2023 Laborers' Conference- Session 2 "Evangelism"

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April 28, 2023

Second night of the Laborers' Conference, John Jones will bring the message. Jonathan Foster and Jesse Gomez will be your live podcast hosts. We would love to see you in person at Vertical Life Church in Newton, NC. Please register at verticallifenc.church/confernece If you can't make it, we hope you can join us live.

2024 Laborers' Conference

00:33: What's up, Jesse? Welcome man. What's going on man? Glad you're here. Welcome to the laborers podcast
00:39: We are glad you're hanging out with us tonight. We're starting laborers conference this weekend and So we hope that you will stay tuned got a lot of good stuff coming.
00:49: And so hang right in there You All right, we're coming at you live from Vertical Life Church, my name is
01:34: Jonathan Foster I'm the pastor here at Vertical Life and this is Jesse aka the
01:40: Chicano Knox coming live and direct from North Carolina from Newton, North Carolina Newton big metropolis giant
01:50: I got lost Amazing it rains over here a lot. It does man.
01:56: We've had a lot of rain last couple days Springtime in North Carolina is tricky, dude. Okay, so like one minute
02:03: It'll be 30 degrees one day. Okay, like yesterday mid 60s now, it's gonna be like 85 90, you know
02:09: It's like a minute. It's sunshiny and high humidity So weather can be a little tricky a little tricky
02:16: Well, well, it's very similar to Colorado because Colorado all you have to do is wait five minutes and no change
02:24: That's right. That's right. So you got a little man with you Santiago. Yeah You know, he he's had the privileged life to travel more than I have and I always wanted to take him along with me to like a conference
02:41: You know because I had the privilege of interviewing other pastors like Bodhi Bacchum and stuff like that Paul Washer and They always had their sons with them
02:52: Yeah, and I I always admired that and I always told myself that whenever I get an opportunity
02:58: I want to I want to start doing that because it's part of discipleship and Bonding and stuff like that.
03:04: So like it's just my first time doing that and I really love it and I know for sure
03:10: He's loving it. Yeah. Yeah, we had breakfast this morning Santiago was arm -wrestling everybody
03:18: Well, we want to tell you just a little bit about the conference tonight John Jones is preaching tonight and He's going to be preaching about evangelism.
03:28: And so that's that's a major topic in Christianity and in theology and so what the podcast is about every night and all during the day tomorrow
03:38: Tonight Jesse and I will be listening to the sermon Following the sermon.
03:44: We'll come back live here. You can ask questions And we're gonna have a Q &A time that you can ask questions and the guys even in the podcast there
03:53: I mean on the stage tonight. We'll be asking questions So if you've got questions about evangelism or anything really you can submit your questions and we'll do our best to Give our perspective on that and then all day tomorrow.
04:05: So we've got a really packed out schedule tomorrow And so we'll be starting out at 8 45 a .m.
04:12: Tomorrow and be going all the way Our last breakout ends at 5 p .m.
04:17: Tomorrow. So a full day of teaching and of worship and Fellowship and so this is a free conference.
04:24: Anybody can come so we hope that You'll come on out if you can't stay all day come for a couple of sessions.
04:31: We're going to be covering stuff like the family and Government and Just the
04:39: Christian who the Christian is in general and then Jesse be preaching Sunday morning on the church and the theme of the whole conference is all authority in heaven and earth the supremacy of Christ and So we want
04:51: Christians to know That even though a world still feels very chaotic and Robert preached on that last night in our pre -conference kickoff
04:59: Even though the world feels chaotic. God is still sovereign He's still in control and we're thankful Christ is still
05:05: King And so so we want that to be our theme this weekend We want to encourage the body of Christ in that.
05:11: So what do you think about our theme Jesse? What do you what do you feel about that man? I'm super excited because this is the theme that should be addressed more and more
05:21: Every Christian should have a thought process about this theme Jesus is
05:26: King of Kings and Lord of Lords and What does that look like? How does that apply?
05:33: You know a lot of secularists say that that that Jesus being King does not apply
05:40: There's a lot of people out there that saying Jesus should only belong in in your church and not in the public
05:47: You know leave Jesus at home You know Jesus is only for women and grandmas and some people even are radical and saying that Jesus Belongs in the past it's a relic of history.
06:00: We need to progress and mature as a society and That's the argument that's in universities colleges
06:09: Podcasts out there, you know celebrities movies That's the message that we're bombarded with that they want a supremacy of no
06:18: Jesus we want a supremacy of Jesus and that's what this conference is all about and We don't talk about every single topic underneath the
06:28: Sun But we are addressing some of the big some of the biggies and if you're a pastor out there or a
06:35: Christian mother If you're just a single father or just a young pastor going to going to a college this is the kind of conference you want to take notes on ask your questions and Hopefully this conference will serve you
06:51: To further and help you along the journey as you continue to be a Berean and study your word
06:58: And and tackle these issues along with us and hopefully tackle these issues
07:04: Like your own pastors your own elders because this is sure this is a hot topic
07:09: Every church should be dealing with this right now and the good news is This isn't just invite and come here as preach
07:18: So there will be I'm gonna make your way into the sanctuary There's going to be a breakout session.
07:23: And so like for example Tomorrow when I preach on the home then following that Kelly and Robert can
07:31: I we're going to be talking about the supremacy of Christ in marriage in a breakout session or Dan to be Talking about where discipleship begins at home like discipling the nation's as even foreign missions go
07:43: Begins at home, you know and raising up our children's know that and and there'll be a Questions so that's what tomorrow's gonna look like This is gonna preach and then we're gonna something unique right in the middle of the service we're gonna bring
08:07: Guys who are Part of the group and have a
08:12: Q &A time right in the middle of sermon and so in the middle of service So they gotta be quick on their feet
08:19: Some might be prescribed we may have some questions beforehand, but you know
08:26: Absolutely yeah, everybody should be asking questions, you know,
08:31: I mean when when you got a culture that is that is seemingly to showing signs of decay and crumbling and shaking
08:42: Community should And that's that's healthy and encourage that churches should encourage that and that's one of the main benefits of having such a conference and you know, so I'm very thankful for a vertical life to host it and to support it and to encourage this kind of networking
09:04: Culture building or we're just a group what's unique about our culture to even in the labors podcast We come from different backgrounds.
09:12: I grew up Southern Baptist. We may not agree on myself reform
09:18: Pentecostal or reformed by the cost of whatever that means. Yes, and I don't know there's a qualification for that I'm sure he's out there
09:27: Just Well, I was raised in Southern, California, so I was not raised in a
09:33: Christian home, you know typical Roman Catholic Introduced to Christianity like in a non -denominational sense
09:44: And then I was introduced to the reform perspective. So I land Presbyterian But I have a lot of you know friends who are reformed
09:53: Baptist following the service And so that's what we're about we want you to know we're not here meeting to try to press the denominational perspective
10:05: Just trying to spew our opinions as men of God no matter where we right now on Sunday grounded biblical church
10:13: This is a priority We we're bound to the Word of God and that's that's what I love these guys We take very very serious
10:21: What the scripture says about these things and I get it scripture can can can be a place where iron sharpening iron you have
10:28: Perspectives on scripture, but at the end of the day, it's not what you think. It means what I think it means and then we just That's even where we get our name
10:40: We labor together coming from Online to download from Presbyterian Designated in a variety in between those things
10:53: We labor to discover the truth of God's Word and that's what makes our group really unique too because we're very united in that Even in things that are what we consider open -handed issues that we might disagree on We're very united to pursue the heart of God and to pursue the truth of his word
11:13: And then there is some fun iron sharpening iron and we get to jab at each other It's good, so well guys we're gonna be going live to the service here in just a second
11:25: John Jones and their church family worship tonight and One thing that we are wanting to do
11:43: Tennessee Multiple hours and we want to bless these guys and so we're gonna take up a love offering you can give online
11:51: You can go to avert a wife in secret church and and there's a giving page there You can download the app you can give through that movie down there
11:58: It says laborers conference And if it's something that you would like to give You can give that way and we'll make sure to bless these guys with that And so if we have an abundance of those things then we will be dispersing that out through different missions
12:10: Opportunities and with truth and love network to keep the ministry of truth and love strong. So guys
12:16: We hope you enjoy the worship service tonight Jesse and I will be back at the end to do some follow -up commentary from the message and we hope that you're encouraged
13:07: I Never seen
14:14: Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh We are
17:24: Every day Oh Oh Oh Give you
20:06: Oh Come Oh You are our son.
20:34: You are our faith in God who births the chariots with fire.
20:44: Lord, uphold you with us, with us in the fire, with us as a shelter, with us in the storm.
20:58: Lord, you will lead us through the fiercest battle.
21:06: Oh, where else would we go with the Lord of hosts?
21:18: Oh, God of Jacob, be safe, may we lift your voice to speak.
21:26: Hear the mountains, all the mountains, to the sea.
21:33: Oh, Lord, you know the hearts of men, yet still you let them live.
21:40: God who makes the mountains melt, you come rest on the sand.
21:47: God who makes the mountains melt, you come rest on the sand away.
21:58: Lord, uphold you with us, with us in the fire, with us as a shelter, with us in the storm.
22:12: Lord, you will lead us through the fiercest battle.
22:20: Oh, where else would we go with the Lord of hosts?
22:27: Oh, the oceans hold you up, the
22:43: Lord above, the one who calms the waves and makes my heart be still.
22:53: Oh, the earth gives way, the mountains move, until you see the nations rage.
23:01: I know my God is in control. Oh, the oceans hold you up, the
23:11: Lord above, the one who calms the waves and makes my heart be still.
23:22: Oh, the earth gives way, the mountains move, until you see the nations rage.
23:30: I know my God is in control. Lord, uphold you with us, with us in the fire, with us as a shelter, with us in the storm.
23:48: Lord, you will lead us through the fiercest battle.
23:56: Oh, where else would we go with the Lord of hosts?
24:49: Oh, the oceans hold you up, the
25:07: Lord above, the one who calms the waves and makes my heart be still. Oh, the oceans hold you up, the
25:31: Lord above, the one who calms the waves and makes my heart be still. Lord, you will lead us through the fiercest battle.
