The Pastor as Evangelist: F.I.R.M Meeting

Rural Church Podcast 2.0

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Jesus in a local, visible congregation. Welcome to the

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Ruled Church Podcast. Today, it's just me, Alan, and Nelson, co -hosts.

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But what we thought we'd share today, we've talked before about some of our mission work in Mexico and FIRM, Fellowship of International Reform Missions.

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One of the things we do is each week on Wednesdays, we have a meeting with pastors in Mexico, and we do teaching.

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And so we thought in today's episode we'd share that teaching, not only two -fold.

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One, you can kind of see why, what we do, but also I think this will help all pastors.

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It's not just for pastors in Mexico, it's pastors in America, pastors all over the world. So today's teaching is from 2

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Timothy 4 -5, and we're exhorting pastors about doing the work of an evangelist.

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And so what you'll notice is that I'm teaching, and then that Pastor Jonathan Murdock is translating that, so you'll listen to the

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English and the Spanish. It'll go back and forth. And that can be strange if you haven't ever heard that before, but it's profitable.

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So listen to the teaching, hope you're benefited from it, and kind of see what we do on Wednesdays with the brothers from FIRM.

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And then also I hope that you're edified and encouraged and challenged about doing the work of an evangelist.

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So we'll start right off. Here we go. I want to start with 2

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Timothy 4 -5. Quiero empezar con 2 Timothy 4 -5.

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And I want to talk about the work of a pastor in evangelism. Jonathan, I didn't catch,

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I got on, but it sounds like Brother Randall was telling about his evangelism last night.

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Well, amen. That's a great real -time example for our study this morning.

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So let's start out reading 2 Timothy 4 -5. Jonathan, that's one of the reasons

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I don't respond when people are picking on me. That's one of the reasons I don't respond when people are picking on me.

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Paul says I'm to endure suffering. But in part of this great text,

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Paul tells Timothy that he is to do the work of an evangelist. So I have some thoughts for us from this text.

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So for an order for a pastor to be a faithful evangelist, first I would say we need to know what an evangelist is.

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I don't want to spend a ton of time here, but this word is used 2 other times in the

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New Testament. So let's just look at those real quick.

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Acts 21 -8. Acts 21 -8, yeah.

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So Philip was an evangelist. And then, of course, the more popular text is

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Ephesians 4 -11. We could really get bogged down in this, and if we have time and you have questions later...

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So the debate is, is an evangelist, is it an office? I think it seems to be true that at least some evangelists were apostolic assistants, as it were.

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But really, for our point today, I want to talk about how this is a responsibility inherently connected to pastoral ministry.

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The reason I say this is because it's true. It's directly connected to probably our favorite passage from 2

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Timothy 4. In fact,

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I don't know if you can see it behind me. Let's see. Do you see the Greek behind me? Yeah.

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From 2 Timothy 4. Preach the Word. And none of us would deny that the preaching of God's Word is essential to pastoral ministry.

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But within this same passage, Paul tells

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Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. I also want to mention this.

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Non -pastors can be evangelists. The confession talks about gifted men.

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And so the church should recognize, authorize, and encourage other men, qualified men, to do the work of an evangelist.

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But for this, we want to emphasize the pastoral leadership necessary.

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And so in the text, Paul doesn't say for Timothy to be an evangelist.

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But to do the work of an evangelist. And I'll talk about that more in just a minute.

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So we need to know what an evangelist is. Secondly, we need to know what an evangelist does.

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The Greek word is euangelistos. There is a usage of this word outside the

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New Testament. And it means one who proclaims oracles.

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And so obviously, as we bring that word into the New Testament, as we understand the

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Holy Spirit's usage of it, I think within the word itself, there are two aspects of what an evangelist does.

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There is the content. And there is the proclamation.

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There is the act of communicating the gospel. So first, then, the content.

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What it is that Timothy is to do is it's not to be a politician.

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Do the work of a politician. That's not what

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Paul says. Talk about sports. Talk about the weather.

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There's a lot of good things, actually, that you could talk about. But these things are not evangelism.

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You actually could help people with prudent advice about their marriages.

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Managing finances. Raising children. How to grow a good crop.

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And there are situations where those are good. And much of that falls under pastoral ministry.

