School Of Evangelism Session # 7

Good morning beloved. Because you have Been on this journey with us for the last several weeks and because you are here today Hopefully will be the conclusion of the series. I thought I'd be good to Demonstrate my appreciation for you guys and give you guys all a million bucks.

How's that sound? I'm gonna give you guys a million bucks. Now This this million dollars has a million dollar question in the back and You can probably guess what that question is. Where will you spend eternity?

And so, you know what even today's a good day to come to church because even the latecomers get a million bucks. Here you go. You want a real one. I do too so, you know the the I pass these out kind of tongue-in-cheek, but also because.

Over the course of the last several weeks we're talking about evangelism and how we can reach people how we can break the ice and and these tracks and these are some of the tracks among many that we're going to be using and and.

And and handing out and these are a great conversation search, how would you imagine starting a conversation using one of these? How would you imagine using starting a conversation? That's right. That's right.

That's a good one. Anyone else. How would you start one? There you go. The most valuable thing that she owns piece fake million-dollar bill. Yeah. It's great. Who wants to be a millionaire. You know all pretty good ways, you know what?

I would really also be very careful as to how we use these so I'm gonna tell you how not to use this. Okay, do not ever think about leaving this as a tip. Okay, I'm serious. That is such a bad look for Jesus when you try to hand these out instead of giving people actual money.

Like I'm for a tip don't do that so. Another thing you shouldn't do is probably get people's expectations a little too high because as soon as they see mr. Benjamin they're gonna think it's probably real money because it's actually this is so realistic that the printers and publishers of this were rated by the US government and.

So that's how realistic these kind of look and seem to the person who's not really paying attention. One of the easiest ways to start a conversation with these however would be simply to say Hey, I have a I have a million-dollar bill and a million-dollar question that accompanies it.

Would you would you like one and boom right there most people like? 9 .7 out of 10 are gonna take it because it's just like they've never seen this before and it's just gonna put a smile on their Face and then there's a nice little gospel message in the back and this is really good for a quick Informal evangelism.

So for instance if you're at the grocery store. We had a situation where we we acted out a couple weeks ago where there's a mom at the grocery store of lots of kids. Well, you don't want to go into a 15-minute diatribe on the gospel when that person's probably you know in the middle of checking out.

That's probably not the most Opportune time to do it, but you can still share the gospel simply by handing them Something like this right any thoughts or questions on that? All right. So here's the big news as well.

What also one of the reasons why I'm giving you a million bucks is because next Saturday We're gonna be putting these things that we've been learning over the last several weeks to the test. And one of the things that we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be meeting here next week next Saturday at noon.

And we are going to be doing some canvassing evangelism door-to-door work here in our community and. And we want you here at 12. We're not going to go right away at 12. We're gonna do a quick about half hour session on Preparing ourselves for that door-to-door encounter and then we're gonna go and try to canvas.

We've already got a map laid out and we're gonna try to hit at least. You know do some evangelism work for at least an hour and try to see how many houses we can hit over that course of an hour. And so with that being said Why don't you turn to the end of chapter 5 and?

The Fear of Man and the Fear of the Lord

Let's look at their recap. Were we able to do the recap last week? That was part of the homework, and so let's get some. All right. So the question what is the fear of man? What is the fear of man? Pretty straightforward question, but also pretty fundamental isn't it?

What is the fear of man? Yes. Say again Yeah, well a snare. It's a snare. That's right. Anyone else let me let me put it to you this way the fear of man is The sin of not fearing God. Okay. The fear of man is a sin of not fearing God.

Time and time again we see in Scripture God say Fear not for what can man do to you and. Inevitably the answer is kind of a hypothetical, but man can do a lot to you right you see other. Around the world you see Governments at war they can take your property your family your life your possessions your income.

Man can do a lot of terrible things, but in the grand scheme of eternity. What can man do to me. And so the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. See then Proverbs 1 7. We also know that if we fear man.

We probably don't have a proper fear of the Lord and. So the fear of man is the fear or it's the sin of not fearing God. Now what does the fear of man do to the Christian? What does the fear of man do to the Christian?