25:36: Oh, the oceans hold you up, the Lord above, the one who calms the waves and makes my heart be still. Not the same, I am changed, redeemed by the blood of the
25:45: Lamb. By His grace, I am saved.
25:52: I'm His child forever, I am. Hallelujah.
26:02: Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Now I have the living water from the well that won't run dry.
26:19: All the pains of life have been satisfied by the precious blood of Christ.
26:29: Not the same, I am changed, redeemed by the blood of the
26:37: Lamb. By His grace, I am saved.
26:44: I'm His child forever, I am. Hallelujah.
26:54: Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. When it's time to cross that river,
27:07: I will shine a glorious light. When He calls me home,
27:15: I'll fall at His foot. I'll forever worship
27:20: Christ. I'll forever worship
27:25: Christ. I'll forever worship Christ.
27:34: Not the same, I am changed, redeemed by the blood of the
27:43: Lamb. By His grace, I am saved.
27:50: I'm His child forever, I am. Not the same, I am changed, redeemed by the blood of the
28:03: Lamb. By His grace, I am saved.
28:10: I'm His child forever, I am. Hallelujah.
28:20: Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Redeemed by the blood of the
28:34: Lamb. You may be seated.
28:52: We are and have been extremely blessed to have these guys come and share with us tonight.
29:00: So thank you, thank you, thank you for giving up your time. Thank you.
29:08: They're giving up their time to come and lead us, so I'm beyond thankful. Tonight is one of the
29:17: Q &A sessions, so I want to remind you of that. If you do not feel comfortable raising your hand or if you don't want anybody to know that you asked that particular question, it's okay if you write it down, submit it, and also we have to have questions to answer.
29:35: So write down multiple questions. We don't want to come up here and have no questions.
29:42: We want to be here for you. There's a list in the back. Esther is taking up.
29:49: Is that why you're waving? Okay, Esther's taking up submissions if you want to give her the question, and if you want to raise your hand at the end, feel free to do that.
29:57: We're also very blessed to have one of the laborers. I'm thankful that he has come on board.
30:04: He contributes tremendously. He helps me to grow in the Lord. I'm thankful that he is speaking, preaching to us tonight on Jesus' authority of evangelism.
30:16: So, Brother John, will you come preach to us? Thank you.
30:24: How's everybody doing? God is good, right? So, I freely confess that I am more nervous than a long -tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
30:36: I thought that was just for you. So, if you want to go ahead and get your
30:43: Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 4 to start, and I probably want to read from 1 at least to 13 or 11.
30:53: One of the things that I want to say
30:58: God challenged me on in terms of my faith very early on was sharing what
31:06: God had done in my life, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as I could.
31:11: So, really early on, and with absolutely any form or fashion and very poor understanding,
31:20: I began walking around the sidewalks of Lincoln, Gastonia, Charlotte, wherever I could go, a couple college campuses.
31:28: I even dared to go there and pass out tracks and share the gospel with as many people as I could.
31:35: And something that I quickly found out was that everybody, undoubtedly, was a Christian already. There was an alarming number of people who
31:41: I could walk up on, inebriated, on the sidewalk. I could walk up on them in the middle of something that was clearly not
31:48: Christian behavior. And they would tell me that they were faithful members of churches and that they went every Sunday, Wednesday, any time the door was open.
31:55: And I got to thinking, I might need to go to the church house too because it's more efficient.
32:04: If all of you are going to the same place, I can talk to you all at the same time. As opposed to walking piles and piles of miles to do something.
32:14: And I've found that judgment begins at the house of the
32:22: Lord. There's piles of times that if we do this wrong, if we get this wrong here in the framework that God has established for His people to flourish, what hope does the world have?
32:40: Right? So, you have your text,
32:49: Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, I'm sorry if you didn't get to Ephesians chapter 4, starting in 1,
32:54: Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of a calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of spirit through the bond of peace.
33:08: There is one body and one spirit, just as you've been called, and one hope at your calling.
33:14: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
33:20: Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift, for it says, when
33:26: He ascended on high, He took captive captive. He gave gifts to people, but what does
33:33: He ascended mean except for that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth.
33:38: The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above the heavens to fill all things.
33:46: And He Himself gave some apostles and some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to the equip of the saints for the work of ministry.
33:53: To build up the body of Christ until we reach unity in the faith and knowledge of God's Son, growing into a maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.
34:06: Then we will no longer be little children tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning and cleverness and the techniques of deceit.
34:16: But by speaking the truth in love, let us grow every way into Him who is the head,
34:22: Christ. From Him, the whole body, fitted and knitted together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for the building itself up in love by the proper working of the individual part.
34:36: Let's pray together, Father in Jesus' name. Lord, I only want what
34:44: You've given us to be out today. God, I pray that everything that is said from behind this holy desk be in accordance with Your will and Your word.
34:55: Lord, I need You to touch me, that I might in this moment be able to communicate what
35:02: I feel within me and what I feel You've laid on my heart. I pray that You give the increase as You see fit, in Jesus' name
35:08: I pray. And all God's people said. God's authoritative command over evangelism is so important because whenever you share the gospel with somebody, undoubtedly this will happen.
35:24: Who told you to do that? By what authority do you come to me and tell me whether I'm right or I'm wrong? So there's a couple things we need to discuss in terms of, one, what is evangelism?
35:35: What is evangelism as it is itself? It is simply sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
35:44: And it is as impossible to do as sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
35:50: Not one person has ever got to the top of that mountain or to the bottom of that ocean, whichever analogy you want to use, you feel free to put it in there.
35:57: There is more to the gospel of Christ than we can uncover. How can the finite uncover the infinite?
36:03: But in what we have, in as much manner as God has given us the ability to, we're to do that very thing.
36:10: Whether that's by testimony and telling people what God has done for your life individually. Or whether that's through breaking the word open and doing the same thing there.
36:18: We can only testify of the things that we have seen and the things that we have heard. Therefore we need to be students of the word.
36:24: And we need to have a relationship with Christ in such a manner that whenever He asks us to move, we move.
36:32: It's His authority that we work in and not our own. And this can cause somewhat of a problem if we never have our authority checked, right?
36:43: One of the things that I do so enjoy about this group of fellows that we call the laborers is that we don't agree on everything, brother.
36:52: And if I say something that I really believe is right, and Pastor Foster doesn't believe it's right,
36:59: I've heard him say it. I'm going to check you on that one right there. Prove it. We need that.
37:06: We need that. We shouldn't be a people that are so afraid of our own beliefs that we can't give a reason for what we believe.
37:12: And we better have something we can back up what we believe. It had better be in the word of God.
37:18: So God's authority starts with an order. God is not the author of confusion.
37:26: And everything God does seems to be done decently and in order. So much a way that everything is above the table.
37:32: There's no secrets hidden from anybody. And you can see it as good as I can see it. And it's His desire that you see it as good as I see it.
37:39: We don't have truth that's folded up into certain secret channels and you have to go through somebody else to get to this truth.
37:46: We have the Word before us. We have the Spirit in us. We have the blood on the cross as evident that there was somebody killed.
37:52: And we have an empty tomb that He's alive. Do you understand? The point is that these truths are available to all.
37:59: But there is an order God has dignified. Let's go back and let's look at 11. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some teachers and preachers.
38:08: I've always looked at this as an order of... I don't want to say order of operations. It took my mind to go to math.
38:15: In terms of order of hierarchy, we don't adhere to in the strictest sense because we don't believe there's apostles anymore.
38:23: But they wrote the Word and we have the Word. So we have evidence of the things the apostles taught and said right before us all the time at our access.
38:33: So in a way, they're still with us, aren't they? In the Word of God. And then there was prophets.
38:38: We have the Old Testament slapped full of prophets. Where there was all kind of foretelling that was coming on, or foretelling.
38:43: And I believe today God still teaches us things by His Spirit and His Word in the form of prophecy.
38:49: Not a future retelling event. But rather pulling the truth from text out in front of us.
38:55: Does that make sense with me? I'm looking around at people who aren't nodding. And I'm used to that in the Church of God. So my point is there's times that whenever you're reading
39:03: Scripture, if you're reading it in the flesh, it stops right there. That's how you have worldwide atheists who've read the
39:11: Bible front and back in multiple languages and still don't believe. It's because the power of God is not in the
39:16: Spirit of God. It's not in them revealing the truth of Scripture. And making that truth come off that page and relatable.
39:23: And ultimately usable to see those people saved. There's an order to this.
39:30: God has set His Church up in such a manner that He has called and set people aside for certain works.
39:38: And that doesn't seem to fit into our modern view of church today. Or modern view of America really where everybody gets a trophy and everybody has the same position.
39:45: Everybody uses the same bathrooms. The point is that there's an opportunity to understand that there are people that God has asked to lay things down and walk away from.
39:55: And these people have a solemn obligation to God and His people.
40:02: They're servants. That's why we call them ministers. The word minister means to serve. They're to serve the people.
40:08: In so much as that the people are to be brought up in the faith.
40:13: They're to be edified as a group of people. My understanding for a biblical church is founded in these few lines of text.
40:23: These few lines of text sum up in my opinion the perfect working church group.
40:30: And in these few pieces of text it is impossible for a working church group to be void of evangelism.
40:39: To be void of evangelism in my opinion is to walk outside of the order God has laid out for us.
40:48: So, if we look at... Let's look at this text one more time.
40:54: The more I read scripture the less you hear from me and the better off I feel about the whole ordeal. So when you get to 11 and he says he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists.
41:03: Now we see evangelists and immediately you're thinking evangelism. No. Apostles, we've got the word of God that the apostles breathed on by the
41:11: Holy Ghost give us. Prophets quoted by the apostles. This is a two -fold thing where there's always a check and a bound.
41:17: The apostles are going to testify the things that God told to the prophets. Because after all the apostles are being moved on by the power of God through the spirit of God.
41:26: And they're telling the word of God. And it had better line up with what the apostles said whenever they moved by the spirit of God in the
41:32: Old Testament. Right? So you have a two -fold testifying thing going on right here. Then you have an evangelist.
41:38: This office of evangelist to best my understanding is one where this person is more mobile than center line.
41:47: These are the people that carry this gospel all over the world. These are the people that God has given a gift to travel to be very uncomfortable.
