Overcoming Fear of Evangelism

Apologia Studios

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Love for God, love for neighbor, and love, you have to work on loving people, and you have to work on sacrificing yourself for the sake of the other.

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And I hope that doesn't sound like too simple of a response, but it's the most meaningful response that I can give.

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Anytime that I have ever personally gone out to do evangelism in hard places, it has been motivated not simply out of a sense of duty, but it is motivated by love.

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There are times when I go to the abortion mill on my way there, I don't want to go. I don't want to go.

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It's rough. You're cussed out. People tell you that you're number one about 50 times a day as they pass by.

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You can get hurt doing it. People do not want you there. So that is one example of a hostile environment.

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There are times where I get up on a Saturday morning, and I would much rather be with my family. I would much rather spend time with my kids and my wife.

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And I get up on a Saturday morning with very little sleep, and I go to the abortion mill, and I have to work very, very hard on my heart on the way there.

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And what I remember constantly is that the two greatest commandments Jesus gives to us, which all of the law and the prophets hang on, every bit of the law and the prophets hang upon, love for God and love for neighbor.

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And it is love for God and neighbor that motivates me to get on the street to go preach the gospel. It's love for God and love for neighbor that motivates me to reach out and love to the person next to me who's lost.

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And so I want to say that we can recognize our own shortcomings and inabilities and lack of courage in reaching people around us.

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We can recognize that it comes ultimately down to I'm more important right now than this person.

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My reputation is more important than this person's eternal destiny. My own feelings are more important than this person's relationship with God.

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Love is not what our culture has made it to be, this emotional experience we have for others.

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Love according to the scriptures is something that actually works. It does something.

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As a matter of fact, you see that in the law and the prophets. If love for God and love for neighbor are the basis of all the law and the prophets, when you look into law and the prophets, what is

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God telling you to do with neighbor? To do justice, mercy, and all the rest that God has in his law.

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What was the basis of every law in the Old Testament? It wasn't an oppressive system meant to essentially beat people up.

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The system of law in the Old Testament was based upon love for God, love for neighbor. So for example, and this is just one great example, the issues of justice in the

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Old Testament, when God tells them, well if someone does this, here's a case law of what to do in the civil realm for justice.

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That wasn't merely God saying, I just want to be hard and oppressive and mean and hurt people.

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God was actually saying, you need to love the victim. The victim has rights and there must be harmony brought in this situation.

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So love for me and my truth and justice and love for neighbor demands this justice for that crime.

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And so it love does something. So think about it. Now watch just in terms of action and activity.

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Love for God, love for neighbor is the basis of all the law and the prophets. Love for God, love for neighbor finds its big expression in the

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Ten Commandments. Love for God, love for neighbor. Think about the tables of the law. What's the first commandment?

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What's that? Huh? No, the first of the ten.

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No, that's good. What's that? No other gods. Praise God. Okay. No other gods before me.

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Right? Now that doesn't mean, in the Hebrew it's very clear, but in English we tend to say it like, no other gods before me.

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That sounds sort of like saying, let me be first in the line of your gods. None before me.

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But actually it says, no other gods in my sight. Not before me. No other gods.

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I'm the only God. So love for God, love for neighbor is the basis of all the law and the prophets. You see it expressed in the

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Ten Commandments. What's the first law based upon love for God? No other gods before me.

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You should not make an idol that looks like me. That's love for God. You see it? You should not use the Lord your

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God's name in vain. That's love for God. You get it? Right? And so you start moving in, you start seeing now love for neighbor.

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Love for neighbor is don't lie to your neighbor. Don't murder your neighbor. Don't covet your neighbor's stuff. Don't commit adultery. You're seeing love now?

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Love. Love for God, love for neighbor. Ten Commandments. Love for God, love for neighbor. Then all the systems of justice in the

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Old Testament are based upon if you do violate love for God, love for neighbor, this is the just penalty.

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Love is the motivation for all the law and the prophets. But notice how it's activity.

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It's action. So if we're going to be truly biblical Christians and actually love

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God, love neighbor, we have to recognize that when there's someone lost next to us, it's love and action that motivates us to sacrifice.

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But I confess completely there are times when I absolutely fail at this.

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I'll give you one example. What day is today? Saturday. So Thursday, I was in a hurry to get out.

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Ministry is busy right now. I never get my hair cut like when I'm supposed to. And so I always come in, it's a complete mess.

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And there's a new person doing my hair. And I sit down in the seat. I had a couple hours to go before we get on our plane.

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I got to get my hair cut. And so she starts cutting my hair and doing my hair. And she's talking about how she's getting married next week.

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And she's telling me every detail that I do not want to hear about the marriage. And I'm trying to be gracious and loving to her.

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And she's cutting my hair, cut my hair. She's telling me literally every detail of her life. And I'm like, look, I'm not a woman and this is not a beauty salon.

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OK, I'm a dude. OK, I just want to stare at myself and then

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I want to go. OK, so. So anyway, so she's cutting.

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And as she's cutting my hair, she's got my hair like and I'm already looking at her because she's never cut my hair before.

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And I'm like, I don't know if I like what she's doing. And so she's cut my hair and she's like, yeah, I'm getting married. And she goes, and, you know, he's a

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Christian and his mom doesn't like me because I'm Mormon. And she's like, Mormons aren't

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Christian. And she's like, and so, you know, it's just ridiculous. You know, I mean, we believe in Jesus Christ.

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He's like he's he's in the name of our church, Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. And I'm Mormon. Isn't it ridiculous?

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She thinks that like Mormons aren't Christian. And I'm like. She has guys, she has my hair.

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In her hands. I didn't tell her.

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No, I was actually, I was actually going to tell her. And so I actually wrote down something to give to her. And the right as I was about to give it to her, she like ran off and went to be with another person.

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It's like, I got to go, I got to go. So maybe I'll go back and talk to her. But that was maybe a failure on my part.

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I could have said something, but, okay. But it is honestly, it's love.

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You have to work on love. And I find, you know, that I have to work on my own heart constantly and see what's driving my lack of desire to go and serve somebody or to preach to somebody.

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And I think you'll find that when you really dig deep, you'll see that somehow and not telling the person you are more concerned for your well -being and your comfort than you are for theirs.