Can silence us absolutely. What else can it do. What's what do you think is the aim so Satan is a. You know he's our enemy, and do you think that the enemy uses the fear of man? Against us right. Yes, yes, I like that now to go along with that line.

Essentially what the fear of man does is that it makes us? It can make us in unfruitful or inactive in the work of the Lord. Okay, and so we see that that that that type of warning, and I believe it's 1st Peter chapter 1 the fear of the Lord or the.

The fear of man can lead to To this snare of not being effective or unfruitful in the work of the Lord. Does that make sense. Okay now. What else can the fear of man do to the Christian. Makes us unfruitful make can make us an active.

What else can I do? Yeah absolutely absolutely. Makes us too Sympathetic towards their view. Yeah. Say again Towards their view that's right. That's right. You know and we see that a lot in the culture right so.

Especially in hot-button cultural issues in the world we see for instance Christians kind of capitulating to the culture capitulating to People's emotions instead of the truth of the Word of God. Now what is the spirit that God gives us?

What's the spirit that God gives us? What is the spirit that God gives us first Timothy 1 7? Love. That's right depending on the translation ESV and IV or You know power love and a sound mind or self-control, that's right.

And so that's the spirit that God gives us so when we think about all the challenges that are associated with Evangelism we're sharing our faith. We have to recognize that God did not give us a spirit of what?

Fear or timidity when he gave us a power a spirit of power love and a sound mind and. So one of the hang-ups that Christians can have especially in the context of Evangelism is that we can allow the fear of man to paralyze us and what people may think and and I'm a person I I think way too often about what other people think.

Just last week. We got our license plates changed from Wisconsin to California, so now I don't feel like such an outsider when I'm driving and and so in part of that is because I Always wonder the people see my Wisconsin plates wonder what they're thinking, you know, and.

But we can't allow ourselves to be paralyzed by the fear of man or what others opinions are what their perceptions may be. Because the Lord has not given us that spirit of fear or timidity. Which is a spirit of shyness and some of us are just naturally shy people and that's totally fine God, you know made you a specific way and he can use you in a specific way.

But ultimately what empowers us is the Spirit of God. Amen and so. With that being said, how does the fear of the Lord help us overcome the fear of man? How does the fear of the Lord help us overcome the fear of man?

Good text pastor. That's right.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. That's right, that's right. That's a healthy fear of the Lord. Helps us overcome a unhealthy fear of man. Right and so there's this balance. That we have to recognize as Christians that if we fear the Lord properly as we should.

Then our fear of displeasing him will be greater than our fear of what man will have to say to us right, and so it's this balance of fearing the Lord more than you fear man and. It's again a healthy fear of the Lord, but it's also a fear of the Lord because let's not kid ourselves.

We see this in the Old Testament. We see also in the New Testament the book of Hebrews that our God is a consuming fire. Right that we approach him even today with fear and trembling though. We we can approach the throne of grace of boldness.

There still should be a little bit of shaking in your knees when you approach that throne of mercy, right? And it's because God is Fantastic, and he's terrible in the original sense of the word. He is awe-inspiring.

He's not terrible as in he's a bad thing. But he's terrible in what he inspires what he brings out what he can do. He is just amazing. And so we ought not to lose sight of the grandeur of God and when we accept the grandeur of God it minimizes or at least brings us to a more healthy view of fellow human beings.

Because we're just human and God is glorious and he's above. How can that's a typo there how does the love of God help in our fears. How does the love of God help in our fears or help with our fears there's a text yeah, that's right.

Wonderful, you know one of the things that the love of God can do according to 1st 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 as well. It it does something to us. What is it starts with the letter C? Controls or compels.

Right the love of Christ compels us. So that we must open our mouths and declare the things that we see in Scripture in God's Word, right? Isn't that incredible? That's not just a fear of the Lord as a motivating factor but it's the love of the Lord the love of Christ which compels us to Overcome our fears to share the gospel of good of good news.

