexico with me.

23:38

Standing on the street corner preaching the gospel or heralding out. You know what they did? They took care of their pastor in order that the gospel could be preached.

23:47

They took care of my meals. They carried stuff. They made sure I was taken care of. They made sure I got rest in order that the gospel went forward.

23:52

That's the way they assisted in the gospel proclamation. That's what you ought to do for your pastor.

23:58

If there's an opportunity for him to preach, make sure that he can get the gospel out. You can help plant a church, minister at abortion clinics.

24:05

You can go out on Friday nights and evangelize. You can take the gospel to your neighbor next door that you've lived beside for 20 -something years.

24:13

Do you even know their name? Have you ever talked to them in your entire life about the gospel?

24:19

Have you went over and introduced yourself? Take a plate of cookies, bake a pie, do something in order to make an acquaintance there and tell them about Christ.

24:29

Just a minute ago, we just stopped at a trailer just a minute ago. I left two steaks already cooked on somebody's step with a gospel track.

24:37

You can do anything. They're going to come home from their little bicycle ride with their kids. They're going to find steak on their steps with a gospel track.

24:45

They're never going to see me again in my life. I bet they eat the steak and I bet they never forget that a gospel track was left on that step the rest of their life.

24:55

These types of things we do. We do all of these and so much more. All this goofy media junk.

25:03

You can text the gospel to all your family. You can write it on social media and you can call people to repent and believe and you just put it out there.

25:11

Look, people say whatever they want to say on these computers. Why isn't the church speaking? Everybody should be sending out the gospel on a regular basis.

25:20

It's your computer. Use it for the glory of God. Use that thing to promote the gospel.

25:28

You say, well, they'll unfriend me. That may be true. Let them unfriend you, but make the gospel known.

25:35

By the way, don't be offended about being unfriended. I have no friends on social media or pretty much anywhere else.

25:43

Not looking for any either. Give the gospel to seven. Give it to eight. You have no idea what might happen tomorrow.

25:53

You have no certainty beyond today. Secondly, fear. This is where most of the church is today.

26:01

Fear. Look, come with no excuses. Verses three and four. We see, preacher, the clouds, you see they're full of rain.

26:11

And, you know, if they empty themselves on the earth, I'm going to get wet. If a tree falls to the south or the north and the place where it falls, well, it's just going to be laying there.

26:21

I can't plow with a tree in the way. I mean, how am I going to plow a row with that tree laying there?

26:27

Now, if I could just get somebody to move that tree, we might get to work. I mean, until the trees move, I mean, what are you expecting me to do?

26:34

Here's the church. Here's us sitting in the congregation, going to church for 20 years, 40 years, and 60 years.

26:40

And here we are in the church. Well, it might rain. Boy, those clouds are looking like something.

26:46

You know, it comes out in different words. We've got this mission calls. We've got this church plant.

26:52

Well, I'd give this money, but I might need it for something. I might need something.

26:58

Something might go wrong. If I just go and give it off to missions, then what if something happens to me? It might be dangerous.

27:06

I heard in Mexico that the cartels down there, and it might be dangerous down there.

27:12

Every single time I go to Mexico, and my mama's calling, people at church are calling.

27:17

Hey, don't you know it's dangerous in Mexico? Let me give you a news flash. Anybody in here ever watch Wheel of Fortune? Anybody?

27:24

Okay. You ever see that? I'm waiting for the day. They always have the prize puzzle. They say, you've won a trip to Cancun.

27:31

And the person goes, oh, I ain't going there. It's dangerous. Have you ever seen that reaction?

27:37

Oh, I can't go there. I don't have a passport. No, they're jumping up and down.

27:44

They're getting their passport. We're going. How is it that it's exciting when you win a trip, but yet you got an opportunity to go on missions, and all of a sudden it's dangerous and you can't go?

27:54

Just excuses. Well, I would teach, Pastor, but people wouldn't like my teaching. I'd pass out a tract, but I'm afraid that they wouldn't take it if I tried to give it to them.