41:55: To be a people who talk to never meet a stranger. You or whoever met somebody who never meets a stranger. I believe that God has called and gifted these people to do these kinds of things.
42:04: Because that ain't normal. That ain't normal. Right? And then you see pastors.
42:15: These people are the leaders that tend the flock. Brother Jonathan said earlier today that shepherds smell like sheep.
42:24: Pastors smell like the congregation. They're to serve the congregation day in and day out.
42:31: Evangelists should be working with the pastor when they come. Not blowing in with the fiery five and then leaving a mess behind for him to go around and pick up.
42:39: These are supposed to be fitly joined together working a work that God has established in such a way that the church is edified.
42:48: Then you go after that to teachers. This is where I feel more comfortable in teaching.
42:54: Because I get to hide behind the Word of God. It's where I want to be. At the same time, teachers are just like pastors.
43:04: Pastors can be teachers. Not all teachers are pastors. Not all pastors are teachers. But there's a further zoning in on a group of people.
43:14: How many Sunday school teachers are in the room? How many small group leaders are in the room?
43:27: You're teachers. You fit into this organizational chart. Which means you have a solid obligation.
43:37: You have a solid obligation to the people that you're teaching. We don't go over our Sunday school lesson on Sunday morning.
43:44: Unless it's just to polish up something that you've sharpened all week long because you prayed for it. Right? After we get to the teachers.
43:58: These people fit together in a perfect body are to what?
44:04: Equip the saints for the work of the ministry. To build up the body of Christ.
44:11: So there's an order and done in a certain way. God's authority is seen clearly in an order that is established.
44:19: Since Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesian church. We're going to come back to that.
44:26: I really like that portion of scripture. God's authoritative in his compliance.
44:34: Hang on a second. I'm going to go back to it anyway. We're going to get outside of my notes. Is that okay? Turn to Acts chapter 6 please.
44:48: So many times when we get through scripture. You take a teaching. And then you say apply it.
44:55: Show me how it's relevant. Show me what I can do with it. Well, that's my job. If I'm to be faithful to do what
45:02: I just said I'm to do. I need to show you how that looks. Right? Everybody has it.
45:09: Somebody say amen. Praise the Lord. Now at this time.
45:15: While the disciples were increasing in number. A complaint arose from part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native
45:21: Hebrews. Because their widows being overlooked in the daily serving of bread.
45:27: So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said. It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve table.
45:37: Alright. That's a statement. I'm fixing to get to a therefore. And if all my kids was here they'd tell you what a therefore means.
45:45: You got to ask yourself. What's a therefore? So there's a statement here that's made.
45:51: Let's think it through. What has happened up to this point with the church? Nobody had anything independent of anybody else.
45:59: Right? They all sold everything they had. They took their belongings and laid them at the apostles feet. So that everybody would have equal.
46:05: Nobody would be in need. Now we see an example. Where there's been undoubtedly something. Some friction.
46:12: Among this layout. Because there's somebody that appears to be in need. That isn't served. What's the first thing that apostles do?
46:18: They say stop. They'll come gather around. Figure out where we dropped the ball. There's still people right?
46:24: There's still men. There's still humans. Then they say it is not right for us to stop this mission that God has given us.
46:34: They're apostles. Right? So there are some people that are elected to serve.
46:40: Because we don't want anybody left out. Do you see the order? It's beautiful isn't it?
46:47: So. Therefore brethren. Select from among you seven men of good reputation.
46:53: Full of the spirit and of wisdom. Whom you may put in charge of this task. For we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
47:02: The statement found approval in the whole congregation. And they chose Stephen. A man full of faith and of the
47:07: Holy Spirit. And Philip. Man. Where's Tyler? How do you say that name?
47:14: Say it with me. Of course. What's the next one? Alright.
47:21: Praise God. I got a man in my corner. Y 'all don't even know what that means. Timon. Not the one with the warthog.
47:28: Parnimus and Nicholas. A proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles.
47:34: And after praying they laid hands on them. The word of God kept spreading. What happened? There was an order.
47:40: There was a problem to begin with. We found a solution. As soon as the solution was made. The word of God kept spreading.
47:46: This is evident that the order being followed works. It works. It works. We shouldn't deviate from something we know works.
47:54: You don't want to be the guy who tries out the first parachute for the brand new assembly line. You want the guy who packed the last parachute on the known assembly line.
48:02: Right? So. The word of God kept on spreading.
48:07: And the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
48:14: And Stephen full of power. Excuse me. Full of grace and power. Full of grace and power was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
48:21: But some men. Some. But some men from what was called the synagogue of the freed men.
48:28: Including Cyrenius and Alexandrian. Came. And some from Sicily and Asia arose up.
48:36: And argued with Stephen. But they were unable to cope with the wisdom of the spirit which he was speaking.
48:42: And they secretly introduced men to say. We've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses. And against God.
48:48: And they stirred up. Stirred up by the people. The elders and the scribes came up and dragged him away.
48:54: Brought him before the council. And put forward false witnesses who said. This man incessantly speaks against the holy place and the law.
49:03: For we have heard him say that this Jesus. That this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place. And all the customs which
49:09: Moses handed down to us. And fixing their gaze on him. And all who were sitting in the council saw his face.
49:15: Like the face of an angel. So. Our brother Stephen was elected to serve.
49:21: The saints inside of the church in Jerusalem. Why is he on trial?
49:28: For feeding orphans? No. For spreading the gospel. He's on trial for doing the very thing.
49:37: He was set aside by God to do. To share the gospel. See his office or his position as a servant.
49:43: Did not negate his obligation to follow the Lord. In his proclamation of the gospel.
49:51: So that's why he was. First of all that's the reason Jesus was put on the cross. That's the reason all the apostles were called into the courts.
49:57: Because they wouldn't stop talking about Jesus. That's the same thing our brother Stephen has done here.
50:03: He's talking about Jesus. And because the spirit of God is in him. And because he has authority to do such.
50:09: Even when the wisest of the wise come up against him. They can't say nothing that he ain't got an answer for. So they have to lie.
50:15: Notice the mirroring. You have order. You have order and sublime order. You have the word of God growing.
50:22: And being faithfully admonished through all of Jerusalem. And then you have the opposite of that. You've got chaos mixed with lies and deceit.
50:29: And they have to bring up a false narrative. In order to even get this man in front of the court. So using this truth in scripture.
50:37: If you see something that is chaotic. And there's deceit in it. You know it's not of God. If it's not decently.
50:44: If it's not in order. And if the church isn't edified in it. Stop. Back up and punt.
50:50: Something ain't right. I didn't mean to chase that squirrel.
50:56: But I had to. God is authoritative in his compliance.
51:03: Matthew 28, 16 -20. The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee. Traveled to Galilee to the mountain.
51:10: Where Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped. But some doubted. Jesus came near and said to them.
51:16: All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go therefore. Therefore.
51:22: Go therefore. And make disciples of all nations. Do not make converts.
51:29: But let the word of God speak. He let them know. This is the authority you go with.
51:35: All authority in heaven and earth is mine. Says the Lord. Therefore. Go. Make disciples of the whole world.
51:42: Teaching them. And that's how you make disciples. Is teaching them. Right? Baptizing them in the name of the
51:51: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember. I am with you always.
51:56: I'm hurrying y 'all. Because I know we got. We got. To do the question and answer. Luke 24, 44 -49.
52:03: And he told them. These are my words that I spoke to you while I was with you. That everything written about me.
52:08: And the law of Moses. The prophets. And the Psalms. Must be fulfilled. Then. He opened his mind to understanding the scriptures.
52:15: He also said to them. This is what is written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
52:21: And repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed. In the name. In his name. To all nations. Beginning at Jerusalem.
52:27: And you are witnesses of these things. And look. I am sending you. What my father promised. As for you.
52:34: Stay in the city. Until you're. Endued with power. From on high. You could not fulfill.
52:42: You could not fulfill. The great commission. Without God doing it in you. The work that we're called to do.
52:49: And that's all of us. Is to share the gospel. The work that we're called to do. Is commanded.
52:55: To be done. Let's establish that. We don't get to pick and choose. Which of Jesus. Jesus's command.
53:02: I apologize. That we get to follow. We get to follow the law. As a buddy of mine who.
53:08: Worked in a machine shop with him. We'd ask him how many. He'd say all of them. All right. When we ask you.
53:13: We don't. We don't. Deliberate. And say which one. We. Teach. We make disciples.
53:19: This. Is. Our. Life's. Goal. We do so.
53:24: Because the authority. To do so. Has been given to Jesus. And Jesus gives it to. Gives it to us to do. He doesn't give us the.
53:30: Authority or permission. To go share some nonsense. That you thought up. He doesn't give us permission.
53:36: To say. Every single thing. That comes out of my mouth. God told me. It's just like you're hearing from God. He doesn't give you permission. For that nonsense either.
53:43: Everything. That he's told us. To say. You can find. In scripture. We may disagree. On the.
53:48: On the interpretation of it. But we can't disagree. With the words on the page. It is important.
53:55: That we adhere. To this. Teaching. That we do. Everything. Jesus tells us.
54:01: To do. Full stop. God is authoritative. In. His.
54:11: Order. Everything. We see. God do. From creation. To. Consummation.
54:17: Has done. In a divine. Order. Christ. Christ. Death.
54:23: On the cross. Was. Was. The Bible says. A predetermined. Counsel. Has set up. To make this happen. This way.
54:30: God upholds. All things. By his power. And through his word. So it is divinely appointed. It is a divine.
54:35: Order. God is authoritative. In. That. Order. He's authoritative. In. His. Compliance. You do.
54:41: This. Or else. There's no. There's no. B. This is plan
54:47: A. And that's it. There ain't no. I don't feel like it. He don't care. This is not about us.
54:54: This is about him. Everything in our life. Is about him. It's his story. Right? And he's authoritative.
55:02: In. It's his message. There's. Stern. Warning. With. All.
55:07: My. Heart. I pray that you listen to. It's this. You'll turn to Galatians. First chapter.
55:24: Starting in six. I'm. Amazed. That you're. So quickly. Deserting him.