Now what do we do when people are offended what can we do or what do we do when people are offended? I'm gonna share a little bit about that in my sermon today. But what do you think we should do? What should be the proper reaction to offense?

Pastor and then Albert. That's right.

Man Albert gonna give him a million dollars. All right. Then they'll be a they'll be real offended when they find out it's not true. It's not real. You know here's something practical what do we do when people are offended, you know, there's a there's a book out there.

I don't necessarily agree, especially nowadays with the author of this book but there was an author John Bevere who wrote a book called the bait of Satan and in it, he brings out the fact that Taking offense or offense really is part of the bait that Satan uses To get people's people mix up so mixed up in their emotions that they can't You know come to the realities that are before them and so, you know, I'm gonna Without sharing too much because I'm gonna be sharing this in my sermon today.

You know, we're not responsible For other people's response and emotions towards the message that we share. Okay, you have to recognize that you got to give up control of that because you're not in control in that regard.

Now what we have to be very careful of of course is that we cannot afford To be in ourselves more offensive than the offensiveness of the gospel as it is already. Okay, so the gospel in itself is an offense.

Okay, it's offensive to sinners. Okay, but on the other hand, we don't have to add any further offense by the way that we share it or in our Delivery of it. I mean there's two ways you can go about it when you share the gospel.

You can do it out of sincerity and out of love or you can do it out of an a fierce circle Spirit and saying you're going to hell I'm such a better person than you you better start coming to church or you're just you know.

It's gonna end up bad for you. You know, those two approaches are just Opposites and if you come to evangelism with the Pharisees heart, then you're only Yeah, it's it's it's not gonna be great it's gonna have a terrible Result and you're gonna offend more people in the process.

Right. No one in the culture, especially likes a holier-than-thou type right pastor.

Right. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, you know your perfect example just this past week on Tuesday I believe was we're at the abortion clinic Ministering there's a young lady that come that came up to us. We spent like good probably half hour just talking to her and and at one point Her argumentation started to break down so much That it then became personal right and one of the things that she did is saying So are you saying that you're just better than me?

Are you saying that you guys you all you Christians are just better than you know better than me? And I said I said no not at all. You said I said I just want you to know my heart that we're all Fallen that we all are in need of a Savior and so it's it's when people approach you and they have that emotional Argument you meet them In in that place, but you respond with grace and you respond with the truth of God's Word, right?

So instead say you say yeah, we're better than you. Of course. We I mean look at us I mean, we're here you're out there trying to kill babies and I'm over here trying to save him there's a big difference here, but in reality, no, we bring it back to our commonality as fellow human beings creating God's image that are in need of a Savior, so Does that help?

Okay, excellent. Now what does God say about you as a minister? What does God say about? You as a minister, let me put it this way. How many of you folks? And don't actually raise your hands. It's more of a question for reflection about how many of you folks are here today and you feel competent to knock on doors next week.

Okay, I said no hands up, that's okay the the Reality is is that you may after doing this for a couple weeks in this course You still may not feel totally competent like ah, this is kind of good stuff, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to do this.

What does God say about that? That's right. That's right.

Pastor that's right.

That's right, that's right. Amen and so essentially What does God say about you is that first of all, you're probably right? You're probably not competent or sufficient to do this work but. Your sufficiency Incompetency comes from the Lord, right?

And so though you and your in your flesh your flesh may fail. You may not have the Argumentation completely nailed down. You may not have all the bells and whistles of your presentation nailed down. But the one who makes you competent is the Lord Jesus Christ.

He makes you competent. You're ministers of a new covenant. You are ambassadors for Christ. Now they're different, you know, every time there's a new administration the United States government. New ambassadors are appointed new ambassadors come in some are good some are bad some work some are in between.

Yet when the occasion arises for ambassadors to stand up for the cause of their country. They do so in the same way. We are now being called by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to go forward and share this good news.

How amazing it is that we are so privileged to be ambassadors for Christ. To be ministers of a new covenant that our sufficiency and competency comes from him. I mean, this is just amazing and so friends take heart.

This is the time and season that the Lord has called you and he is calling you to be a competent minister of the gospel. All right with that being said. Homework was right. A short paragraph using scripture.