28:04

I'd support these ministries or these ministers, but all these ministers are corrupt, and you can't trust them with money.

28:10

Some are giving them no money. I would go to the outreach, but in Texas, it's hot. It might be too hot at the outreach and I'd sweat and all that, so I can't do that.

28:18

It might be a lot of things. It might be a tree in the way.

28:26

You see, I can't do evangelism and missions and things like that until I get this debt removed out of my life.

28:34

When all the bad people are removed, then I'll go on a mission. It's never going to happen.

28:39

When there are no argumentative people, then I'll start engaging. Good luck with that.

28:45

Buenas suertes. When people get more receptive, I'll pass out tracts. Go to Mexico.

28:51

Everybody takes a tract in Mexico. You just pass them things out, like dollar bills. Don't go with Mike. That'd turn into a disaster.

28:57

You just pass them out. You go to Maine and pass out gospel tracts. It's like you've got to pay them $100 to take one because they won't take one.

29:04

It's like, look, you just pass them out. It helps a whole lot. You say, well, they wouldn't take my tract.

29:09

You attach it to a coconut cream pie and they might take it. You attach it to a plate of cookies, they might take it. You attach it to two steaks and leave it on their step, they'll take it.

29:17

Be creative. Get the gospel in their hands. Why? Not when you can pat yourself on the back, but because you care about their soul.

29:25

You want them to know the gospel. When summer is over,

29:34

I'll go on an outreach. Whenever these obstacles are moved, whenever there's no obstacles, when everything is smooth and easy, then

29:40

I will do it. And people use those excuses from day one until the day they die.

29:47

Think about it. It may be you in here. I don't know anybody here. I know Alan a little bit, but you may go to your grave and have never given the gospel to anybody.

29:59

Nobody. Imagine dying and standing before the Lord and trying to explain to him why you never even told your spouse the gospel, your kids the gospel.

30:08

Why on earth you didn't tell your grandkids the gospel? Why you didn't tell your neighbor that you drank coffee with for 15 years the gospel?

30:15

I mean, try to explain how his gospel wasn't beautiful enough to share with those people.

30:21

I mean, can we not love people enough to do something? Hemmed in by possibilities.

30:29

Things that are possible or even probable have negated numerous ministries.

30:36

Just in a very small picture, think about possibilities for just a moment.

30:44

We can't do church. People might get COVID. People may get upset if we do this.

30:54

People, you see, they don't understand public preaching or evangelizing.

30:59

It's not culturally relevant and acceptable to give a gospel tract to the person at the gas station because they'll just think

31:08

I'm weird. You are weird. Just get over it. Just go ahead and give it to them. All these possibilities of what might happen restrict us from experiencing what

31:20

God may do if we would actually do something. By the way, on a very, very positive note, in many situations where all those fears come, when you step out on obedience, you find out that you meet a person that blesses you more than you bless them.

31:36

Sometimes we rob ourselves of blessings because we won't engage. We miss out because we convince ourselves that these things will not work.

31:48

Number three. Number three. Finite. Consider God.

31:55

This is verse five. I love verse five because it reminds me of how stupid I am. And it's good to be reminded of how stupid you are because sometimes we think we're smarter than we actually are, right?

32:08

Well, verse five corrects that. We are finite. So let us consider

32:14

God. Look in verse five. As you do not know the way the wind comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

32:25

Let me give you a NASB translation that's better here. Just as you do not know the path of the wind, how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

32:44

Solomon says, you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

32:53

Think about it. You don't know what happens when you confront someone with the gospel.

33:00

Just take the gospel and just... All these excuses, throw them all away and say, look,

33:06

I don't know what God's doing, but I'm going to give the gospel and God can do whatever He jolly well pleases because He's sovereign and I'll just trust

33:14

Him to correct whatever I mess up in the endeavor. Can you try that? To engage someone with the gospel and just say,

33:23

I don't know how this is going to work, but I know God's gospel will not fail.

33:32

Solomon is reminding us of our lack of knowledge. Remember this same story is found with a man by the name of Nicodemus.

