Conversation on Evangelism

CARM

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Father, we love you, we thank you that we can have this opportunity, Lord, to exalt you.

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And I pray that our conversation, Lord God, is edifying, and that it's an encouragement to you,

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Lord God. We want to live our lives, Lord God, in a way that glorifies your name,

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Lord God. Let our words today, Lord, be an encouragement to those that either watch this,

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Lord God, or have heard about it, Lord. We pray that maybe there's some Timothys out there,

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Lord God, that need encouragement to go share their faith, or maybe there's someone, Lord, that has never thought about sharing their faith, and they've just been convicted of you,

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Lord, to go tell the world about this good news, Lord. So I pray that our conversation will be one,

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Lord, that does just that, Lord. Thank you for my brother, Tony, for taking the time to be here, and thank you for Karm for putting this together,

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Lord God, with Brother Ken and Brother Matt. So we just want to rejoice in knowing you and trusting you and being able to go tell the world this good news.

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In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen and amen. My name's Tony Miano.

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I am an open -air preacher. I served 20 years as a deputy sheriff with the county of Los Angeles in California.

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I've served as a church planter. I've also served with a ministry called Living Waters for four and a half years, teaching others how to do evangelism, and I also served for a time as a chaplain with the

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L .A. County Sheriff's Department. And now I'm out on the streets full -time, preaching the gospel in the open air, going to college campuses and other places to bring the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to others.

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And I'm Sean Holes, and I have a ministry called Luke 10 .2 Ministries. It's a family ministry, primarily sharing good news on college campuses around the country.

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Street corners will definitely share the good news and even churches to encourage the saints.

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And I've been a Christian for about 10 years, and in the process of getting saved I just had a burden for sharing the gospel with people.

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So that's what we are now is just a family that desires to see God's name be glorified and see souls be one.

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So what Matt has asked us to do tonight is basically have a conversation about open air preaching, why we do it, how we do it, when we do it, who should do it, maybe who should not do it.

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And it's really just going to be a conversation between two brothers who are out there on the streets, and this will go until we're done.

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So what is one of the most common questions you get asked about open air preaching from someone who doesn't do it?

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Well, for someone that doesn't do it is they would want to know why we're doing it.

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And so it's a difficult question really to answer in some ways because I think our passion is to bring glory to God, to exalt the name of Jesus Christ.

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But they'll want to know more of that. They'll want to know some more details. So I think that it's important to explain to them that we love them.

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We're out there, we're doing this because we love them. And we do want to see souls get saved, Tony. I mean, it is important that people get saved, right?

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We're soul winners. Absolutely. That's why the church is still here. The church is still here because there are people

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God still intends to save. That's why the church is still here on earth.

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For me, open air preaching in the end is an act of worship. Ultimately I'm preaching to an audience of one.

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At first, I was really wrapped up in the size of the crowd and how many people can hear me, how far does my voice carry.

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And the more I've been out there on the streets, and I don't know about you, but I spend more time out on the streets by myself than I do with teams or groups of people.

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That's just the way it works out. Oftentimes it's just me and the Lord out there. And so ultimately

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I'm preaching to an audience of one. I want people to hear. I want people to come to repentance and faith. But I try to keep my mindset one of God's hearing what

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I'm doing. Am I doing this to glorify him? Am I doing this because it's a fun hobby for me and I don't want to do anything else?

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Whose name ultimately do I want people to remember? Mine or God's. And so if I keep the mindset of this is an act of worship, some of that superfluous stuff just seems to drift away.

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One of the questions I'm often asked is, hey, is this effective? Is this really effective in reaching the lost with the gospel?

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I'm sure you've heard that question a lot. I've heard it a few times. How would you answer that? It depends on who

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I'm talking to. Sometimes I'll answer that it's not effective at all. But we're not pragmatists.

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We're really not. And so I'll say, well, I'm not really trying to be effective. And on the other hand, I want to be as Christ -like as possible.

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I want to be honoring my Lord as much as possible. And so in terms of effectiveness, yeah, we're preaching to an audience of one.

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Is it effective? Yeah. God's hearing it. And it's lifting up that name of Christ. I think that the gospel, at least in America, has become so watered down and so compromised, at least from what

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I'm seeing, that effectiveness is just exalting the name of Jesus Christ.

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But it's hard to convince people of that. It really is. And especially here in America, where so much of the

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American church is pragmatic in what we do, what are the end results? How many people have come to church?

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How many people have raised their hands? And unfortunately, a lot of churches will compromise the message, water it down, like you said, because they're certainly going to get more decisions if the message is palatable to the masses.

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I like to tell people that the only time we fail in evangelism is when we fail to evangelize.

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If we're doing it biblically, if we're doing it with a right heart attitude, loving

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God and loving people, the only time we fail is when we don't do it. And people have often asked me, well, how many people have you led to the

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Lord? And I've started answering, everyone. And they get a funny look.

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Everybody you've talked to, yeah, I bring everybody right to the foot of the cross, and I trust in the sovereignty of God to either save or not save that person, either at that time or later on.

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How many decisions did you get today? Everyone decided today. That's right. Everyone made a decision. They either decided to repent and believe, or they decided to walk away and continue in their hatred of God.

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It's a serious, it's a very, you know, it's a privilege to go share the gospel, whether it be one -on -one or whether we're out singing in the streets or handing out gospel tracts or publicly proclaiming the message as an open -air preacher.

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It's humbling, and I think it's just such an honor to be able to do that.

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And so it's so serious, and it's so sobering that, you know, you get these people that you talk to, and you want to see them at least somehow grasp what you're talking about.

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But there's no way they can grasp it. They're blind. Right. They've not been born again. That's right.

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So it's hard to make it make sense. Yeah. I have just a couple verses here.

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Paul, you know, when he was writing to Timothy, he said he wanted to encourage him. It was his last letter he wrote, 2

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Timothy. And Paul's dying. He sees this young man coming up in the ranks and wants to encourage him.

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He says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, starting in 2, it says preach the word. He didn't say go out and live your life in a way that people will be enticed to your religious views or...

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Or live in such a way that people ask you why. He didn't say that. You know, he said preach the word. He said be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering.

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Those are very serious, encouraging words, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering.

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I mean, this is... He's giving him a great commission, isn't he? Like Christ said, go. You know, go.

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And so he's saying that to him. Then he says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.

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But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist. I love hearing that.

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When Paul was writing to Timothy, he says, do the work of an evangelist. And here's Paul dying. He didn't say make sure that you're making lots of money, or that you've got a bunch of people listening to you.