55:29: Who called you. By the grace. Of Christ. For a different gospel. Which is really not another. Which is really not another.
55:36: Only there are some. Who are. Disturbing you. And want to distort. The gospel. Of Christ. But. Even if we.
55:43: Or an angel. From heaven. Should preach. To you. A gospel. Contrary. That which. We've been preached. To you. He's.
55:49: To be a curse. As I've said before. So I say again. If any man. Preach.
55:54: You a gospel. Contrary. To what you've. Received. He's. To be a curse. The strongest.
56:01: Language. You see. Paul really. He's. He's. He's.
56:14: He's. He's. He's.
56:34: He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's. He's.
57:05: He's. He's. He's.
57:11: He's. In fact. All the. Craziness. Who there comes into the world to preach the gospel.
57:30: And you. Would say. Just put my jaw out. in the news.
57:38: Thank you John for. Judgment. Praying. Lacks the. 14 anyway. You never lost it. He decided to love us.
57:49: And He came, not an emissary, God came.
57:55: And He put Himself on this earth. He didn't find it that He should come with all kinds of majesty and glory that would befit a king.
58:06: But no, He came in the form of a servant, and He took on the form of a servant. He washed the feet of those that are supposed to be following Him.
58:13: He spent His days knowing what it's like to be tired and angry. Knowing what it's like to be hungry and tempted.
58:20: And yet, without all of that, never was there guile in His mouth. Never. He remained perfect and spotless because the
58:27: Bible says He had to. And being taken with cruel and wicked and evil hands,
58:37: He was taken, they nailed our Lord to a tree. So that that sin could be nailed to that cross.
58:44: So that there could be an answer for that sin. So that God's wrath could be satisfied on the sin -do man.
58:50: On the only thing that could take the wrath of God and ever have a chance to be anything other than just completely eradicated.
58:56: And that's God Himself. And because there was no sin in Him, and because He is
59:02: God, He was able to rise from the dead by His own power. Nobody acted on Him externally.
59:07: This is a power that is His. He is God. And He shook off death because it could not hold Him. And He rose from the dead.
59:13: He rose from the dead where He reigns forevermore as King of Glory. And this is the
59:19: Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can a God love somebody that much? I don't know.
59:25: I don't know. But He's a good God. We're going to pray and we're going to worship
59:42: Him. We're going to worship Him because He's worthy of it and for no other reason alone.
59:48: For no other reason alone we're going to worship Him. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the best news ever graced creation.
59:57: Robert, I don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. But let God be glorified that there be any among us saved.
01:00:07: Let God be glorified and let God be glorified alone. As I get ready, let's go to the
01:00:16: Lord in prayer. I pray that you prepare your hearts as we end in worship and as we transition to the question and answering portion.
01:00:24: I want to tell you home folks from Vertical Life, you're going to get tired of hearing this.
01:00:31: Thank you. Thank you. I felt like family since the day I walked in. Y 'all have done nothing but be kind to me, to the team.
01:00:40: You have shown the love of Christ over and over and over again. And to open up the home shows that you're led by somebody who has a vision for evangelism.
01:00:52: That's no small thing. That's no small thing. Let's pray, y 'all.
01:00:58: Father in Jesus' name. Lord, I want to thank you for carrying me. God, I want to thank you for your grace.
01:01:06: I want to thank you for your mercy, Lord. God, I pray that you touch these people and that they have a glimpse of what your depth of your grace looks like.
01:01:15: What the depth of your forgiveness looks like. That they can get just a taste of the love that you've shed on us.
01:01:24: That's it. I love you. I praise you. Amen. All right.
01:01:49: Well, we praise the Lord for that preaching and John sharing the word with us there.
01:01:54: And the encouragement of that. So we hope you were encouraged in that.
01:02:00: So evangelism, Jesse, what do you think about evangelism? What's your take on evangelism?
01:02:07: John did a really great job in covering it and talking about it.
01:02:13: Encouraging people. I know he encouraged me, sure. Evangelism is a topic that I've never heard personally in my life.
01:02:24: And I just kept hearing the same thing blaring in my mind. The one thing he said is that evangelism is a command.
01:02:34: Jesus is having authority over the church.
01:02:40: And that's why we get that. Where we get that from is from Jesus having authority.
01:02:52: I don't feel like I should do it. We have been told to share the gospel.
01:03:02: If you just do the commandment for a second, we should have a natural burden.
01:03:10: Christians should have this burden on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. A desire to love our neighbors.
01:03:19: To love people. We love people who are lost. Who don't have hope.
01:03:27: Who are not in need. What motivates me to do the gospel is the authority, the command.
01:03:38: Which is easily forgotten or not really thought about. But the motivation for me is because the
01:03:45: Holy Spirit isn't a burden. I want people to know the love that Jesus has shown me.
01:03:54: I guess it's the people, me. But it's a great observation that John was bringing out.
01:04:02: It is a command. And Jesus has the full rights to tell it.
01:04:08: So outside of our desires. Outside of the basic need to love my neighbor.
01:04:14: If you just put that aside. Jesus is the
01:04:19: Lord. He did command us. I thought that was a really great observation that John was trying to.
01:04:25: I think he did a really great job in putting that in the profile. Absolutely. I like what he said there.
01:04:31: A body. To be void of a person. Void of a grandchildren.
01:04:38: I thought about that. I do appreciate him bringing these things to the mix.
01:04:44: And talking about those that you're offering people again. That that should be cultured again.
01:04:51: The authority of God. So I know there are those that have it. This office or gift of an evangelist.
01:04:59: But we all have responsibility with evangelism. Absolutely. And I think that's where sometimes a lot of people get confused.
01:05:08: They look at us as Christian leaders. It's not like that. I agree with you. I'm glad that he brought in actually our kids.
01:05:28: We love that part. Because it just shows in those roles that come to life.
01:05:35: How people are just sharing the gospel. Here at Barnacle Life we use the term where you live work or play. That share the gospel wherever you live work or play.
01:05:42: So number one. You've got a place you live. A neighborhood. The neighbors or the community.
01:05:49: Where you live, wherever you work. You've got a whole other network of people that you're working with.
01:05:55: And where you play. Whether it's at a ball field. Or at a beach. Or wherever you play.
01:06:01: Live, work, or play. You're ambassadors for God's people. That's evangelism.
01:06:10: And again we have those that are just naturally gifted evangelists. You know what I mean? They have that office.
01:06:16: They have it at home. Yeah, I agree. I feel like that.
01:06:23: You're a pastor. And you come into this building knowing that this is not just a building.
01:06:30: That has given you a great school. A great place to do this work. And you work with people all the time.
01:06:38: So how would you respond to evangelism? How would you respond to a person who is in need of help?
01:06:46: How would you respond to a person who is in need of help? How would you know that this person has a death?
01:06:53: And then number one, how would you know? How would you spot it? And then number two, how would you then foster that person?
01:07:02: And help that person help the body of church here? Yeah, that's a great question, man.
01:07:10: So we watch how people interact with other people. You know, and, and it's something that we take pretty serious here at Vertical, we, we, we literally catalog our church family.
01:07:23: Okay. It may sound like a directory, but it's like a gift directory.
01:07:28: Okay. Oh, I see. Part of our part of being a member here is you get to a foundations class and in that foundations class you literally get to an interview process.
01:07:37: Okay. To discover what your gift sets are, those kind of things. So you, so you, so we know how the body works because as a pastor and what we heard in Ephesians chapter six, my, my primary job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
01:07:52: If I'm preaching or shepherding, pastoring, no matter where I'm at in that, the end result should be equipping the saints for the work of their ministry.
01:08:02: So, so it's a lot of times pastors are like, come join my ministry.
01:08:08: But, but, but scripturally speaking, I think it's, we're joining your ministry.
01:08:14: You know what I mean? I'm coming, I'm just, so if I find Jesse, you can be a member here, you like podcasting, you've got a
01:08:21: YouTube channel, XYZ. This is your passion. This is your zeal. This is your gift set. I'm like, okay, Jesse, what do you need from us?
01:08:28: How can we accelerate your ministry down the road? So it's not me getting in front of you and say,
01:08:33: Hey, Jesse, let me be on your, let me be on your podcast. No, it's like, how can I lift you up? I see. So instead of, instead of being a taker, you're being a giver.
01:08:42: That's right. I see. Being a servant. And so then, so then you spend time with people.
01:08:47: And so for those that have the gift of evangelism, y 'all did a pretty good job describing the message.
01:08:53: It's, it's a person that meets no stranger. They're, they're a level of boldness in there.
01:08:59: They don't necessarily have to be a hyper theological person and know all doctrinal things, but they're gonna have to have a level of apologetics.
01:09:10: They're going to be asked questions and be able to have some Q and A and think on their feet. But most of the time in this day and time as well, it's, it's a person that is very relational, that can relate across cultures, that can be who they are, that they have a piece with who they are.
01:09:29: And, and then they can go in any culture and be themselves, be secure in that and build bridges.
01:09:36: And, and that's, that's very important for evangelism. Absolutely. Let me ask you another question.
01:09:41: I'm thinking, so have you done much evangelism in your Christianity walk?
01:09:47: What, what was, or what was, yeah, what was the most craziest question someone has ever asked you in evangelism when you were, when you were out there?
01:10:01: You get a few crazy questions. What was the craziest question you ever had?
01:10:06: Man, I don't know, bro. There, there is some, I've, I've had some,
01:10:12: I've been in ministry for 22 years. Okay. Or 23, 23 years. Nice.
01:10:17: So in 23 years, I've got a lot of questions. Right. So to come up with the craziest one,
01:10:23: I don't know. I've had people ask me, you know, can, can you somehow contact my loved one on the other side, you know, some stuff like that.
01:10:34: You know, you, you always get unanswerable, like, where did God come from? So I honestly have to think about what would be the craziest though, because I get some that you try not to laugh at.
01:10:50: I am a, I'm a pet lover. We have a dog. Okay. But you'd ask all the time, you know, will
01:10:58: I get to see my dog in heaven? You know, and I don't believe we will.
01:11:03: Okay. Maybe, maybe not, but personally, I don't believe I have a soul that Christ died for, you know?
01:11:09: So, so don't be mad at me out there, folks. Okay. So, so you do, you get into some of those things.