33:40

The wind blows where it wishes. You hear it sound. You don't know where it comes from. You don't know where it goes.

33:47

So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Think about the bones.

33:53

All this science we have today, scientific equipment, all these machines to look inside of a woman and all these things that we've come to an understanding.

34:01

A lot can be explained, but a lot still remains a mystery. David reminded us in Psalm 139, he says,

34:10

I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.

34:16

My soul knows it very well. That's a great position. I don't understand science.

34:22

I'm not a scientist. I just know that God's works are wonderful. There's a lot of things

34:28

I don't understand, and I don't have to understand them, but I know that God knows what He's doing, and He can be trusted.

34:36

Let me give you Job's theology, because it might help us tonight. Here's what Job says of God.

34:43

Job 5, 8 and 9. As for me, I would seek God, and to God would

34:48

I commit my cause. Who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.

34:57

Job 9, 10. Who does great things beyond searching out, marvelous things beyond number.

35:05

Job 11, 7. Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the deep things of God?

35:11

Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? What can you know?

35:16

Its measure is longer than the earth, and it's broader than the sea. Job 37, 5.

35:23

God thunders wondrously with His voice. He does great things, and we cannot comprehend.

35:31

Churchly Christian, you have a great God. He does wonderful things.

35:38

They are beyond your finite mind. God is so awesome, there's no way your mind can comprehend all that He can do.

35:46

And He has commanded us to take His Gospel and trust Him that He will do whatever

35:52

He wants to do with that Gospel. Can I give you one more bicycle story real fast?

35:59

Okay, I got one. Yes, that's enough. So the next day, I'm riding down the road. This goofy guy in spandex, right? And he's coming down this road, and I got the road construction guy out there, and he's holding a sign that says,

36:08

Stop. One bicycle coming two miles an hour. He spins the sign to slow. That means

36:13

I can go. You know? There's nobody else. There's no cars. There's nobody. So I just stopped.

36:19

The guy standing there is like, Well, you can go ahead and go. I said, Well, I was just going to stop and talk to you for a minute. Oh, I said,

36:25

There ain't very much traffic on this road. And he goes, Yeah, blankety blank, blank, blank, and blank. I'm like, Wow, that went fast, you know?

36:31

And so I said, Well, I just want to stop and tell you something. He goes, Really? What do you want to tell me? And I said,

36:37

I just want to tell you that God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the earth. He lived a perfect life, and He died on the cross as a substitute for sinners.

36:44

On the third day, He rose from the dead. And sir, if you don't repent and believe the gospel, you're going to go to hell. He didn't like it.

36:51

He didn't like it at all. He turned like this. He turned His sign, and we were done talking. I just rode on up the hill.

36:58

He said, Well, what's the deal? God can do whatever He wants to do. I don't know what.

37:03

I don't know that man's name. I don't know where he lives. I know nothing about him. But he has the gospel of repentance and faith and Christ alone.

37:11

Do you know the Spirit of God? He's going to be laying in His bed going, Some guy from Texas stopped on a bicycle and told me to repent.

37:20

He may never get that out of his head. I'm trusting that God does wondrous things. Maybe we'll meet that guy in heaven someday.

37:29

Faith is always the requirement. I don't know a lot of things, but faith supplements my lack of knowledge.

37:36

We don't know about wind. We don't know about bones. We certainly don't understand the work of God. But we know that if we do not sow, we will not reap.

37:47

We will not reap. Lack of knowledge is never the justifiable reason for inactivity for God.

37:58

As the author of Hebrews said, Without faith, it is impossible to please

38:05

God. That's the funny thing about faith. It's always required when you're scared.

38:11

Go in the promised land. What about them walls around Jericho? What about that Red Sea issue?

38:19

What about hostile nations? What about all those situations we've read through in the Old Testament?

38:24

They're not justifiable excuses to doubt God. So all those fears you have about evangelism, they are not justifiable before God to not evangelize.

38:36

You can't use those to get a pass like, Oh, I'm scared and I'm not a good speaker to do nothing.

38:42

He's commanded you to tell His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations.