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He's just saying, go out there and do the work of an evangelist. And then he says, make full proof of thy ministry.

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Isn't that encouraging? I know that Paul would take the time, I think, of this man that knows his days are numbered and tells

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Timothy to go do this. Like I said, a privilege to share the gospel. Oftentimes, one of the questions is, well, is what you're doing really biblical?

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And I think you really have to look at the pages of Scripture with your eyes half closed to not see open -air preaching throughout the

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Bible. Noah. Noah was probably the first open -air preacher as he's calling people to repent, to turn toward God.

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All of the prophets, all of the prophets were open -air preachers. Jesus was an open -air preacher.

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The disciples were open -air preachers. So yes, it's biblical. Why? Because we see it throughout the

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Bible. And then we also know that it's been supported throughout history. You know, open -air preaching didn't stop with the

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Bible. It continued throughout all of history. This is not something new that has come on the scene.

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There has always been open -air preaching. Amen. But things have changed, what we're told. Now, the culture is very strongly taught in our churches.

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And as you know, Tony, we run into these people that are all about the culture. And then really what it comes down to is they're really not believing the

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Bible. Right. You know, then it's a different discussion now because we're having to talk about the inerrancy of God's Word and that it can be trusted and that it's double -edged and it's inspired by the

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Holy Ghost. And so a couple of discussions now are going on. But really, it comes down to them not wanting to trust the

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Word of God. Right. The culture is what's being taught, that you're going to reach more people with the right pair of jeans and the right haircut and, you know,

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I guess the right pizza party. Well, no. And this idea that open -air preaching is not culturally relevant, it's never been culturally relevant, ever.

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The gospel has never been culturally relevant. The gospel wasn't culturally relevant when

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Jesus was walking the earth. They killed him over it because it was so against the culture of that day, the religious culture of that day.

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And, yeah, it really is. I think this idea of being culturally relevant, and they often go to where Paul says, be all things to all people and twist that around, take that out of context.

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But I think this idea of being culturally relevant is more often than not just an excuse for not sharing the gospel.

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I think Christians have a very easy time of finding excuses for not sharing the gospel.

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Absolutely. And then they see us out on the streets, and maybe it's something they've never seen before.

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Yeah. And I think a lot of Christians are convicted when they see open -air preaching. I know that to be true,

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I'm sure you've experienced this, where Christians have come up to me, not all of them say, hey, you shouldn't be doing this,

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I'm a Christian. But I've had many Christians come up to me and say, people actually do this.

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When did you start... Why did you...I need to be part of this. How do

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I become part of this? We've had Christians come up and tell us those things. You know, when

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I started out, Tony, I would... Generally, I just love talking to young people. I love encouraging young people.

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And, I mean, if a 50 -year -old guy comes up and he's asking questions or he wants some type of encouragement, I love talking to them as well.

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We're not singling people out because of their age. But the young people come out, and I just want to say, you know, when I first started talking to them, maybe five years ago,

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I'd say, not everyone is called to be an open -air preacher, or not everyone is called to do what I'm doing right here.

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And more recently, brother, I've been thinking, you know, we really shouldn't even be planting that seed of making them wonder if this is just something for some people.

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Not that we would expect everyone to get up and stand on a street corner and preach their guts out. But why give them a way out if God's calling them to do it?

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Let's encourage them. Let's just say, hey, listen, you know, if you're called to sing a song in the streets or hand a gospel tract out, or maybe you're even called to, you know, stand up and preach, then so be it.

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But if the Lord is convicting you, and more recently, too, I've been saying, you know, I think the

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Lord's probably already been talking to you about this. Isn't that the way it always is? Because they'll say, you know, I was just thinking this, or I just dreamt something, or I just read this verse, and then it's begun to occur to me that God's trying to talk to you, you know?

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He's just using me to confirm what He's already been speaking to you in your prayer time and in your time in the

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Word. So don't discount this, you know? We're all called to share our faith, and hopefully there's even men out there listening to us now, young men that are a little

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Timothy or, you know, a person that, hey, even when someone goes and they go out and buy groceries, shouldn't they be evangelizing?

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Or do the fast food, or they should be sharing their faith. Yeah, I love what

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Ray Comfort says. He says, you know, I used to go to the store to buy milk and maybe share the

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Gospel with someone. Now he goes to share the Gospel. Now he goes to share the Gospel, and while he's there, he picks up some milk. So a complete change in mindset.

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So, Sean, how long have you been doing this? How long have you been an open -air preacher? You know, Tony, right when

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I got saved, I started sharing my faith, and I didn't know how to do it. I really was uncertain of even what the

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Gospel was. All I knew was who had saved me and what I'd gotten saved from. So in terms of training -wise, in terms of, you know, background, in terms of experience,

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I guess since the day I got saved, I wanted to tell people, I got saved. You know, you remember that woman that Christ talked to, and she was at that well, and then she went on and told the whole city?

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I mean, that's the way I was. I was like, let's go tell people. Come and see the man who told me everything about me. Amen. So that was kind of my testimony in regards to sharing my faith.

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But then over time, you know, I got involved with, you know, different ministries that were good at teaching, you know, men how to evangelize.

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And, you know, from there, it's just been get your feet wet, make lots of mistakes, you know, be humbled every day in what we do.

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You know, I don't think I've met the guy that's perfect at it yet, but I've met a lot of men that are definitely that the

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Lord's using, and praise God that he is using men still. And so, you know,

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I would say full -time, five years, full -time. But...

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What was your first open air like? What was it like getting up there on the box or the bench or the stool for the very first time?

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I stood up, got off, got up, got down, got up, drove home. Drove two hours to go preach, drove home.

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Went there the next time, did the same thing. Two hours there, got up, got down, got up, got down, drove home again.

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Third time, the guy I was with, I said, listen, this is getting a little silly. We got to at least do what we came here to do.

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And I think I preached for about 45 seconds and then got down and wanted to hide under a rock.

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And, you know, that was the very absolute very first time. So how about you? Well, it's amazing how similar our stories are.

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For me, I think now it's been about seven years, six and a half, seven years. And I had been handing out tracts.

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The light bulb went off for me later. I came to Faith in Christ in 1988. And I didn't start sharing the gospel biblically with strangers probably until about 2004.

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But I didn't start open air preaching until a little after that. And I finally determined, okay,

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I know I have to do this. I'm in sin if I don't do this. I know this is the right thing to do.

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And if I do not do it, I'm in sin. But I wasn't going to do it in my hometown. I wasn't going to do it.

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I wasn't going to do it in a place where a patrol car is going to drive up with one of my former partners.