Answering how you can overcome the fear of man and make your resolve to make Christ known as a competent minister stronger now. Well, we probably don't have the time to go into the homework. But if someone really wanted to share just raise your hand and we'll let you share what you wrote down.

But we likely won't be able to do a whole lot of that.

Due to the time constraint. That's right. That's right. That's right. Well said.

Well said anyone else? Okay. Let's move on to chapter 6. Make disciples by the power of God. So we're gonna read through this. This is a short one and and then we'll attempt to do the recap. It's this grand task of making disciples of all nations seems like an impossible task and in truth It is an impossible task.

The great commission of Jesus Christ can only be accomplished by the power and work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in this age. And when he comes he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I just want to emphasize those three core truths about the ministry of the Holy Ghost in our age.

Okay, number one. The Holy Spirit's job is to convict. Convict bring conviction and he convicts concerning sin. And so when when when a Christian sins. Obviously the Holy Spirit will be there to prompt in you that this is error that this is gross that this is something that you need to repent and move past.

That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit ministering to our conscience. He also Convicts concerning righteousness and he says because I go to the Father. That's to say that Jesus is no longer here in the flesh to tell us between Right and wrong or that which is that which we are or have to do.

Therefore the Holy Spirit being our teacher our counselor our comforter. He is now the one who is leading us into the areas of righteousness holiness sanctification. He goes on to say it as well that he also convicts of judgment.

Now, this is a key Text to understand our success in evangelism. He says at the end of that text because the ruler of this world is judged. You know that every time we share the gospel we are pushing back against the kingdom of darkness every time.

One is one to the Lord by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The the Bible is is showing us it teaches us that the even the angels are Rejoicing over one who has repented of their sins and that's one less for the kingdom of darkness and one more for the kingdom of light we were pushing back and ultimately we will have success because The ruler of this world is judged.

He's done. He's finished. He's been immobilized to some degree. We're all millennialists for the most part here. And and we see that that Satan is bound in a sense in A clear sense especially in that he can no longer stop the gospel from going forward.

No longer do the nations have to be given over to complete gloom and darkness, but now a great light has shown and we can now go forward with gospel authority and win the nations for Jesus Christ and.

So this is this should really empower us in our evangelism. Any thoughts or questions on that so far? Goes on to say in this modern age. Many and evangelicalism believe that the most effective way to make disciples and attract a crowd is through slick marketing.

Emotional and overproduced worship music or attractive programs while these things in themselves are not necessarily wrong. These focuses tend to draw a crowd of goats. Wanting to be entertained and tickled rather than humble sheep who have received the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

The only one who can produce true converts is the Holy Spirit. Whose ministry is to convict the world of sin and righteousness and to point men and women to Jesus Christ. The Christian who is operating not in self.

But in the spirit will be better equipped in position to share the good news of Jesus and make a meaningful witness to the laws. Though we cannot in ourselves change human hearts and conditions. We know that the Holy Spirit through the faithful proclamation of the gospel by the disciples of Jesus can and will produce.

This transformation we can have full assurance that God will produce fruit through our faithful efforts. For if we have received for we have received the promised spirit who is the deposit of our inheritance?

Why do you think I'm emphasizing the Holy Spirit quite a bit in this final discussion? Why do you think he's being emphasized so much. Notice he's a he personal Pronoun here is a person third person of the Holy Trinity God the Holy Spirit.

Why is he being emphasized? Pretty clear. Go ahead pastor. That's right. That's right. That's right. You know, the the truth is is that we can't do this in our own strength. We can't do this within our own spirit.

We can only do it by the spirit that God provides. We could only do this work by being empowered, you know. Before the disciples were sent out. And the Holy Spirit came upon them in Pentecost Jesus said to them before the Ascension.

It says you will receive power To be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. It's through the spirit that we're able to accomplish these things. And so that's why the Holy Spirit is being emphasized powerfully here.