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But it's not doing the work of an evangelist without the content of the gospel.

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Paul tells Timothy, remember Jesus Christ as preached in my gospel.

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The descendant of David. Paul tells the Galatians there's only one gospel.

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Paul tells the Corinthians the gospel is of first importance. We could really belabor this point.

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But the reality is without communicating the gospel you're not doing evangelism.

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You're not evangelizing. A pastor may say I like to go out in the community and invite people to church.

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Okay. It's not that that's bad. That's not evangelism.

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It's not doing the work of an evangelist. And then the second thing.

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So the content. And then the proclamation. So it's not evangelism without proclaiming this gospel.

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In other words I know some pastors who say well

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I just want to get involved in my community. And I just want to demonstrate by my life what a

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Christian looks like. I want to volunteer.

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I'll help pick up trash. I'll go pass out food or pass out meals.

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I'll do good things in the community. People will see these things.

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And they'll become Christians. Jesus does say in the Sermon on the

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Mount that by our good works people will glorify our

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Father who is in heaven. And so we don't dismiss good works.

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But this is not evangelism. To do the work of an evangelism you must have the content.

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And you must have the proclamation. We see the angels in Luke 2.

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Doing the work of evangelists. We bring you good news they say to the shepherds.

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What would it have looked like if the angels just showed up? They displayed their beauty before the shepherds.

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But they didn't proclaim anything. It wouldn't have been evangelism.

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The shepherds wouldn't have known. And Luke 2 obviously would have been completely different.

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So you have to have the content. You have to have the gospel. And you have to have the proclamation.

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And let me add one more thing with this. Within the proclamation we are calling sinners to repent and believe the gospel.

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What I mean is an evangelist does not merely give the facts of the gospel. The facts of the gospel in summation.

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Jesus is the son of God. Jesus was born of the

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Virgin Mary. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness.

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Jesus died on the cross for sinners. And Jesus rose again from the grave.

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That is a small summary of the gospel. But it doesn't confront sinners.

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And sinners need to know they must repent and believe the gospel. They stand condemned under the law.

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They stand condemned under the judgment of God. Let's move on.

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Number three. The pastor needs to understand what an evangelist is.

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What an evangelist does. And he needs to understand thirdly the intentional leadership necessary in evangelism.

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Intentional leadership. There are certain things in the

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Christian life that we just don't fall into. You don't fall into just praying better.

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It takes intention. It takes work.

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Paul says here with evangelism. Do the work of an evangelist.

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The Greek word. I don't know the

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Spanish word, brother. But in English it's easy to hear the word energy. We get the word energy from the word.

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In Spanish it's easy to understand the word energy.

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I'm not trying to read back into this word.

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But just to illustrate here that this word that Paul is using. It requires activity.

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It requires energy. Do the work of an evangelist.

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This is not something the pastor is going to fall into. It is actually something that must be kept on the forefront of our minds.

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I recognize that some pastors have a better gifting here.

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I think the Lord gives us sometimes certain personality traits. There are certain pastors who always want to be around people.

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They do an excellent job of communicating the gospel. There are other pastors who they don't want to be around people.

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But God still uses it. They want to be isolated and to study. Regardless what your personality trait may be.

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Paul tells Timothy that he must do this work. It takes activity.

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It takes energy. It takes intentionality.

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I want to illustrate this a little further in Luke chapter 8. In Luke chapter 8.

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Let me double check. I think it's verse 1. Luke chapter 8 verse 1.

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Wait. Hold on just a second. Luke chapter 8 verse 1.

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This is the model of our Lord. Jesus was in many respects an evangelist.

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He is going through the cities and the villages. Proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom.

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This passage is so familiar that we don't have to read it. Immediately after this.

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He tells the parable of the sower. You think about how much work the sower puts in.

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How many seeds he is sowing.

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And he is laboring and laboring and laboring. Really if you think about all the seed that he scatters.

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The percentage of fruit seems to be small. Some people are hearing the gospel and Satan immediately takes it away.

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There are two groups of people that you get excited about. They hear the gospel.

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They seem to be responding. One group has no root.

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And persecution drives them away. And then the other group, the cares of the world, chokes out the gospel.

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They are laboring and laboring and laboring. And you will feel the temptation.