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You were a sheriff, right? Tony, yeah, you have lost it. So I drove 50 miles, 60 miles from home to a beach community.

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I took my wife, Maria, my youngest daughter, Amanda, who was probably 10, 11 years old at the time.

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And we took an EZ Up. We took a table. We had Bibles. It took me about an hour to set things up.

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And it took me about another hour to get the courage to tell my wife to take our daughter and go down to the beach and tell people

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I was going to give money away for answering trivia questions. And she looked at me like, no, no, no, we're here for support.

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Maria is like the total wallflower, wants to be behind the scenes all the time. And that's where she serves best.

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And I had so little courage and so little faith that I pushed her out to go do this.

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And I remember watching her walk over the rise from this park to the beach, just like her and my daughter were walking away and they were never coming back.

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And within 10 minutes, I see like ants to a picnic, about 30, 40 kids, teenagers, almost in a run coming towards me.

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And I'll tell you what, I would have been more comfortable in that moment being in a darkened alley with armed gangbangers down at the other end than seeing those kids running towards me.

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And unbeknownst to me at the time, Maria and Amanda had totally disrupted a sweet 16 party on the beach saying, hey, there's a guy over here who's giving away money.

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It's the only thing they could get out. And so money and teenagers. And they're just sprinting at you. And this still happens to me today.

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I got my right foot, and I still have the box that I used that first time. I got my right foot up on the box. And the gravitational pull was so extremely strong on my left foot, it was like it would not come off the ground.

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And I stalled and I delayed, like I was praying. But I was just scared to death.

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I finally got my left foot back onto the box. And then

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I picked the smallest looking kid in the group, the kid I thought I could take if things went south.

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And then I was doing the good person test at that time. So I took him through that, and I shared the law and the gospel with the crowd.

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And I was done. Mine was maybe, I don't know, five, six minutes, something like that.

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And I remember looking at these kids' faces. And they wouldn't leave.

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And I actually, I remember saying to them, that's all I got. I'm done. You can go now.

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I got no more money. I got no more In -N -Out gift cards. I said what I'm going to say. And I really want to go home.

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But they had questions. Some of them wanted five minutes. And I remember weeping on the way home.

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Repenting for all those years that I hadn't been out there. And I knew at that moment, somehow, someway, this was going to be the way

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I spent the rest of my life. I was being out on the streets. It's an encouragement in our faith.

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It strengthens our faith to share the good news. And people's responses isn't really necessarily what we can base that encouragement from.

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It's just such an honor. You know, as I said, I've learned over the years.

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And I've definitely, I've fallen flat on my face sharing the gospel.

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It's just so many changes over the last five years. But one thing that has remained the same, it's bringing people to the cross.

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And bringing people to the realization that they are undeserving of God's mercy.

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They aren't deserving of forgiveness. That he loves them. Well, the

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Bible says that he committed his love in this. And that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. That he knew we were going to sin.

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We're sinners saved by the most amazing God. The only

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God of the world that loved us enough to sacrifice himself. When we tell people that God took on flesh to come to this earth and die for sinners.

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Resurrect from the grave. For us, in our unworthiness, it's just like we've got to tell people about the cross.

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If all we did was get up and tell them about the cross, it would be great. And often times we have. We can preach the grace of God all day long.

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We can preach the blood all day long. I tell people who are new to open air preaching that you should preach the law loud.

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Preach grace and the cross louder. And it's interesting.

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Many people think if you use the law in evangelism, you're just going to turn people away. But my experience has been preaching in the open air that it's the law that draws the crowd.

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It's that tension. The voyeuristic nature of people. Wanting to see if a fight's going to break out or an argument's going to break out.

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People are very attentive, curious, and engaging during that part.

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When people start to flee, and when the crowds dissipate, is when you mention the name of Jesus Christ.

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Because they justify themselves by the law. They think they're good people.

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They think they merit God's grace and forgiveness. And soon as you mention the name of Christ, they flee like cockroaches when you turn on the light.

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And sometimes what I'll do to try to mitigate that is before I transition into the gospel,

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I'll say something like, Look, I'm about to mention a name that most of you hate. In fact, you hate this name and this person so much.

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As soon as I mention his name, some of you are going to leave. I'll look to your right, look to your left.

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Because some of these people aren't going to be here in just a moment. What that does is two things.

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One, the person who does hate Christ, if they do walk away, they're going to know exactly why they're walking away.

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Sure. Yeah. The prideful person who hates Christ and says to themselves,

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I'm not going to let this open air preacher get the best of me. They're going to stay and they're going to hear the gospel. And so while that doesn't always certainly keep a crowd or draw a crowd,

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I think that brings a level of conviction to people. Because it is, Jesus said, they will hate you.

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Men will hate you because of me. And if everybody likes what we're saying when we're talking about Jesus, then we're not talking about the real

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Jesus. We're not sharing the gospel. Here's what Paul said. He said to the church in Rome, he said, and this is in Romans chapter 10, starting in 14.

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He says, You know, this, well, two more verses it says,

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Remember when Isaiah was saying that? And then he says, Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

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Well, we're out there preaching the word of God. We've preached so many times to people and their response is, why are you preaching hate?

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Why are you preaching hate? How much more loving could it be than for a savior to come to this world and redeem you?

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That's pretty much love, isn't it? And what I'll tell people during some of my open airs is like, if you do not hear this as a message of love, it is because you love your sin more than you love

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God. It's because you love yourself more than you love God. And whether consciously or subconsciously, on some level, you actually think you are

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God. That's why you hear this as a message of hate. That hurts, though. That hurts.

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But remember we're reading we're supposed to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering? I think that would be pretty much all those things.

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And I think this passage is so important. Again, the emphasis is that how will they hear without a preacher?

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The gospel is a spoken message. It can be communicated in writing, certainly. And it was through letters during the early church.

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But it is a communicated message. And this false notion that so many Christians have, especially in the

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American church, that somehow people will see Jesus in them and will be drawn to Christ by what they see in them ignores what the

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Bible says about human nature. People are dead in their trespasses and sins. They're spiritually blind.

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They cannot discern that which is spiritual. And none of us being perfect, there are many times when we look just like the world and nothing like Jesus Christ.

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Isn't it proud to think that people would literally be drawn to Christ by seeing Christ in us?

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It's as if people are saying, Christians are saying the gospel needs our help. That somehow the gospel is insufficient.

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People aren't simply going to turn from their sin and put their trust in Christ if all they hear is the gospel.

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We've got to feed them. We've got to clothe them. We've got to be kind to them. We've got to invite them to barbecues.