01:11:16: Right. At the end of the day for us here, though, we, we, in our evangelism effort, we actually do a lot of the question asking.
01:11:25: Okay. Because, and what we like to do is we, we like to ask this question.
01:11:35: There's, there's a few neighborhoods right around us here that are pretty rough neighborhoods. Okay. They don't seem rough.
01:11:41: They seem nice. Well, I'll drive you over tomorrow. Okay. Okay. And we'll, we'll, we can go some door to door ministry.
01:11:48: Okay. Because some of these folks, they are, there's, there's a pretty high standard of crime and drug abuse, murder, overdose, and it's really localized.
01:11:59: Well, what's the highest, I was having a conversation just about this topic with, with my friend
01:12:04: Rick over, over, over lunch. And we were talking about crime rates and how pastors can use that as a, as an insight to maybe the struggles that their communities are actually going through.
01:12:18: That's right. And maybe like using that as a, like a gateway to say, I can understand what you're, what you're seeing and, you know, what you're struggling with the idols that you're against.
01:12:28: Yep. You know, like for example, grand theft auto is one of the fastest growing crimes in the
01:12:33: United States. I know in Colorado Springs where I live, grand theft auto is like,
01:12:39: I think number one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's stealing cars and not, it's like, man, well, like everybody struggles with their own crimes.
01:12:46: So like, you know, should, should evangelists preach against those crimes, get to know some of those struggles and, and maybe like use it as a gateway or how, how can that be helpful?
01:12:59: Yeah. Well, here's the thing that happens a lot of times in evangelism that I think is wrong.
01:13:05: I think a lot of times people immediately go in and want to convert people to a system rather than to a savior.
01:13:13: And so when we, when we walk in, we ask the question to a person and we knock on the door, cold turkey, knock on the door.
01:13:23: Straight up. Person just opens the door, you know, they get your face. We say, Hey, I'm pastor Jonathan.
01:13:28: I pastor church right across town here. And, you know, we love our community and we want to pray with people in our community.
01:13:34: Okay. So if you could ask God for anything, what would it be? Hot mic.
01:13:39: Just put them on, put them right there. And, and, and they're like, some be like, Oh, well, uh, and then all of a sudden you, they start getting questions and start answering.
01:13:50: And it's not that we're trying to put them on the defensive, but we want them to know right up front. We love you. We love this community.
01:13:56: We're going to go to the one that has an answer. You're trying to be visible. That's right. Just be visible. And that leads into all kinds of conversations.
01:14:03: It immediately disarms the debate too, because I'm not here.
01:14:08: They're not expecting you to show up. I'm not right there. So surprise attack. Well, and they're not, they're not expecting you to show up.
01:14:14: And number two, they're expecting you to come at them with, I'm here to sell you something or knock you over the head.
01:14:23: But when you come right, I'm going to say, how can we pray for you? And if you could ask God for anything, what would it be?
01:14:30: And what's really cool about that is, and when we ask that question, it's sincere too.
01:14:37: Because they're going to tell us things. We ask you, if you could ask God for anything, what would it be? If you could ask
01:14:43: God for anything in your family, what would it be? If you could ask God for anything for this community, what would it be?
01:14:50: Two things happen. Number one, they start talking to us about the problems of the community, the problems of the family.
01:14:58: Addictions, whatever. This is going on. So number one, it gives us a direct insight. Number two, it gives us a direct ministry line into them.
01:15:08: And then we do pray and pray expecting that we come against these things that are works of darkness and destroying people's lives.
01:15:18: We're going to pray right then. And then Jesus, when he was doing evangelism, he always had an evidence of the authority of the gospel that traveled with him.
01:15:28: So now what happens is, when we go into this community, little kids will run out. And they'll say, the church people are here.
01:15:35: The church people are here. And they'll come and grab you and be like, my mom's sick. Come pray for my mom. And so you come right in the house.
01:15:42: You get to pray. You get to love those people, share the gospel. But then it also becomes hands and feet ministry.
01:15:48: We discover people that their roof is messed up. Their toilet's falling through the floor. Their tub is rotting out.
01:15:55: Like works of mercy. That's right. And so now we can respond. We can respond.
01:16:00: And we discovered a family that the dad was extremely sick. The daughter, social services had had to move in because the house was so filthy.
01:16:11: Because the mom, in taking care of the dad, she was partially disabled. The dad, fully disabled. They weren't even able to keep up with the house.
01:16:17: And so social services came in and removed this teenage daughter. She didn't want to go.
01:16:23: She wanted to be there with her family. So we find out about this. And man, what an incredible thing. The body of Christ.
01:16:29: Not just our local church, but others showed up. We cleaned. We remodeled. We repaired. And then social services come out.
01:16:36: She got to go back home. And she got to be with her dad all the way to the end. It was a huge gift.
01:16:41: And so in the midst of that, we're sharing the gospel. So evangelism is, I think a lot of people misunderstand evangelism as just what we say.
01:16:52: Just words. But evangelism is the message of the gospel. And the
01:16:58: Bible says, I'm going to walk the walk. Better to be doers of the word than just speakers or hearers.
01:17:06: The message is important. You do have to speak the words. And faith comes by hearing.
01:17:11: But also, like St. James says, that we need to be doers of the word and not just.
01:17:20: There's works. There's feet with that faith. That's right. As one of my elders once said, there's feet to that faith.
01:17:27: And that is a church triumphant when it comes together and moves.
01:17:37: And it's a church triumphant. Whatever you want to call it, a militant church coming to help something that's been neglected.
01:17:45: And imagine if every church approaches evangelism to that point of view.
01:17:53: Like, do you think a city could change within a decade or less or more, maybe 30 years?
01:17:59: And I think a lot of churches, we have to remind ourselves of this. That's one thing that's really cool about Robert.
01:18:07: Like, like his church where he serves that as an elder is literally just like two blocks. He did tell me about that.
01:18:13: So we're like tomorrow. We're doing breakout sessions. Some there and some here. Literally, we're close together.
01:18:20: And we we made a ministry called Impact NC. And the whole point was to impact
01:18:27: Newton Conover. But Newton Conover is our city district here.
01:18:36: And so we realize vertical life cannot do this by ourselves. At first, Baptist can do it by themselves. And so then we begin to connect with other churches.
01:18:43: Then we all take this approach. And we literally strategically go block by block. And our goal is over X period of time that every man, woman and child in the entire city, which for our for our demographic here would be between 40 and 60 ,000 people.
01:18:59: That every single person in the city would have an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel. That's awesome.
01:19:05: And so so so I would also argue that that evangelism should be intentional.
01:19:14: That's one thing John was talking about. There's an order, you know, and there's authority in that order, though.
01:19:19: I think there's an intentionality. And so I think our churches a lot of times. And this is this is
01:19:25: I want to make sure I'm not indicting anyone or come across as judgmental. But I feel like a lot of our churches and our denominations, that priority is how do we preserve what we got rather than go make disciples?
01:19:38: You know, because making a disciple don't we systemize that as well.
01:19:44: We're going to have another Bible study or we got to have another training or we're going to have another this or another that.
01:19:50: Making disciples is the multiplication of disciples. So you go back to Acts chapter six.
01:19:57: It says there was disciples being multiplied every day. There's people being added every day. So the disciples adding wasn't just training inside.
01:20:07: It was going and telling. Yeah, it was it was an outward motion, not just an inward motion.
01:20:13: That's right. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. There's some churches that are just inward motion. Right. And not as much outward motion.
01:20:19: But sometimes sometimes some churches can be some churches can be too much outward motion, not enough inward motion.
01:20:27: Where you have like I heard one pastor say that the back door is as big as the front door or bigger than the front door.
01:20:34: Sure. So, you know, so, you know, there's always that, you know, tension with that as well.
01:20:40: But I love that idea of how evangelism runs through the local church.
01:20:46: The evangelism is not this is abstract parallel mission that runs side by side with the church.
01:20:55: In fact, the one thing I love about, you know, talking about evangelism is that evangelism runs best in the church.
01:21:03: That's right. And not outside of the church. So we can use ministry outside of the church.
01:21:10: Yeah. So you've you've got your podcast Chicano Knox. How do you use that for evangelism?
01:21:16: What's the tool? I've watched a lot of your videos and stuff like that. Like, how do you use that for evangelism?
01:21:23: Well, my niche is definitely talking about the church is talking about ecclesiology from like all kinds of different angles like evangelism, for example.
01:21:34: It's basically pointing people to the to the big idea of church, because a lot of people have those disassociations.
01:21:43: A lot of people now have this, unfortunately, has have a dissociation and a distrust with pretty much all the institutions of life, including the church.
01:21:52: But like I just said, people have this idea of, oh, well, the church is here and my life is here.
01:21:57: It's just it's not really one. It's like even Christians have this individualism that says it's the church here and in my
01:22:06: Christianity here. And it's like, well, that's a foreign idea that that that dissociation is kind of what
01:22:13: I kind of like this, like ran into or discovered or learned, however you want to say.
01:22:19: And I was like, wow. And I found some ministries actually talking about it, about the church and talking about some of that stuff.
01:22:26: But I was like, there's not enough because that's a huge, you know, the church is such such a
01:22:31: God idea in society that, you know, we've kind of gone away from that.
01:22:38: Unfortunately, the church kind of lost influence in culture, in society. And that's unfortunate.
01:22:45: And I think that's why you have all kinds of dissociations with the church, like, oh, my evangelism, it's just me and private and church is just on a
01:22:53: Sunday. And, you know, and I think that's that's that's a fundamental foreign idea primarily found here in the
01:23:02: West. And I think that's unhealthy and not not holistic.
01:23:08: You know, when you have that kind of belief as sincere and as good as it might be, it's it's definitely like me, myself and I, like the church might get burned, but at least
01:23:23: I survive. And it's like like that's that's not that's that's not really holistic.
01:23:28: It's you know, we are part of the church. There is a reality that is super spiritual, that, you know, most
01:23:36: Christians and Americans in the Western world has this deeply embedded like a tick.
01:23:43: And it's individualism, it's radical individualism at all levels.
01:23:49: And I get it. People love their privacy. I get all these things. But there is this thing called the church where everybody is a part of it.