38:48

That's required here in Perryville, Arkansas as much as it is in Hazel, Texas. Then lastly, the fourth point is future.

38:59

Cultivate the Word. Sow in faith. Verse 6 In the morning sow your seed and in the evening withhold not your hand.

39:07

For you do not know which will prosper this or that or whether both alike will be good.

39:15

Stupidity about God is no excuse for idleness. People say, well you never know.

39:22

You never know. If you do that, you never know what's going to happen. You never know how they're going to respond.

39:28

You just never know. Stop buying into these cliches.

39:34

I do know something. Don't tell me I don't know. I do know something. If I don't sow,

39:40

I will not reap. I know that. You say, well you don't know. I know that if I sow,

39:45

God can take His gospel and do whatever He wants to do with it. Look, the wise leader of a nation sends out his ships to retrieve certain goods and in a few years, he will receive a ship full of goods.

39:59

But if he does not send his ship, he does not receive anything.

40:05

I worked on a farm many years ago 1993 to 95. 6 ,000 acres, corn and soybean and a little bit of cotton as well.

40:17

And this is what I know about farming in my two year stint as a farmer under a farmer who owned all this land.

40:24

As soon as it was dry enough that that tractor will go down across that dirt with that seed bucket in the back, he's in the field.

40:34

It don't matter what the farmer's almanac says. That farmer knows if there's no seed under that dirt, there's not going to be any harvest.

40:43

It come February, South Texas is when they plant in February, about 14th of February, if it's dry, seeds going in the ground.

40:52

We must know that. We can't make all of these excuses. We must press forward. I say to you tonight that sowing is often tied to the

41:01

Word of God. Mentioned earlier, but Mark 4, 14 the sower sows the

41:08

Word. Now, ask a couple of questions and then we'll conclude this thing, but what are some areas in which the

41:18

Word needs to be sown? Surely we can all agree tonight in church that the

41:25

Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two -edged sword. We can agree the Word communicates the Gospel.

41:30

We can agree that the Word is the very Word of God that we live from spiritually.

41:36

Okay, so how can we sow this Word? Number one, you can sow it in your own life.

41:43

You can sow it in your life. Exactly how many Gospel passages or verses do you have memorized that you can use at any moment whether you have your

41:54

Bible or not? Sow God's Word in your heart. Memorize. Look, I was just preaching in Pechote, Mexico which is in the middle of nowhere, 120 people and this is not an exaggerated story.

42:05

This is the truth of the story. They opened this service and they got people in their 90s all the way down to little kids all in the same room and the pastor says, let's do our memory passage and the whole church the entire church starts quoting

42:19

Hebrews chapter one and they quoted the whole chapter and then they went to chapter two and they quoted half of chapter two and that's how far they had gotten their memory.

42:29

A chapter and a half out of Hebrews. Now that was humbling enough but on top of that there were five people in the church that can't read.

42:38

And we say, well how'd they quote the verse? They taught them the verses orally and they learned them and you got these 90 year old people down to these little kids and everybody in the middle quoting

42:47

God's Word of chapter and a half. Can you quote a chapter and a half of the Word of God? That's what it means to sow the

42:54

Word in your heart and that's what they were doing. Read the Word daily.

43:00

There's all these theories and I don't have time to explain all these theories. I'm just too old school. How do you read the Bible? I start in Genesis 1 and I read

43:07

Revelation 22 21. It's a book. Start at the beginning and read to the end. Do it however you want to but read the

43:12

Word of God. Know what God's Word says. How many times have you read the Bible through? I have no earthly idea.

43:19

I just have to read this book to stay alive and have food for my soul. I read this. It's amazing how

43:24

God brings it out into daily conversation on a regular basis. Listen to the

43:31

Word preached. People in America are pathetic. We were in Mexico just the other day, 100 degrees no air conditioner.

43:39

How long church was? Six hours. He preaches for an hour, I preach for an hour, he preaches for an hour,

43:45

I preach for an hour, he preaches for an hour, I preach for an hour, and everybody stays for six hours at 100 degrees.