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We've got to do all these things. And I really liken that, and some may think this is too strong, but I really liken that to blasphemy.

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You are basically saying that the gospel of Jesus Christ is insufficient to change a human heart.

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That somehow God needs you to accomplish His work. Here's what Paul said to the church in Corinth.

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He says it in chapter 1. It's starting in 18. People can read this stuff for themselves. This isn't like, this is just Bible.

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So it says, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.

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So the preaching of the cross, we're preaching the cross. It's foolishness to those that are what?

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They're perishing. It says it pretty plainly here. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written,

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I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise?

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Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

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For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

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So it's foolishness. But God uses it to save people that believe. Absolutely. In fact,

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Paul would later say that to those who are perishing, the preaching of the gospel will be an aroma of death.

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And to those who are being saved, an aroma of life. I think it's important that those of us who are out on the streets preaching, and I think this adds a level of sobriety to what we're doing, if representing

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Christ isn't enough already, and it is. But God may use the communication of the gospel that day to be an aroma of death to those who are going to perish in their sin and spend eternity in hell.

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And I think as preachers that should break our heart. That there may be some who are hearing the preaching of the gospel who

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God may in fact save, cause to be born again, and extend to them the gifts of repentance and faith.

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And there may be others for whom the preaching of the gospel that day is a form of God's judgment upon them.

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I think there needs to be a maturation in the open air preaching community.

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You're actually out there in a wider sense more often than I am.

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I mean you've been to more places around the world and around the United States than I have preaching. You've been with a lot of open air preachers.

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I know you spend much of your time with real solid folk, experienced men who are preaching the gospel.

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But as I listen to people open air preach, maybe those who are newer at this discipline than others, it seems like it is the pendulum has swung so far to making sure that we use the law in evangelism for so many years.

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American evangelicalism didn't. But it's gotten to the point now where for some it's 90 % law and 10 % grace.

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And it's almost as if the cross and the gospel is simply the cherry on top of this large law cake that they've put together.

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And they don't spend nearly enough time talking about the person of Christ, the deity of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ.

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What exactly does his shed blood on the cross mean? The resurrection of Christ, which apart from the resurrection we're most to be pitied by men.

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And I think in open air preaching we need to spend as much time, even more time making much about our

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Savior, making much about the cross. And of course preach the law, but we need to spend a lot more time talking about Jesus.

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There are so many different Jesuses in the world today. There are so many different Jesuses in the

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American church today. And I think especially here in the United States there's this assumption that when you mention the name of Jesus they know who you're talking about.

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But we've got the Mormon Jesus, and the Jehovah's Witness Jesus, and the Muslim Jesus, and Oprah's Jesus, and Rob Bell's Jesus, and the health, wealth, and prosperity

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Jesus, and all these other Jesuses. We have to make sure that people understand who it is we represent.

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I agree. But we're not preaching hate, brother. You know, they would think that that's hateful to say that this

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Jesus, this Biblical Jesus is the one that died, was buried, and resurrected for our sins.

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And they would think that that's hateful to say well, we're believing in a different Jesus. I mean, how many conversations have you had with people and you've explained the differences that we might have with them in terms of who they view

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Jesus as? And then after using ten Bible verses and spending lots of time doing apologetics and even giving personal testimony, pouring into them, maybe even praying at some point to just seek the

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Lord and all this, they say, well, we agree. We agree. How can we agree?

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You know, the Jesus that I'm telling... If you agree with me, and you attend the LDS church, then you're not a

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Mormon. Exactly. Run for your life. You can't agree with me and be a Mormon. No, we don't agree.

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And so we've got to make sure that we're preaching this Jesus Christ to the Bible. And so, yeah, I agree that, you know, but that's one of the nice things lately that's been great in terms of the way the

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Lord has blessed me is to be around other men that are able to be out witnessing while I'm preaching or vice versa.

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Because for so many months and even years, I went out alone. And there's nobody that'll go out and suddenly it's almost like there's plenty, you know?

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But while we're out, we can encourage each other. I know one man the other day that I was preaching with on a campus, he's an excellent preacher and I said, same message, different tone of voice.

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And later on, he said, you're right, man. I was just coming across as being hard, you know? Or, you know, when we were preaching one day, another guy was bringing up, he was preaching to the unbelievers as though they were believers.

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I said, brother, you've got to be careful, man. I mean, it's not the same message, you know? The saints, they've been saved by the grace of God.

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They're going to understand these things. Their eyes have been opened. The unbeliever has no concept where you're coming from.

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And what you're preaching doesn't apply to them. It just simply doesn't apply to them. So, it's been a blessing to have that along in my own life, brother, because we can encourage each other along and give each other feedback and make sure that we are pointing, we've got to point these people to the real

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Jesus Christ of the Bible. And we've got to make sure that, like you said, with all the media pushing this whole, you know,

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I'm Mormon. Even if you do websites or internet searches or whatever, and you look for a term,

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Christianity, Mormonism is jumping up on the internet. Are you kidding me? It's not even close to Christianity.

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It's not even apples to apples. So, yeah, we've got to preach that Jesus Christ of the Bible. Make sure they understand who we're telling

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Jesus is. I like something you mentioned there about being called on preaching hard.

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I've experienced that recently. In fact, it was my sister who listens to all the audios and all that and comes out with me from time to time when she can.

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She told me not long ago, she said, Tony, I don't know what it is, but you're just sounding more angry.

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You're just... It's righteous anger. And that's the easy fallback position.

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It's righteous indignation. But there is such a fine line between righteous indignation and sinful anger.

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And so I really needed to evaluate that in my own preaching. And just this last weekend when

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I was out at our area subway station, North Hollywood subway station,

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I got into a conversation with one of the vendors who was out there every Saturday. And he looked me in the eye, an unsafe guy, looked me in the eye and he said, you know what?

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You always seem mad at people. You always seem mad when you're up there preaching.

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And we spent about a half hour talking. And by the end of the conversation, his name's Rick, he said, he said, now

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Tony, I know you. I know you. I've talked with you. And while I may not agree with what you're saying,

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I don't think you're a jerk anymore. But that really caused me to take a step back.

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Is that really how I'm sounding? Now, granted, I could speak the truth and love and say I love you and I care about you and I tell people, you know,

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I'm raising my voice so you can hear me. I'm not angry with you, but because they so hate the message, that's all they hear.

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They just hear everything. Right. But, I'm a sinful man. I'm a prideful man.

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I can be an arrogant man. And while the gospel should be offensive and is to those who are perishing, my demeanor shouldn't be.