01:23:58: And there is pretty much no dissociation. There's supposed to be no dissociation. So, for example, if the world fell apart, like the banks went away, the countries went away, something drastic happened, which it did happen.
01:24:12: It's called the Roman Empire. It happened before the world ended before when the Roman Empire fell.
01:24:18: That's why it's called the Dark Ages, because it was like there was nothing left. It's dark. The one institution that was held up was the church.
01:24:27: That's right. And the only reason why is because the church had his A game.
01:24:32: Like it was like it had food banks, hospitals all came from from the church. And the only reason why you get that.
01:24:39: Those creations, universities and hospitals and everything. It's because the church had a holistic approach that was not individualistic.
01:24:48: Right. You might say it's a commonwealth approach. It's a it's a holistic approach, like you said, life, play and work.
01:24:57: Right. Live, work and play. So, yeah, it's a more holistic commonwealth approach to life.
01:25:03: So it's not just me and the churches. I am the church. Right. And that really applies to everything, including my social life, my work life.
01:25:13: You know, it's not just what I believe is my ethics is my my financial education.
01:25:19: You know, the church is not just this independent, nice little thing on the side.
01:25:25: It the church is me and Jesus is with us. And when we gather together on the
01:25:32: Sunday, that is the visible representation of of God's kingdom.
01:25:40: That's like one of the greatest evidences of of the Lord himself.
01:25:46: And more and particularly when we do the Lord's communion, the Lord's table, the sacrament. It's like even more so.
01:25:54: It's the invisible word right at that point. The closest communion that you can have with God on this side of the on this side of eternity is with other believers who have personal relationship with Jesus.
01:26:06: But together, we're all sharing a very special meal set apart for the
01:26:11: Lord. We're all having a communion with the Lord. So like that right there is the closest thing to heaven.
01:26:17: You know, and when we individualize life and institutions and compartmentalize everything.
01:26:27: Yeah. Churches lose influence and churches become what's it called?
01:26:33: That word's not not senile, but anemic. Yeah, anemic. And, you know, that's why college kids are like, eh, like church is boring.
01:26:43: And, you know, my parents don't know, like they're on a different planet and I'm just on this other planet.
01:26:50: And that's because the church is so anemic, it doesn't really answer and speak to real life issues that that kids are going through.
01:26:58: And our culture is, you know, you know, like what did John say?
01:27:03: What is it? What is a disciple? He says someone that follows
01:27:09: Jesus and that reads the word and someone that that goes back to the word and a disciple is all about the word.
01:27:17: And the church should be all about the word and everything that we need is found in the word.
01:27:23: Right. That's the things he's saying. And the church is not a lot of the churches because they're anemic.
01:27:30: They're going away from that. Yeah. You know, they're like, well, we don't need the word. And so, like, that's an unfortunate thing.
01:27:37: So what you guys are doing from what I hear from Vertical Life, it sounds like it's a deliberate approach to the kingdom of God.
01:27:46: You guys are being deliberate. You guys are being separate at the same time. Right. Being an antithesis from like the world's culture and stuff like that.
01:27:55: But you guys are being simple about it, like it's a simple logic, like so black and white.
01:28:01: There's no gray area, like there's no playing footsies. Right. Well, it's just what
01:28:06: I was going to say is exactly what you're talking about. We we are either in Christ or not.
01:28:14: And if we are in Christ, we are in the church. That's what we are. Yes. So so then if we're in the church.
01:28:24: Why is it such a terrible thing to invite people to come and join this? Does that make sense?
01:28:30: Like we've made evangelism out to be this thing to where I have to go argue with people.
01:28:38: I don't have to argue with anyone. There's no argument. There is already a truth. So there's nothing to argue about.
01:28:44: So now it's invitational rather than argumentative. And and and I get it.
01:28:51: Paul did sit on the mountainside and debate with people. And I think there's a time and place for that. But for the most part, the people that we're finding in ministering to and in faithful evangelism is people that are hurting and dying and struggling and abused and afflicted and addicted.
01:29:09: Unfortunately, in the church and in the church has forgotten how to love those people and how to invite them out of that environment into this kingdom environment.
01:29:20: Come, come, come and find healing. Come and find restoration. And here's why, Jesse, it's something that that this is a big challenge.
01:29:29: Number one, it's going to cost a lot. Number two, it's going to require a lot of time.
01:29:35: Yeah, the cost of discipleship is high. It's high. It's time, resources, money.
01:29:41: I mean, it's it's a lot. And especially when you take on the hurting and the broken and you're going to convert them, disciple them into a devoted follower of Jesus.
01:29:53: They've been a devoted follower of darkness under whatever guise that is. Either they know it or they don't.
01:29:58: Right. Right. But they are. And so so they are. And they've been deceived in that. Now you're going to bring them in and teach them to follow
01:30:06: Jesus. How long is it going to take for a guy that's on meth or on coke or, you know, are strung out?
01:30:12: You know what? What what are you going to? And so then the church has forgotten that evangelism is much more than just a proclamation of a message.
01:30:21: Yeah. It's doing life with people. Yeah, it's life. It's life. It's relation to walk along. So let me ask you a question.
01:30:30: How far would you go to help your own family member or your son or daughter or your wife?
01:30:38: Like how far how far would you go? Right. Yeah. So like the church needs to have that kind of perspective.
01:30:45: So like the only reason why the church built universities and constructed, you know, hospitals and all that stuff, when when the
01:30:54: Roman Empire fell apart and everybody was like, well, now the church was like, well, we'll step up to the plate and we'll fill in the gaps of civilization.
01:31:06: And that the cost is tremendously high. So, yeah, it's a cost factor. It reminds me of this one minister a long time ago named
01:31:13: David Wilkerson. Yeah. Yeah. So like he went to New York. Yeah. He went to New York. But before all that, he went to New York and it was gang infested.
01:31:21: And, you know, he was like, I'm going to show up to these gang fights and all these things.
01:31:27: And he did. He went to he went to their court dates. He went to their gang. Like he will find out when the gangs were fight would set up a fight at night.
01:31:35: And he would put himself in the middle of that when they were fighting and he would preach the gospel to them.
01:31:41: And there was this one guy, obviously, Nikki Cruz. And he would be like, Jesus loves you so much.
01:31:46: And I'll give him the gospel. And then he would get like his life threatened. And, you know, and he was like, you know, if you slice me up in a thousand pieces, that's on you.
01:31:56: And that's OK. But every one of those thousand pieces is going to scream out that Jesus still loves you.
01:32:01: Yeah. That's right. That tortured Nikki Cruz to death. Right. And that that that counts the cost.
01:32:09: And obviously, if you know the story, the cross and the switchblade, he you know, David Wilkerson had enough enough.
01:32:16: He understood the cost was high. So he he he took Nikki and his girlfriend.
01:32:22: They were both hooked on on on heroin and all kinds of other stuff. And he kind of like in a very nice way, kept them.
01:32:31: Was it quarantine? He kept them quarantined within the church building to be like so he could detox.
01:32:37: Right. So it's like. Is it an infrastructure problem then?
01:32:43: Like maybe some of these churches have that desire to do things like that, but maybe they don't have the infrastructure to handle it.
01:32:52: I can only speak in the South. Now that you talk about checking out your South. OK, catching your stuff.
01:32:57: So I'll speak to the to some of the churches here in the South. And then we do have a couple of questions we get to.
01:33:03: Oh, yeah. Submit your questions. We'll get to them. So the churches here in the
01:33:09: South have been designed to pacify the
01:33:15: Christian, not reach. The last word, the un -Christian.
01:33:21: They and so it's designed. The design is has become a machine so that people will continue to give and continue to be comfortable.
01:33:32: And in the South, that is like we're in this area here. We call it the Bible Belt. Yeah, that's why when
01:33:37: John was saying in their preaching, he said, and we started in evangelism, we found out everybody was a Christian. Yeah, the
01:33:42: South. That's what it sounds like. You start talking to people. Well, yeah, when I was a kid, I said a sinner's prayer, you know, and that kind of stuff.
01:33:49: Is that really Christianity? No, it's not. And so. So now we have built an attractional model is what
01:33:57: I call it. And it's not just here in the South. I think I could I could argue this across Western church culture, especially.
01:34:08: We live in a society. That only seeks to serve me.
01:34:15: So therefore, the church was in it for me, must serve me. What's that Tina Turner song?
01:34:21: What does love got to do with it? And so now. Is we have to ask a question, is that what the
01:34:30: Bible says? That's the individualism thing. It is. It is. So we're we're we're we're in the same thread.
01:34:36: So so the Bible says this is not about me. It's better to give than to receive.
01:34:43: Don't think of others. Don't think of yourself more highly than others and consider others before yourself and be a servant and follow
01:34:51: Christ. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. And if any man's going to follow me, this is the requirement.
01:34:59: But we don't preach that Christianity in our megachurch mindset or our our people centered mindset.
01:35:10: So therefore, evangelism, in my opinion, has went out the window because evangelism means
01:35:17: I have to be about somebody else. You said that's a great explanation. And that reminds me.
01:35:23: It makes me think about where I'm at. And I'll see if I can explain where I'm at. But you said you went knocking on people's door.
01:35:31: How many people have knocked on your door from other churches? Jehovah's Witnesses only. Oh, wow. And a couple of Mormons.
01:35:38: OK. And they don't hang around long. OK. I'm going in. Come on in. You want a cup of coffee? What do you want?
01:35:44: Come on in. Come on in. And then they don't hang around. OK, so. Well, that's sad. Yeah. Unfortunately, that should be in the pro -Christian society, like you just explained, where everybody assumes assumes that they are in Jesus.
01:35:59: They assume they're in Christ. The society should be vibing then.
01:36:06: It should be like a like a glow of Christianity where it's kind of like oozing out.
01:36:11: That's right. Right. And what it sounds like. I'm assuming that the logical conclusion should be something more or less where you get more knocks on your door of outside.
01:36:23: Not just Jehovah's Witnesses, but like it should be more Baptist, more Presbyterians, more Methodist, more non -denominals are knocking on your door.
01:36:29: You should be answering your door a little bit more often to more Christians than the J -dubs. Absolutely.