Once we have partaking in the work of Christian evangelism, we must also partake in the work of discipleship. So what is discipleship? Disciple is one who has received the Lordship of Jesus Christ and as a diligent student pupil or learner of the teachings of Christ every Christian is a disciple and every disciple must be a disciple maker.

As Believers, we never cease being disciples as we constantly learn and feed on God's Word from the preaching and teaching of mature elders as We mature in our walk. We must walk alongside those who are new to the faith to mentor teach admonish them in the ways of the Lord.

This is discipleship doing life together and helping others come to a fuller knowledge of the stature of Christ. We must all take a keen interest in new converts as the scripture likens them to newborn infants and infants require much care and Attention.

We can take interest in Them by demonstrating genuine Christian love taking the time to get to know them and hear their story. Most importantly we can Help new ones become effective disciples by teaching them and modeling the Word of God to them and so again the importance of discipleship here is very clear and To go on as we're almost done here.

We must not forget that our ministry to make disciples is ordained and empowered by heaven. Therefore we should not shrink back. Even when we face the work of great adversity. Before our Lord's ascension to the right hand of the Father He gave this word to his disciples, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth the Lord Jesus fulfills the promise he made to his people at the Great Commission and behold I'm with you always to the end of the age.

By means of the sending indwelling and empowering of the third person of the Triune God the Holy Spirit the promise of our Lord was not Was not for our mere comfort but to transform us into witnesses of his good news.

Even unto the ends of the earth. How important it is then that we walk in the spirit by avoiding the works of the flesh which will hinder our Christian ministry. Pursue righteousness and holiness pursue the work of an evangelist for the kingdom of God and then Paul gives I Close with this final charge from the Apostle Paul to Timothy from 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 through 5 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living the dead and by his appearing in his Kingdom preach the word be ready in season out of season.

Reprove rebuke exhort with complete patience in teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound Teaching but having itching ears. They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

As for you always be sober minded endure suffering and do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry, amen. Now to recap these. What? By what means can we do this impossible task of discipling the nations?

How can we accomplish this? How can we accomplish it the power of the Spirit? Amen? Remember you will receive power from on high. That and that really can't be overstated. Remember when Jesus left his disciples his disciples were Kind of in a panic like what are we gonna do about you Jesus?

And he's like don't worry about it I'm sending you someone he's gonna dwell in you. He's gonna be with you forever. He's gonna bless he's gonna encourage he's gonna empower you to not only do the work, but to live it out and so for obviously in order for us to Do this impossible task of discipling the nations first we have to believe that we can.

We have to believe that we can. You know this, you know. In the history of this church, for instance, you know. There are times in which I'm sure many of you especially those of you have been here for a long time I'm not sure if we'll ever even get past this situation or if we'll ever even survive this or or if we'll ever see growth and if we don't believe That we can accomplish these things and we won't.

If we don't believe that we can see growth if we don't believe that we can Make an impact in our community for the gospel, then we won't make an impact for the gospel in our community. You have to believe it and you have to believe that Jesus Christ is going to be working in you that which is pleasing in His sight to accomplish this because it's not your work.

It's not the church's work. It's his work. It's his work. He's commanded us to do so and so out of love and obedience to the Lord we Partake in this work of discipling the nation's any thoughts or questions?

Yes pastor. That's right, that's right. That's right. That's right. Just do it. Amen, amen. Yeah, it's not it's not a secret. There's no secret to Unleashing the power of God into your life. I mean, it's it's it's not something that that's hidden.

It is clear. It is believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And says you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit if you believe you've received. Right and so now go now go and share this good news. Yes.

That's right. That's right now go now go. Yeah, Jesus gonna say now Sit down in the pews. Go to synagogue. Go to temple. He says now go and make disciples of all nations. That's the charge. That's the work and he's empowered us to do so.

He's empowered us so let's be faithful. So what is the role of the Holy Spirit in John 16 verse 8 through 11? What's the role of the Holy Spirit there? That is quoted earlier in the lesson Amen to convict the world concerning sin righteousness and judgment.

That's the work of the Holy Ghost in John 16 hugely important role. Now what is discipleship? We delve a little bit into discipleship. So Evangelism hopefully housing a positive outcome and that outcome is conversion in discipleship.