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My rhetoric shouldn't be. And I think that's something everyone who's out on the streets preaching the gospel should check in themselves and have that kind of accountability of people who are not just coming to see

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Sean the Baptist preach. Ah, he's coming to my campus. I want to go hear Sean the Baptist preach. But people who love you enough to say same message, different tone of voice.

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And so I appreciate that. I appreciate that I have people in my life who will love me enough to say that.

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I hope that when we're talking, though, people aren't thinking that it's complicated. Because it's not. This is really basic.

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That's why I say to people, listen, go sing a song. Go grab your church, whatever, songbook, if that's what you call it, and go and rejoice.

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Or make up your own gospel track. You don't like the ones I hand out or you don't like the ones you can get on the internet? Make up your own.

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Maybe print something off on your own computer and just go hand them out. Or go witness to somebody.

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And I find nothing wrong with, hey, and I enjoy doing this. I especially like doing this in New York City, brother.

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Helping people out with meals or getting them something that they need. Maybe they need to wear some type of clothing or something and you get that for them.

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In the process of doing that, you share the gospel. So there's all kinds of ways to do this. This is what

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Paul, or I'm sorry, this is what it says in Proverbs 14. And this is from one of the wisest guys ever.

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So Solomon writes this. He says in 14 .12, he says, There's things that men think is right.

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A man, from their perspective, in their sinful ways, is going to think that what we're doing is wrong no matter how we do it.

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And we really can't win that argument with people to justify the public proclamation of the gospel or any other means of sharing the good news.

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Because men are blinded, brother. They can't understand. They don't even think of it as good news. We can tell them it's good news all day long.

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I really, at least recently, I'm really convicted that the same thing that you're saying is that it's a way of worship.

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That it's a way of just going out and glorifying God. And there's times when we'll weep as we're sharing.

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There's a time when we may be singing as we share. There may be a time when we're just lifting up our arms and just rejoicing in the grace of God.

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There's other times when we preach our guts out, preaching the law. And just saying, you know.

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No gospel for you. They're blaspheming God. They're mocking. They don't want

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Jesus. They love their sin. The other day when we were on a campus, just last week, we were traveling and praise

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God, I'm home for a few days here. Trying to make it not sound complicated, but in terms of the battle is won, brother.

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I believe this more and more. The battle is won in prayer. The battle is won before we go out.

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People want, maybe somebody when they start out, they want a big crowd or they want to get big results. And, you know, they want somehow to be seeing what they've seen on some

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YouTube video and they want to be that guy. Well, first of all, I say, don't try to emulate Tony or Sean.

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Do what the Lord's calling you to do. But, you know, the battle in terms of going out and being in the

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Lord's will, you know, the Lord's prayer, Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Let's pray that. Let's see it happen, right?

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We've got to be in prayer for this before we go out. And so the other day when I was out, I was thinking, you know, we're plowing today.

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No one's stopping. I'm sorry, we're sharing today. No one's stopping. But the Lord has really convicted me that I need to keep plowing.

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The Lord has convicted me that I need to go out and I need to just keep presenting this gospel.

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And maybe, by the way, you want to share what is the gospel? Let me talk about what is the gospel. But the

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Lord was really convicting me, keep plowing, keep plowing, keep plowing. And as I just kept preaching and plowing and guess what?

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The Lord was right. The Lord knew exactly what I needed to do and I, praise God, I obeyed, you know.

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And I just kept preaching and the crowd came. And within, I would say, maybe an hour there were 150, 200 students there and they're listening to the gospel.

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So what is the gospel? The gospel is that God the Father sent His Son to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, fully

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God, fully man, without sin. Lived a perfect, sinless life.

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Voluntarily went to the cross to suffer not for crimes that He committed but on behalf of sinners like us who have sinned against God.

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Shed His innocent blood on that cross for the remission of sins. And then three days later, forever defeated sin and death when

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He rose from the grave. And there is no better news. And I think we should be serving people.

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I think we should be feeding people. I think we should be clothing people. I think we should be housing people. I think we should be doing all of that.

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But that is not evangelism. It's not. Nothing is evangelism without the gospel.

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But don't people gotta be baptized? And don't people gotta be like good enough? No. Because you can't be saved by a gospel you do not know.

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If you're a born again follower of Jesus Christ, you're equipped, not to answer every question asked, but you're equipped to go testify to what

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God has done in your life. You're fully equipped. You know the gospel. Jesus Christ saved you.

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So you're not getting saved. People just can't seem to grasp this and maybe, I mean we're not probably going to change people's minds but God can.

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And that is that they don't have to be baptized to be saved. But wouldn't you go get baptized once God does save you?

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Well God commands us to. God commands us in his word that yes, that if you're a follower of Jesus Christ you should be baptized as a testimony of your faith in Christ and what

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Christ has done for you. In fact, in 1 Timothy chapter 6 Timothy had some timidity.

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You know, Paul told him, the Spirit of God has not given you a spirit of timidity but of love and power and self -control.

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Timothy was a bit anxious. Paul tells him, drink a little wine, settle your stomach. And in 1

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Timothy 6, 11 and 12, first he tells him to flee from sin, to pursue six different characteristics of Christ's likeness.

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And then he commands him to fight the good fight of faith. And in doing that he calls

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Timothy to look back to the day in which he made the testimony in front of many witnesses.

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He was calling Timothy back to remember that day when he was baptized and testified publicly to his salvation in Jesus Christ.

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And unlike today where you have a cooling off period, you wait for the Jones's Pool to get heated, you mail out doily invitations so all the family can be there with their video camera.

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They were getting baptized in mud puddles. They were getting baptized in lakes and streams knowing that that public proclamation could cost them everything even their very life.

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And yes, we should be telling people, especially those who come to repentance of faith in Christ, obviously, that they need to be baptized as a public confession of what

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God has done in their heart. But making sure they understand that that is not necessary for salvation.

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It is not a work we add to the gospel. You are not baptized in order to be saved, but you baptize as a testimony to the grace that God has given to you.

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I think it's good to clarify that to people. I really do. Because I think people get confused about what we can add to that blood.

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I think people get confused about don't I have to somehow contribute to this good news?

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But we don't. We don't. Salvation is by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

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Now, I post videos and audios of open air preaching and things like that.

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I do it for instruction. I do it to get the gospel out to other people. But sometimes people come to me and they'll say, well,

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I can't do that. I can't rattle off all those verses like Sean does.

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I don't have that much Scripture memorized. I can't come up with an answer off the top of my head to all these questions.