01:36:35: So, yeah, then then then what we're saying is that there's something wrong with with with Christians not sharing the gospel.
01:36:43: Like he said, evangelism is a command. And that means it's possibly that they're not understanding that command.
01:36:51: That's right. Right. I would say it's it's a Christian not sharing the gospel is as unnatural as an apple tree that produces oranges.
01:37:00: So we have on we have a bunch of unnatural Christians potentially on our hands here.
01:37:05: That's right. That's a danger. That's that's a that should be a pandemic. That should be. It is.
01:37:11: Well, we wonder why churches are dying. We wonder why churches are struggling. And this is a this is opinion.
01:37:16: Okay. No, it's it's. But but I'm pretty safe in my opinion. We see the book of Revelation where they leave their first love and and and there's
01:37:26: Ichabod put on the door and churches are dying. And Paul Washer said it this way, and I 100 percent agree with him.
01:37:32: He said there's no church that's ever died that God didn't kill it because he said that that Jesus even said this is this is to Peter.
01:37:40: This is my church upon this rock. I'll build my church and not even the gates of hell will stop it. That's one of my verses.
01:37:46: It's like, bam, you know, I know. And I didn't know you would preach that. That's like that's like fire you up, dude.
01:37:52: That's like so then if Jesus said that, did he lie? Oh, well, then why are churches dying?
01:38:01: And so then Paul Washer makes the argument. I agree with him. No church ever died. God didn't kill him because judgment begins at the house of God.
01:38:08: So then what is God judging us over? Have we stopped preaching truth? No, I think we're preaching for the most part some truth, some mainstream church.
01:38:18: I know there's outliers on the other side, but like our group, we have diversity and denominationally.
01:38:25: But we're preaching good substitutionary tone. Of course, we're preaching inerrancy of Scripture. We're preaching Christ is the only way we're preaching the power of the
01:38:32: Holy Spirit, even if there's different sides of sensationalism and continualism. But we still believe in the
01:38:38: Holy Spirit. I mean, there's soundness there. Oh, yeah. So God's not killing the church over what we're teaching.
01:38:45: Right. I think he's shutting down and judging the church on what we're doing or rather what we're not doing.
01:38:52: Because we have abandoned the mission. I don't think there's ever a church died that that was faithful to the mission.
01:39:02: And I think we forget what the mission is in Western culture. We've made the mission about how
01:39:07: I can grow this big local institution. And the method to grow this big local institution is how can
01:39:14: I make you really happy? You look at the churches that like therapeutic. Yeah.
01:39:21: Get your best life now. Or whatever it is. Deism, like a basic deism.
01:39:26: Absolutely. Or seven steps to a better life. Yeah. It's just in God. That's right. In Jesus.
01:39:32: And it's like the doctrine of God is not really taught. That's right.
01:39:38: Because to be a disciple, like what if I told you I wanted to become a black belt in Kung Fu?
01:39:44: Kung Fu. Let's just throw that out there. Kung Fu. What would you tell me? What are the necessary steps to accomplish that?
01:39:51: To be a master black belt in Kung Fu? I've been a martial artist for a long time. I don't know if you knew that.
01:39:56: I did it. I did it. Yeah. For a long time. There you go. For over 30 years. What would it take for me to be a disciple of that?
01:40:04: So you've got to train. Train. And then use it. You know what
01:40:09: I mean? Like there's one thing to learn, say Kata. Kata is going through a form.
01:40:15: That's like the Jewish thing, right? So it's like a practice. Well, that's Kama Gra. Yeah. Well, Kata means like that's a karate teaching or something, right?
01:40:23: All styles have a non -contact practice. Like a code. So it'd be like this.
01:40:29: It'd be like on scripture. We meditate on scripture day and night. Okay. Okay. So what good is scripture if I meditated on that night, if I've never preached scripture?
01:40:40: Okay. That makes it so it's about me. Okay. So Kata is about my learning. Okay. Okay.
01:40:45: And then you have Kumite, which is where we're friends. We're going to bow and not hurt each other.
01:40:52: Right. But we're actually going to now apply. We're going to put on gloves. Okay. I'm going to see if you can block this punch.
01:40:59: And I'm going to see if I can block your punch. You know what I mean? So it's friendly engagement practice.
01:41:04: That's right. So there's a practice. Yeah. And then there's out in the street.
01:41:10: Okay. Somebody comes up with a knife, a gun, or tries to attack you, then your reaction will be based upon your experience and memory.
01:41:19: How long would it take me to master all that? I don't know that you would ever master it.
01:41:24: Okay. But you could get good at it in a year or two. Okay. It depends on your teacher, and it depends on your work ethic.
01:41:32: Right. So there is time, and it takes time to learn all that, and it takes effort.
01:41:40: Like you said, my work ethic to really apply those things. Like you said, the
01:41:48: South, you said, seems to pacify. Yeah. And evangelism is one of those things where we not only share the gospel, we're holistically trying to become a giver, not a taker, all those things.
01:42:03: And we're not doing that. You're saying that in the South, it seems to have a culture of laxity, not really creating this hard line against the culture and out there.
01:42:14: Well, it's more about pacifying the Christian. Right. And making them comfortable versus raising that Christian up.
01:42:21: Right. To be a servant or a doer or a goer. So I just did one survey. Obviously, I just did you where I said how many non -Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on your door.
01:42:32: You said not many. I never had one. We could do a survey of everybody in the whole event, and it would be an interesting result to see it live, actually, to see how many non -Christians,
01:42:46: I mean, other Christians knocked on the door to give them the gospel. That would be an interesting survey, and I'm pretty sure it would probably be more or less than you.
01:42:55: You see, in Colorado Springs, I think we have something very, very similar but to a different effect.
01:43:07: I think we fall into a different trap because we have, in Colorado Springs, it's a different type of Bible hub.
01:43:15: We have everything that's based on evangelism, it seems, like out there, in your face, opposite of atheism type stuff.
01:43:26: Like we have summit ministries. You know what I mean? It's pretty good stuff. And then we have the Navigators, Campus Crusades.
01:43:34: You know what I mean? I drive by them. It's a huge thing. Then we have Focus on the Family. We have, man, there's something that's probably like four other people.
01:43:43: It's a big name. Yeah, it's a big name. So that right there tells you Focus on the Family. Very deliberate, hands -on approach to your kids, right?
01:43:52: And then you have Campus Crusades. It's like out there, right? And the summit, it's like apologetical training for young people.
01:43:59: So it's kind of like some of those ministries understand the
01:44:04: Lack City culture in the South. So it's kind of like they're reacting to that. Sure. You know what I mean? Absolutely.
01:44:10: Absolutely. But, you know, a lot of—I'm not saying that these ministries are, but there's a lot of ministries like that that have been impacted by recent events, like, you know, like wokeism and modern philosophies to modern approaches.
01:44:29: Yeah. So I think, unlike the South, where we have this form of just basic theism, passive Christianity, in the
01:44:40: Midwest, I think we take on more of an aggressive approach, more of a hands -on approach based on the ministries that are there.
01:44:50: Sure. You know? But the problem is that because we have a hands -on approach, let's get on the front line, everybody's needed, helms deep, that because of that, many of the ministries in the
01:45:03: West tend to look over to the new shiny object.
01:45:11: Does that make sense? Like, ooh, you know, like the squirrel. Right. Like, ooh, squirrel. So I think we have a short intention span in the
01:45:18: West where it's like, ooh, look at this. Oh, I get bored with this shiny toy, like in Christmas.
01:45:25: Like, I just bought you this thing. Why are you not playing with it? So in the West, they like the new thing.
01:45:33: We are attracted to what's new on the block because the old thing that was new five years ago.
01:45:42: What's the word to put it? I guess trends. Trendy. Yeah, trendy stuff. Yeah, yeah. We like trendy stuff.
01:45:49: Yeah, yeah. Because we're so hands -on, we get bored faster than you guys. You're always looking for the new thing.
01:45:55: Does that make sense? It does. It does. It does. So from a third party looking in, from my environment, what are the problems of evangelism in that context, you think?
01:46:06: Being too trendy. Well, we can all fall prey to that.
01:46:15: I think the question is, who are we trying to reach? And I think, in my opinion, trendy culture ends up doing more
01:46:23: Christian swapping than regeneration work. So it trains people to be like, oh, that church is the next cool thing.
01:46:33: Let's all go over here. Oh, this one has a better praise band. Let's all go over here. Oh, dude, this guy has a great following online.
01:46:40: Let's all go over here. And then before long, you've got church hoppers and church daters.
01:46:45: And there's never that settling commitment, communion like you were talking about, doing life together, committed to this family.
01:46:56: So trendiness can fall prey to that. Charlotte here feels a lot like that. You know what I'm saying? There's some bigger cultures that are more of a suburb or more of a rural feel here.
01:47:07: But some of our city cultures can feel that way. So maybe,
01:47:14: I don't know. I think either way, whether in the south of this chill about us, like we're making it about us or making it about a trend or making it whatever,
01:47:31: I think we forget evangelism has to be about people. It has to be about that man, that woman, that child across the street.
01:47:41: That today, if they meet God, there is a condemnation on their life that they will not escape.
01:47:49: And I know we're both sovereigntists. I know we trust the sovereignty of God. We believe in election.
01:47:57: But that's not an excuse to neglect a responsibility. I heard a guy once say that we know the power of God is to save, but election is not our excuse to not do evangelism.
01:48:10: A lot of times people have that kickback against election or reform theology or those kind of things because they're saying, well, then what's the point of evangelism?
01:48:20: God's going to save them anyway, so I don't even have to do it. No, number one, it is. John made it very clear.
01:48:26: It's God's. It's a part of God's design. It's a part of God's command. And God commands us to do it under his authority.
01:48:32: Well, the good news, then, is if he's commanded us to do this. That should give us assurance. Assurance. Comfort. So when
01:48:38: I go knock on the door, I'm not wondering, does
01:48:45: God have a plan? Or I'm not worried about the flippancy of people. I go with a full confidence, according to God's sovereignty, in his plan.
01:48:56: He has me right here for such a time as this. And I got the best news in the world to tell this person.