Right. So what is discipleship? What is discipleship? I don't want pastor to keep answering the questions here. Come on.

Yes in the back. Yes, right. It's a student.

I mean the word disciples really a simple word and it wasn't in the first century you have a multitude of rabbis and Disciples of those rabbis and Jesus Christ obviously was unique and that he himself Did not come from a traditional line of rabbis, but he himself was the authoritative incarnate word.

Who said, you know typically even today in many? circles in Judaism. They'll always teach what their rabbis taught them and so, you know rabbi so-and-so said this but Jesus came into the picture. He says truly I say unto you.

He himself was the authoritative Rabbi, the one who was able to teach God's Word and he called twelve men to be his disciples and specifically apostles and He calls all Christians To be disciples to every single Christian is a disciple.

Now that should be a question for or a statement for reflection in that you might want to ask yourself. Well, how am I doing as a student? How am I doing as a pupil? My learning am I putting my knowledge to use?

Am I being effective? What would be my? Grade if the Lord were to give me a report card and these are questions for reflections and we see that even the Lord does Give a sense of report in the seven churches in the book of Revelation.

He gives a report to the churches as to their spiritual state. Well, he can also. You know. We can examine ourselves as the scripture tells us to do in 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 to test ourselves to see whether we're in the faith or do you not recognize this about yourself that Jesus Christ is in you.

Unless indeed you fail the test and so disciple is someone who's a learner or pupil. Someone who is studying and also applying the teachings of Jesus Christ. What are some practical ways we can help disciple someone.

What are some practical ways? Yeah. Yes. Now, how do we model Jesus? How do we do that? Yeah, absolutely. You know and that's what's so exciting about this church family, right? Is that we don't we're not a church family that just meets on Sunday morning and then we say, you know Godspeed until next Sunday.

And said we are in we're pretty engaged with each other throughout the week and we are meeting in each other's houses. We're we're meeting for ministry meeting for friendship. We're we're we're doing life together we're modeling Jesus to each other so that when throughout the week when the things are when when life is happening we can Model Jesus to each other and say man.

My week has been tough. I've had a rough week because of this or that and and how we can share Christ with each other minister Christ to each other in that context and so absolutely. So those are definitely some good ways we can model Christ.

That's right. Right. Absolutely. Great point. Great point. And that's why you know, Jesus made an astonishing Statement to his disciples is I've not come to call you slaves. I've come to call you friends and.

And there ought to be a level of friendship that exists within the church and its members. That is unique to the church more so than what we see in the world. We're in the world, you know friendship is is highly esteemed to a degree but even more so it should be esteemed in the Church of Jesus Christ.

How is Jesus with us during this work? How is Jesus with us? He says I will be with you always unto the end of the age and what way is he with us? That's right. That's right. We go. That's right. He gave us the Holy Spirit.

He said he said I do not leave you as orphans. I will not leave his orphans. I will send you the Comforter and the Holy Spirit the third person of the Trinity dwells in us and He is the one who convicts of sin righteousness judgment and also He exalts and glorifies Christ in our lives.

And so he's pointing us a spirit is constantly pointing us to Jesus and we see that even when if we if we if we fall Into and to sin the Holy Spirit convicts, but then he points Jesus says go to Jesus.

Go to Jesus and Jesus also with us in that. He is our high priest and Intercessor who is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us even now and so we have a great high priest. That's why the book of Hebrews is especially Strong on this point in that it's making that we can approach God with boldness because of Jesus.

Because of his work because of his cross and so what must we avoid. I think there's a typo there. What must we avoid? What must be the full question? Your ears probably don't have the full question there.

Sorry. What must we avoid in order? To I Missed this one, too In order to accomplish this work, what must we avoid in order to accomplish this work. Fear of man. What else? The works of the flesh. That's where I was going at.

Yeah, and so one of the ways that we can avoid Obviously are the works of the flesh and we see this this stark warning in Galatians if you want to turn to Galatians Chapter 5 it's one read verses 16 and 17.