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The Bible doesn't say that you have to do that. And we have the best tool, the best weapon

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God has given us, and that's the sword of the Spirit. If you're worried about how much Scripture you know, take your

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Bible. I don't ever preach without my Bible in my hand. Because I don't have all of the Scripture of God memorized. And there are times where I know what

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I want to say, I know where the verse is, and I have a vapor lock, and I can't find it, and there's nothing embarrassing about, give me a second,

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I'm going to find it for you, give me a second, I'm going to turn to the Word of God and speak directly from the authority of God's Word.

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You don't have to be the best apologist, you don't have to have the most amount of Scripture memorized, you don't have to be the most eloquent.

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Paul, how many times did Paul say that he wasn't eloquent? He didn't come with words of eloquent speech.

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He came to preach Christ crucified, to preach the cross. Yeah, there's a great brother that I was just traveling, not great,

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I mean God is great, but I do love him. I just love him so much. He doesn't necessarily preach that much.

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He's out in the trenches, and he's even said to me, listen, if you get a question that you think people could be referred to me to answer, send him my way.

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He loves that behind the scenes, in the trenches. One of the greatest joys of evangelizing and sharing our faith,

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I think, is to go out with a group of people. it's great because you get people that are younger, they may associate more with some of the young people, people that are older might have some more testimony, a little bit of experience, a little wisdom to go share.

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You may even get people going out to pray with us, but in terms of knowing the whole Bible or knowing what to say, grab the

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Brainiac scholar, grab the pastor from the church. Bring the shepherd out. I'll be the sheepdog up in the box.

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As you're licking your wounds, go over to the shepherd, the shepherd will answer some of your questions. Pastors love that role.

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Like you said, we may not know every verse in the Bible, but we've got that sword right with us. Bring our swords, be prepared, and hey, if you don't know the answer, guess what we get to tell people?

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I don't know. That is the best answer because people are sophisticated.

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People are sharp. They know when you're winging it. They know when you don't know what you're talking about or when you don't believe what you're saying.

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People know that. The worst thing we can do in representing Christ is to stand up and talk about something we're not sure about and misquote

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Scripture, misrepresent Christ in that way. The most humble answer to those questions is,

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I don't know. Oftentimes people are asking questions, not because they're looking for answers, but they're looking to justify their unbelief at your expense.

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I won't allow people to blaspheme God that way. I won't play their game. I'll tell them that.

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You're not looking for answers. You're looking to justify your unbelief at my expense.

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I'm not going to play God's defense attorney in your blasphemous courtroom. Sometimes people will ask, what are some of the good verses?

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What are some verses I should memorize or try to memorize or at least know where I can find them quickly in the

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Word of God if I'm open air preaching or doing evangelism? What would you suggest? Good verses?

47:53

First of all, I wanted to say this earlier that some of the biggest opposition that I run into, and I'm not speaking for you, but some of the biggest opposition that I run into is the professed

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Christian. They're the angriest seculars. And that saddens me.

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So in terms of what verses to use, to the person that's professing Christ, and I've grown way past the thought that this guy is probably not saved.

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You know what I'm saying? I can't really make that judgment right there. I mean if they're walking like a duck and talking like a duck and they look like a duck, they're probably a duck, right?

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But at the same time, I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I want to encourage them in their faith and in their walk, and yet verses for that person may be something from one of the epistles or even like 1

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John would be a great place. Those types of verses to preach. Those types of verses to go to. To the non -believer, bring them, like we're talking about, through the law, those

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Ten Commandments. Those verses that are just like we've got to know that law. And I remember

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Ray Comfort came up with those little images that you can remember each one from. So I mean it's

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Exodus 20. So go to Exodus 20 and learn those laws. Learn those Ten Laws.

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And so those would be good verses to learn. To the person that's atheistic, verses that would talk about creation.

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Romans 1. I was going to go 1 .16. Well, I was going to say 1 .16. Well, Romans 1 in terms of saying that they worship the creation more than the

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Creator. Amen. That's right where I was turning to. So yeah, we've got Romans 1 to just say, this is what the

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Bible says about a guy like you. You're not an atheist. There's no excuse. You're a sinner who merely suppresses the truth by your unrighteousness.

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How can you sit? We were just talking about Ken being from Oregon. How can you sit on the

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Oregon coast and look out at the ocean and not believe in a Creator? It's absurdity. It is.

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And illogical. Psalm 14, 1 -3. The fool is said and his heart. There is no

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God. I think taking a person to Philippians 2.

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Those who doubt that Jesus Christ is God. Where it talks about how he humbled himself to the point of taking on human flesh.

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Colossians 1, which talks about how all things were created by him and through him and for him.

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Hebrews 1 and 2 where it talks about Jesus as the exact representation of God.

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Which makes it clear that he is God. John 8 where Jesus is having that back and forth with the

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Jews and at the end of that conversation, he says before Abraham was

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I am. He wasn't using bad grammar. He didn't mean to say

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I was or I used to be or I existed. They knew exactly what he was saying.

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Their most loved prophet Moses met God on that mountain at the burning bush and Moses said who shall

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I say sent me? I am that I am. And so when Jesus said before Abraham was

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I am. Their immediate response was to pick up stones. Why? For bad grammar?

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No. He claimed to be God. And so you want to find those verses that focus on the deity of Christ.

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Obviously you want to find those verses 2 Corinthians 5 521. God the

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Father made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that through him we might become, we might receive the righteousness of God.

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Colossians 2, the great exchange where our sin was nailed to the cross and passages about the propitiation of Christ in 1

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John and Romans 3 and I believe there's a third time propitiation is mentioned somewhere in Hebrews.

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Verses like that and verses that talk What if you mess up?

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Like what happens when you and what is messing up I guess and then what do we do when we do mess up?

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I think that when I've gone out and I've I don't think there's any time when I don't feel seriously like just sprinting, you know, getting out of there like okay,

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I just did what the Lord told me to do and now I'm ready to just like become invisible man you know, but we do mess up and we have messed up and it

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I think most importantly for me is that I don't try to cover it up you know, I just want to I mean it might not even surface right then you know, it might not

52:55

Well when the crowds are looking for that, the crowds are waiting for you to mess up But what is a mess up?

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We can define it in a lot of ways. Well responding angrily responding in kind, that's one way to mess up calling somebody, you know, as opposed to saying the fool has said in his heart there is no

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God and quoting scripture saying you're a fool okay, and violating what the word of God says so we can mess up in that way we can mess up by quoting the wrong verse or by citing some type of scientific principle that maybe we haven't really studied out and we misquote a term or something there's nothing wrong with messing up what's wrong with messing up is trying to cover it up with your pride you know,

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I think of messing up though too bro is like when I've been on campus and we're traveling and you're just day in, day out you're just traveling, traveling, traveling you're not eating the food you want to eat, you're not getting the kind of sleep you want to get, you're not reading as much as you want to read you're not praying as much as you want to pray and messing up too could be you know, not being prepared to go out and preach.