01:49:02: So I'm not worried about if they're elect or not. I'm like, come join our family. Come join this family of faith.
01:49:09: Come believe on Christ. And there's a few times that people are like, oh, you're weird. Because they've never heard of us.
01:49:17: That's right. And then we go back, and they're like, oh, you came back. They're like, yeah, we came back because we really care about you.
01:49:27: And God put us in that path. Because there's a lot of doors you get out there and knock. No one opens them. So anyways, it's one of those unique things.
01:49:35: But it is. It's very important for us. I wrote down a book. And I'm so glad you mentioned that word sovereignty.
01:49:40: It's one of my favorite books. It's by J .I. Packer. It's called God's Sovereignty and Evangelism.
01:49:46: And I wrote it down because I was like, I read it so many years ago. And it's not a big book, by the way.
01:49:52: It's a small little 10 -chapter. It's a great resource. So if you're looking for resources to piggyback on the message from John, go back and listen to that message.
01:50:01: And then go ahead and go on Amazon or Christianbooks .com or something and pick up that book,
01:50:08: J .I. Packer, God's Sovereignty and Evangelism. And it's a great compliment from that message that John gave tonight.
01:50:17: It's a great compliment. Because what is the relationship, right, between God's sovereignty, God's authority,
01:50:23: God's control of the universe, His providence, and then your human responsibility and your participation, right?
01:50:32: God doesn't destroy your uniqueness, your individualism, per se.
01:50:41: He just talks about that in the book. So I highly recommend that as a resource for sure.
01:50:49: All right, Jason, let's jump into a couple of these questions. So Becky, she had this question.
01:50:55: I was once asked, if God is so powerful, can He make a rock so heavy that He can't move it?
01:51:03: No. Yeah, I don't think I would go against it there.
01:51:09: Here's one a little more serious though. Becky asked, if a friend says they will cut you off if you evangelize to them anymore, do you stop and hope the pastimes will ring through your life, or do you keep going and hopefully they are bluffing?
01:51:23: Sounds like a lot going on there. Yeah, man, that's a tough question. The reality is this, but I would answer it this way, and then you can give your opinion too.
01:51:35: Becky, the reality for me, if someone says stop evangelizing, that's no different than them asking me to stop being a
01:51:46: Christian. And I think we forget that. That's what John was saying tonight, that if we're not evangelizing, and I think, again,
01:51:57: I think it's the perspective of what evangelizing is, that there is confrontational evangelism, and that is necessary at times, but there's also relational evangelism, and there is opportunities to pray for people.
01:52:12: There's opportunities to share the gospel with people. So anybody that says, hey, you can't talk about Jesus and still be my friend, then that's the same thing as asking me not to be a
01:52:25: Christian. I don't think there's nothing else that I can do, except my life is rooted in Christ.
01:52:36: And so that's how I would answer that, that if you're going to cut me off,
01:52:43: I can't help but speak of the things which we've seen and heard. And so let me give you a scripture reference is
01:52:50: Acts chapter 4. It's one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. You got Peter and John before the
01:52:55: Sanhedrin, in front of the getting judged, and they said, look, stop speaking the name of Jesus.
01:53:02: And their response was, well, whether it's right to speak in the name of Jesus, you have to decide for yourself, but for us, for me, for Peter and John, for me and John, as Peter's speaking, me and John, we can't help but speak of the things that we've seen and heard.
01:53:18: They'd had such an authentic encounter with Jesus that even under the order of, of beating and potential death, we won't stop speaking about Jesus.
01:53:29: And so it's natural. That's right. It just comes out. We can't hide the truth, you know?
01:53:34: So, so for me, I don't ever want to lose a friend, but, you know,
01:53:39: I wouldn't be able to stop being who I am. So what do you think? No, that's great advice, man.
01:53:46: I would say, you know, something, I think John kind of echoed this and, you know, and I think we talked about it earlier that evangelism is not only just with words, like it's through your actions, through, you know, your faith has feet.
01:54:00: And, and I would, you know, think about that and, you know, just thinking about that should, you know, from, from the
01:54:08: Christian's perspective in this case, Becky should give you a little bit less stress when you approach that relationship, because now you have action, not just words.
01:54:19: So like, okay, you know, you get really irritated, obviously, if I just give you the gospel straight up.
01:54:25: But what if I just, you know, serve you today? Because through my service as well, that is like a form of preaching.
01:54:33: They're like invisible words. Like let me watch your kids while you and your husband go out. Here's a, here's a, here's a, here's a casserole for your dinner.
01:54:41: You know, just because, you know, so like tokens, little tokens, I call them little tokens of gospel love.
01:54:49: I baked you an extra bread, you know, because I was thinking about you and I wanted to bless you today.
01:54:55: You know what I mean? So little tokens like that could go a long way. Think about what Paul was talking to that, to that, to that Christian wife who was married to what un -Christian husband.
01:55:06: And think about the wife for a second here. Psychologically, she is in a relationship that, that the husband, you know, is not a believer.
01:55:16: He doesn't go to church. He doesn't believe in Jesus. He mocks her in a way, you know.
01:55:21: So what does Paul say? Revolutionize? Become a feminist and put up your fists?
01:55:27: Stop washing his clothes? Grow a unibrow? No. Paul says be faithful to that husband.
01:55:33: Stay in that marriage. Pray for him and love him and speak gently in acts of kindness because that's going to kind of like kill him with kindness kind of thing.
01:55:44: Like because that's going to like torture him in his conscience. He's going to be walking away like, man, like why do
01:55:50: I keep treating her like trash? And she's like washing my clothes. She's going, she's going above and beyond the rainbow over here because of her
01:55:59: Christianity. Is this Christianity? Man, I'm such a jerk. Like the Holy Spirit is going to like torture his conscience in that situation to be like, man,
01:56:09: I'm such a jerk like to treat this woman over here. Is this Christianity? Let me give this a second look over here, right, because I'm not against clean clothes and nice tasting bread over here, right?
01:56:22: So the husband slowly is going to be over time with the Holy Spirit, of course, going to be possibly even converted through her acts of kindness.
01:56:31: Paul is talking to that woman, a church member in Corinth, and that's in that real situation. So I will submit to you, believe in the
01:56:39: Holy Spirit, continue to pray for your friend, and be free from the stress of I need to convert this person.
01:56:47: I need to win this person because that's not your burden to carry. We don't save the world.
01:56:57: Jesus, the Holy Spirit, saves the world. Like who can change the leper's spots?
01:57:04: The Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ. What did God tell the prophet Ezekiel?
01:57:09: Who can these bones be made alive? And he's like, well, I don't know, only you know, Lord. So yes, our evangelism, we have the intentions to like, man,
01:57:18: I want my friend to see. I think that's great. We should have that intention, that vision, right?
01:57:24: But we don't save them. Like you could open a theological book and read it to them, like from front to back, and a person could still reject you.
01:57:34: That's a burden that you do not want to carry. Let Jesus carry that burden because Jesus says, carry this burden which is light and easy.
01:57:43: So why don't you go back to Jesus and give that heavy burden for your friend to Jesus, let him carry that, and then take upon that light burden that Jesus gives you to say, hey, there's different ways of evangelism.
01:57:59: You know, it's not just words, action. Like there's other ways. Like there's not one way of evangelism.
01:58:06: There's no one way. There's many different ways of doing it, and that right there should give you a little bit of peace of mind, take the pressure off you.
01:58:15: There's no reason why you should carry that load. And at the end of the day, if your friend still threatens you, still unfriends you from Facebook, blocks you, whatever, says don't call me no more, then at that point you can still love her from a distance, still write letters, all these things.
01:58:33: But, you know, if it comes to that point, you know, then you would say, well, if you don't want to become a friend, then
01:58:41: I would say then, you know, there's nothing I can do, but I'm still your friend, you know. I'll still think about you and pray for you and invite you over for my kids' birthday parties, you know what
01:58:51: I mean? And if you don't choose to come in, then I'm still going to send you that Christmas card, okay? You're not on the naughty list just because you told me mean things.
01:59:00: You know what I mean? That's how I would take it. I've been there before. I've actually done that several times.
01:59:05: So I would say just keep staying there. You know, don't give up on that friend.
01:59:11: Even if they give up on you, you know, take it to the Lord Jesus. Come to the
01:59:16: Lord Jesus with that. Stay consistent. Yeah. Stay consistent. That's awesome.
01:59:22: Well, guys, we hope you've enjoyed our wrap -up here, and we'll have other laborers online tomorrow all day long.
01:59:31: Services will be online all day long tomorrow. So we hope that you'll join back with us.
01:59:37: I want to double -check. I think teaching session number one, we should be back online probably between 845 and 9 o 'clock in the morning.
01:59:49: So check back with us then, and please share, subscribe, and we just thank you for being with us.
01:59:56: Any other closing comments, Jesse? No, man, just, you know, I'm very thankful that, you know, your church is doing this, and spread the word.
02:00:05: Tell your friends about this podcast, about this conference. Even if they don't make it live, you know, copy the links and still send them out to your church, your elders.
02:00:15: Appreciate all the shares, all the likes, subscribe, all that stuff. So thank you for your engagement, and, you know, we're still going to be here after the conference.
02:00:24: That's right. That's an important fact. So don't feel like you're going to miss out, and then we're going to disappear forever.
02:00:31: You know what I mean? So that's not true. We're still going to be here after the conference. So even if you missed the lives and you're catching this on the
02:00:39: Rewind, just know that we're still here. You know, Thursday nights is when we get together and, you know, mix it up.
02:00:46: Okay? So even if you do miss this and if you're watching this on the Rewind replay, just know that maybe you're listening to this on a
02:00:54: Wednesday night. That's right. That's right. Thursday night is when we get together and mix it up. So even if you did miss out the lives, just know that, you know, we still mix it up every
02:01:04: Thursday night. Right on. And check out Chicano Knox. Look that up. I'll be launching
02:01:09: VertiCast in a couple weeks. Bible Theory Podcast. Yeah, check it out. Bible Theory Podcast. Good. And I'll be launching
02:01:16: VertiCast. All the other guys have a lot of their own podcasts as well. And so tons of – we want to be a great resource for all of you out there to encourage you to walk with Christ, to be a bright light in a very dark world.