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Why am I doing this? Why am I going to talk to this person about Christ?

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Why am I going to preach here on the street corner? Why am

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I going to pass out this tract? Why am

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I going to visit these people in their home? Last spring,

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Brother Randall came to our church. Well, spring 2022. And he preached a message that has continued to stick with me.

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It was from Ecclesiastes 11.

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Cast your bread upon many waters. And he said this statement that stuck with me and I hope will stick with you.

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Very simple statement. Sow nothing, reap nothing.

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If you don't sow the seed, you will see no fruit.

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Paul says in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word of God.

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And how are the people going to hear without a preacher? God has given each one of you and God has given all of us to our cities, to our towns, to our villages.

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I often say this when I'm preaching in Perryville. How much must

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God love Perryville to send the gospel?

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The gospel is here in Perryville. It's being proclaimed.

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It's being shared. The gospel is in Pochote and Cordova and Tuxla and Tabasco, on and on.

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The gospel is in Pochote, Cordova, Tuxla, and Tabasco, on and on.

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God has given your church in your city, in your area, in part, to do this work, to proclaim this message.

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And then you remember in the parable of the sower, there will be those who receive the gospel by the grace of God.

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Remember God telling Paul, I have many people in this city. Two things keep me focused on evangelism in Perryville.

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One, if not a single soul comes to Christ, Christ is worthy to be proclaimed.

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His gospel is worthy to be preached. That's my first and primary motivation.

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But the second, I think, is important. I just have to believe that God has people in this city.

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And by the preaching of the gospel, he's going to call them to his son. He's going to forgive them of their sins.

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And he's going to save them from his wrath to come. But as a pastor, if I'm not intentional in this, neither will the church be.

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It's very rare to have people in the church excited about evangelism when the pastor is not leading from the front.

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What that looks like is preaching about evangelism when it comes up in the text.

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Emphasize it. Preach evangelism. Praying for lost people in your community.

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But also actually doing evangelism.

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Taking your people with you door to door. Taking your people with you to events like Brother Randall goes to.

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Taking your people to see you preach on the street. This also helps him.

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We have some brothers in our church who are not preachers. But they go with us.

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They support us. They hold up signs. They pass out tracts.

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And they're excited about evangelism. Because they see their pastors excited about evangelism.

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The fourth thing, I'll just make a real brief comment. And that is we don't need to just do the work of an evangelist.

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We need to be willing to train others. So in 2

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Timothy 2 verse 2. 2

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Timothy 2 verse 2 If Timothy is to teach others what

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Paul has taught him. This includes the work of evangelism.

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Sometimes as a pastor, you need to be okay with your people doing evangelism.

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While you have to attend to another pressing manner of ministry. Do you remember what

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Moses' father -in -law told him? You're doing all this all day judging the people.

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You're going to wear yourself out. So part of your responsibility is not only to lead from the front in evangelism.

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But also to train other men in your church to do evangelism.

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And there will be times, and you shouldn't feel bad about it, there will be times they go and do evangelism.

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And you're doing something else. And that's okay. Jonathan, what

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I'd like to do maybe we'll stop there and have questions, comments, and then maybe just address these two other things about missions.

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Before we get to questions, I want to show you guys something. I'm going to see if I can do this. It's interesting that Brother Allen, it's interesting that Brother Allen chose this text.

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I think I can do this. Here on my wall, I don't know if you can see, this is a sheet of a

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Bible from 1552 produced by Stephanas.

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It was the first Bible in Greek for pastors with references in notes and places to write.

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I'm saying that was a page out of Stephanas New Testament from 1552.

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It was the first Greek New Testament produced for pastors in personal study. And the text that is on this sheet is the text that Brother Allen taught today.

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The text from that page is the text that Allen showed today. After he printed that, he had to flee to Geneva with Calvin.

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That's where he printed the Geneva Bible. It's a very important text that we should hold in high esteem.

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Thanks for listening to that. That concludes the teaching. After that there will be some discussion and such.

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It's pretty much what we do every week. I hope you found that beneficial, edifying, challenging, encouraging to your own ministry.

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Thanks for joining this week. We'll see you next week on the Rural Church Podcast. If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what

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God's doing, this is His work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the hoemos, the masterpiece of God.