54:06

Right. So I mean there's lots of different mess ups that you could do, not only saying something or responding or reacting but in preparation.

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Preparation, you know and I've had that happen where I at the end of the day I just think, Lord you really I totally messed up today, you know

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Ken and I messed up today Ken and I messed up today we got back to the car we're clicking our heels and I say, hey man let's pray.

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Oh after evangelizing after evangelizing at Boise State and I said, hey Ken, let's pray and before we prayed,

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Ken said we probably should have done that before we started too. Yeah, yeah Right? We messed up.

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We messed up We went out there basically in our own strength the

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Lord redeemed the time He does. The Lord protected us from that error but yeah, that's a way to mess up but in that open air setting when you do something or say something that gives the unbelieving crowd that aha moment

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I admit to it, alright I was wrong you know what, I apologize, I shouldn't have said, I shouldn't have talked to you that way that was not a good representation of Christ but I follow it with this not to, not as a yeah but, you know to try to somehow mitigate or justify what

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I did, my sin I'll look at them and I'll say, but is that going to be your defense when you stand before Almighty God that you trampled under the foot under your feet the blood of Jesus Christ and denied

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Him because you saw sin in Tony you'll perish and you'll spend eternity in hell you will not be able to use me or any other sinful

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Christian human being as your defense for not repenting and putting your trust in Christ so yeah,

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I blew it I made a mistake, I was wrong but that doesn't change God and that doesn't change what

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He demands of you. Amen well, it's been a good conversation it has been a good conversation um should everybody do this?

56:13

should everybody open and preach? you know I don't want to discourage anybody from not doing it.

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I'd love to see more pastors out preaching, because they're preaching anyway, you know they're just doing it somewhere besides in their churches and young guys, you know,

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I mean when you get a little older and you've done it for a while, you start thinking I really hope some Timothys are coming along that can take this torch and run with it for a while um you know, the commission and people don't even want to use that anymore.

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The American homogenized watered down, compromised uh

56:51

Christian doesn't even want to use the Great Commission anymore. And the Great Commission brothers, to go it's not to stay, it's to go into all the world and to preach the

57:00

Gospel. And yeah, we are supposed to make disciples. Amen! It's God's word, Amen But how are they going to hear unless a preacher is sent?

57:08

It says it right in God's word, I just read that. And Paul here, in Romans 1 -16 he says, For I am not ashamed of the

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Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the

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Greek. We shouldn't be ashamed of it. So the commission is to go. Let's tell people to go.

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And you know what, they might go do it once and say, you know what I believe my uh, my gift or my calling is to yes, share the

57:35

Gospel and evangelize. But you're probably going to find me in a Bible study teaching a lot more readily. Praise God!

57:41

Praise God! Amen. Before we go, I think it's important that we just briefly touch on a couple more things.

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The first one being the importance for those of us who are out there preaching to be part of a local assembly of believers.

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Talk about that for a second. Now you're traveling all over the place. You're traveling a lot more than I am. But we still have to stay grounded with a pastor and elders who hold us accountable and love us, a church family who will pray for us, a church family whom we will serve as well.

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I would ask someone if they're first of all willing to come underneath someone's authority, meaning your elder's authority or your pastor's authority or the church's authority.

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Are you willing to do that? Even before that, I would ask, are you willing to go to church and worship

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God? Or are you the guy that you're just you come in and nobody's doing it right.

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Nobody in the church that you go to on a Sunday, so then you stop going. I think it starts with us, brother.

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I think at least I can testify in terms of that in my own life is it starts with us when the Lord has convicted us that we need to go worship

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Him in spirit and in truth. We should go find a place to do it. Yeah, at home. Yeah, everywhere we go. Amen, amen, amen.

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But really we've got to find a body of believers. In 1 John, I don't know the verse right off hand, but I think it's like 1 9 or so.

59:09

Excuse me. You see that verse? 1

59:20

John 1 7. Yeah, 1 7 says, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

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We have fellowship with one another. In the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sins. So we're going to have fellowship with one another if we're walking in the light.

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And in Hebrews we're told not to forsake the gathering together one with another. So let's go to church. I think it starts with us.

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Can I worship God? Can I glorify Him? Am I ready to go there and just learn? Am I willing to go to church and become a part of a church, really, and be under the elder's authority or the pastor's authority or the church's authority?

01:00:01

I'm telling you, when I've had to do that, it just brings me to the point of realizing they're the ones that I'm accountable to.

01:00:09

I'm representing Christ, but I'm also representing my church. If I go out locally, I'm thinking, oh,

01:00:15

I'm not just representing John the Baptist anymore. Guess who I'm getting to represent? Oh, I'm not just representing Jesus Christ anymore.

01:00:21

I'm representing my local church. I try to make it a point to start my Open Ears by introducing myself and saying, hi, my name's

01:00:31

Tony Miano. I attend Faith Community Church in Santa Corita, California. I'm here with the prayerful support of my elders and my pastors and my church family's praying for me.

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That does a couple of things. One, it lets the people know that I'm not living this nomadic existence, that I am attached to a body of believers, and it's a reminder to me that I'm attached to a body of believers and that I'm not only representing my church and my pastor and my elders, but I'm representing my entire church family.

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Isn't it great? I can only say this, and maybe you're going to disagree with me, but hopefully not.

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If the two or three people that watch this video...

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But isn't it great going to church and learning and being taught? It's great. Why would I disagree with that?

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That's where our fight's going to be that you would think that I would disagree with that. I love going to church and learning.

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You know, more and more, more and more, the open ears I preach during the week in one way or another come from what

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I learn on Sunday morning. I'm preaching the same... At some point

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I'm preaching maybe the same passage my pastor went through. But somebody's going to know because they were at church and heard the pastor, and then they're going to hear you on the street preaching the same thing.

01:01:48

Praise God. Yeah, absolutely. Alright, so, last thing before we wrap up, getting started. I think one of the...

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How did someone get started in open ear preaching? I think one of the easiest ways is to simply go out, open your

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Bible, and read the Word of God in public. I challenged people to do that a few years ago.

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Something I started called Project Ezra. I had this idea, I'm going to go read for Good Friday, I'm going to go read

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Matthew 26 through 28. The account of the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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And why that seemed novel to me, I don't know, but it did. And I suggested on Facebook, hey,

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I'm going to do this, why don't some of you do it? And what I have found over the last several years is that a number of open ear preachers have been born, raised up, who started simply going out and reading the

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Bible out loud, realizing that they can open their mouth in public. They don't have to worry about having a paused sermon.