43:51

On top of that, you know what they're doing? They're taking notes. Why? They love the preaching of God's Word.

43:59

Because we've got to go out there where there's lost people who hate God and when I go out there,

44:04

I want to have enough in here that I can do something out there for the glory of Christ. Apply the

44:12

Word in obedience regularly. Meditate on the Word. Memorize the Word. Hide the Word in your heart that you may not sin against Him.

44:20

Let me end with these promises from the Word of God. You know these, I'm sure.

44:26

Isaiah 55 For as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my

44:40

Word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty.

44:45

It shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which

44:52

I sent it. God guarantees it. The point is this, 2

44:57

Corinthians 9 6. Whoever sows sparingly.

45:03

Now you have to answer that for yourself. Are you a sparing sower of the seed?

45:09

Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly. Or we could translate it in 20 and 22.

45:17

Whoever sows nothing reaps nothing. And whoever sows bountifully whoever sows bountifully, reaps bountifully.

45:28

It's like there's cast in bread everywhere. See guys always doing something with the

45:33

Gospel. Everything seems to be about the Gospel. Amen. I want to meet him. Somebody that makes everything the

45:40

Gospel. Every function of the church. Everything that happens has a Gospel centeredness to it.

45:46

Every family function. Every outreach. Everything we do is not putting candy in the trunk of a car or some kind of goofy stuff like this.

45:54

It's about taking a Gospel to a world and calling them to repent in order they may see the beauty of Christ.

46:02

And Galatians 6 -9 my last verse. Let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season notice the promise we will reap with a condition if we do not give up.

46:20

In this book which I've already read and I've already given to one of my evangelists in my church to read. It tells a story somewhere towards the end of the book but it's told a little bit better by a man by the name of Philip Rykin.

46:32

And the story goes like this. It's the story of a man by the name of Luke Short. He was converted at the tender age of 103.

46:43

Short was sitting under a hedge in Virginia. When he happened to remember a sermon he had once heard preached by the famous Puritan John Flavel.

46:55

As he recalled the sermon Short asked God to forgive his sins right then and there through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

47:04

He lived for three more years after his conversion and when he died these are the words that were etched in his tombstone his epitaph read

47:14

Here lies a babe in grace age 3 who died according to nature age 106 but here's the remarkable part of the story the sermon that old

47:29

Mr. Short remembered had been preached 85 years earlier back in England nearly a century had passed between Flavel's sermon and Short's conversion between the sowing and the reaping.

47:48

God does wondrous things. He is almighty. He can do whatever he jolly well pleases just give the gospel and even if it takes a century if God's going to convert him

48:02

God will use the gospel to convert him. I don't know if this is a side note but I think a lot of preachers and Christians just flat robbed themselves.

48:13

They robbed themselves by not doing evangelistic work. I am telling you evangelism done on a daily basis is the driving joy of my heart.

48:26

This is the experience of stepping out in faith with God. Oh the stories and the people

48:31

I've met and we stopped to get coffee. I'm sitting in my truck getting coffee or whatever women do.

48:39

I don't know. I'm sitting in my truck. Some guy comes out wearing a Honda shirt. I'm like hey dude what's going on? He's like you're not going to eat ice cream?

48:45

I'm like no I'm a cyclist I don't eat ice cream. What's wrong with you? Lo and behold here I am giving him a track He lives 12 miles from my house.

48:54

We're just right up here in Pettygene. He lives 12 miles from my house. Last night he's over at my house. He stayed at my house last night for an hour.

49:00

Him and his wife as a little kid. We sat around and talked about all these things. You don't ever know what's going to happen.

49:05

I had no idea. And so Chris and Mike are over at my house last night in my trailer in my campsite and he lives 12 miles from my church.

49:14

Just take the gospel and do something and trust God with it. And you'll see he's a marvelous

49:20

God. He's a great God. And he will do infinitely more than you've ever imagined or thought. Amen.

49:45

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what

49:51

God's doing. This is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says we are the poemos, the masterpiece of God.