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There is no better sermon than the Word of God. Nothing preaches the Word of God better than the Word of God.

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Go out and read the Gospel of John. Go out and read 1 John. Go out and read your favorite chapter in the

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Bible, or your favorite passage in the Bible. And then get down. Or, what a lot of people find is, they'll stand up to read the

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Word of God and they all of a sudden feel compelled to say something about what they just read. And before they know it, they're communicating the

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Gospel in the open air. What do you think would be some easy ways for someone who's never done it before to get started?

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Just start. That's why I say people want to watch

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YouTube videos and emulate themselves after some other preacher they've seen and I keep telling them, don't do it.

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Just be in the Word and be in prayer and go share your faith and pretty soon people are going to be watching videos of you preaching.

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You're going to be the YouTube guy that everyone's watching, not the person that you're watching. So do what the Lord's calling you to do and do it in the way in which

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He's calling you to do it. You know, there was a preacher in Fort Collins this fall and I went out with a group down there and we were doing a bar scene after the campus.

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We were up preaching. Tim was down there. And so there was this young man and he was up preaching, reading from the

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Word and he was expositing and I just thought, you know, he needs to be encouraged. I don't want to discourage him, but I was telling him just get a little bit closer to the crowd.

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He doesn't have to separate himself so far back. So he must have just thought, what you're saying, go read the Word of God and he was expositing.

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He was great. This guy was a good preacher. He was young. I love it. Boy, I can't wait to see what the

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Lord does with him. But he needed to be told to get closer because they really couldn't hear him that well and if they did need to interact, he was really separating himself by too many benches.

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So I thought, get closer and when you get a little bit of input like that, and by the way, I was going to say that once you are led to go out and do it in the way the

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Lord's calling you to do it, it's like attorneys hang out with attorneys, right? Moms hang out with other moms.

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Soccer moms hang out with soccer moms. I mean, guess what? Preachers get to hang out with preachers. It just happens that way.

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It does. We're constantly communicating with one another. And they're going to give you feedback. If they love you.

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Well, hey man, it's okay. It's fun to get feedback. So they may give you some feedback that would actually help you in being doing it in a way that would maybe meet your style a little bit better or meet your audience a little bit better.

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I think if you're preaching to a club scene in a club district, you might want to get a little further away from the crowd.

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Don't get so close. Yeah, where you're in bottle range. Exactly. Versus, you know, on a college campus, you know, on a university, you know, interact with the kids and get up close at times and then back up and realize when the crowd is growing, you're going to get feedback from people.

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Some of it comes with experience, but some of it also comes from people that you're with and they will give you that feedback.

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I'm telling you, it's just precious. You know? So just, I would say the Great Commission is the way to do it.

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Go. It's one word, two letters. Pretty basic. And because we have that commission, we shouldn't be sitting around waiting for the leading per se of the

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Holy Spirit to go and do what God has already commanded. God has already commanded us to share the gospel with every creature.

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So go. Is open air preaching the only way? No. But it's most definitely a biblical way that we see throughout

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Scripture. We see it throughout church history. And is it effective? Yes.

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The gospel is going forth. How many times from a church or from family or from brothers, has it been attempted to talk you out of your calling?

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Often. These people, if anybody ever watches this and they start actually sharing their faith publicly like this, they're going to be told, oh, you'll cool off after a while.

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I don't know how many times I've heard from Christians saying, I used to do that in college.

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I used to do that in college. What's happened to you? Or because you're doing it, they'll associate with some just way off group that doesn't even preach

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Christ and the blood and sacrifice and atonement and propitiation and resurrection.

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They just preach like whatever. If you're thinking about it, if you're nervous about doing it, you just need to go out and do it.

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You need to count the cost. Matt and Ken and I were talking about this earlier today in the car that part of our gospel proclamation should include counting the cost.

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A missionary in China, an American who's in China, training up the

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Chinese to go across the border into North Korea because the Chinese have free access between the two borders to go into North Korea to share the gospel.

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One of the things North Korean evangelists, Christians in general, share with people in North Korea when they share the gospel is if you turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus Christ, you'll likely be dead in a year.

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Are you ready to count that cost? That's sobering. Yeah, it is.

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We as Christians here in the United States where it's so easy to be a Christian, there's very little counting of the cost.

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One way to actually go out and count the cost is to go out on the streets and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Count the cost. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Christ. It's not man that's putting this on your heart because if it was left up to me,

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I would never go out. You'd probably be with your wife right now. Yeah, I'd be with my wife right now.

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I might very well still be a deputy sheriff. Totally, you'd be working in law enforcement. Why not, right? With a great salary and a huge pension and great benefits.

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But God humbled me. God broke me to realize that I was to be serving

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Him with every ounce of my being. By proclaiming His gospel. By making

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His name known. He saved me. What else can I not go out and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, whether it's handing out a tract or in a one -to -one conversation or standing up and proclaiming the gospel in the open air?

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How much do I really love Jesus if I'm not wanting, not only willing, but wanting to talk about Him every day of my life?

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But then people are going to hear you say that, brother. They're going to think that they're either not hot enough for Christ or they're not even a

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Christian. Because you're saying, how can I not? As soon as we start saying how can I not?

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And immediately they're going to think, you're assuming that I'm not like doing what I'm supposed to do?

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Well, I said I because how can I not? But I have to ask the question, though.

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If you don't have a desire to see lost people saved, if you don't have a desire to speak often about Jesus, how much do you really love

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Him? Your kids, my kids, how quick were we to show people their pictures when they were born?

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Well, we got the ring. We got married. How much do we talk about our wives?

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My first car, 1968 Javelin, white with a black vinyl top, only seven of the eight cylinders working.

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It was the best car on the planet and I couldn't wait to drive it to school and I couldn't wait for everybody to see the car.

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But yet, so many people say they love Jesus but they're embarrassed or even ashamed to talk about it.

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I'm not questioning your faith, but shouldn't if you're like that, if you don't want to talk about Jesus, shouldn't we follow, shouldn't you follow

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Paul's admonition to examine yourself, test yourself to see if you're in the faith?

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I had to do that. I had to look in the mirror seven years ago and say,

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Lord, do I really love you enough to go out and do this? Or do I love myself so much that I won't risk anything to go preach your gospel?

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Those were issues I had to come to terms with in my life and I thank God that He brought me to that place in my life.

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Amen. Praise the Lord. Amen. I love you. I love you very much.