The Laborers' Podcast- Street Preaching and Open Air Evangelism

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Welcome to the laborers podcast tonight. We are going to be talking about Street preaching and open -air evangelism.

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We hope you will stick around and join us Welcome to the laborers podcast, which is a part of the truth in love

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Network Join us as together We strive to grow up together in all things into Christ Subscribe and follow the truth in love

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Network on Facebook YouTube rumble Spotify and iTunes now, let's join our laborers for tonight's broadcast

00:46

Welcome to the laborers podcast. We've got Jesse that you kind of knocks with us tonight Bible theory podcast go check him out.

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We've got Tyler You got Tyler better the word podcast with us tonight.

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Are you doing Tyler? I can't hear you, buddy

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Oh, that's my fault. That's my fault. Got you How you doing

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Matt we got brother Matt with us tonight I'm doing well It's good to finally be back with you all for a change

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Got oh, we are glad to have you back. We are super glad to have you with us and Everybody that can join when they can join.

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We really appreciate it Matt, Tennessee Tyler, South Carolina and Jesse in Colorado Middle Earth You can find them in Middle Earth Nice with the comment sections are open.

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Leave us a comment. Just say hello. We'd love to know that you're watching Ask us ask us a question doesn't have to be about tonight's topic either.

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We'll try to answer those questions Tonight, like I said, we'll be talking about street preaching and open -air evangelism

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And this isn't as maybe we'll get better at this. I know this is not my forte You guys can take the reins on this about being spontaneous and having some comedic relief we were talking about memes street preaching means and we don't want to offend anybody but you know memes are

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I Don't know what the true intention of memes are. Some of them are funny. Some of them are offensive

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Some of them get points across Some of them do all three Exactly That's the that's the wrong one

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Let me try to let me try to find the right screen here share screen find some nope

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There we go. There we go. All right What's your response to some of these means?

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If street preaching really were not a really were not effective. The devil would not try so hard to drown them out

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I guess you really wouldn't know about that Unless you were you were there

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Like we could we could pass that off. Oh sure, you know, the devil's not really bothering you with you guys

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I mean if you were against street preaching then You know, you would kind of brush that one aside

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But you know, I've noticed and Matt I'm probably I'm sure you've seen folks Try to drown you out.

03:26

That's those that are in opposition of you. Yeah, absolutely It's around you out, yeah,

03:34

I think a lot of it I mean in my experience depends on Where it's being done

03:41

I know Back when the abortion clinic was open here in Knoxville the one that we would go to you would definitely

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See it there with people yelling people Crank up the radios in their car things like that You also seen it recently in our downtown area, especially

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Shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned. There was a lot of I Guess small protests here in Knoxville and there was usually about every night a group

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Running around chanting and screaming down there where we usually go. So we saw it there too.

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So it's definitely Definitely something you get to deal with on occasion

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Matt do you know Saints Edified? Not that I'm aware of okay.

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Okay. Yo, what's going on? Arturo? Is my homie our brother in the

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Lord. His name is Arturo okay, and I gave him a link to come join and Come check our network out

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There you go, there you go brother Matt You know one time I went to Knoxville and I flew in and I had to drive to North Carolina actually and it was in the

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And bro, I think I was not in Knoxville for that long but I drove and I drove all the way down to the back back roads to North Carolina and It was one of the most beautiful drives

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I ever done man Like I seen all kinds of like it rolling hills and it was covered with like I don't know like different colored trees and stuff like that These are red and orange and you know purple whatever and I was like, dude, that's a pretty drive.

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So I remember that drive It is nice. I Love it.

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I really do this guy must be The water in Tennessee tastes sweeter.

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I Don't know if that's true or not. I was like I drink the water down there to eliminate. I was like, dude Lemonade down here is a lot sweeter down here, man.

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What's going on? Hey, we load that stuff up with sugar around this part Make sense

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Which which kind of water from Tennessee are you talking about? There probably some places it'd be pretty bad

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Here's here's a meme from Tennessee Should I go fishing for men or for fish?

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Forget it. I'll dress for both I got somebody that comes to mind with that one, but I won't say

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I Have never I mean, I've not done like tons of straight preaching, but I have never

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Been out street preaching and somebody was wearing like fishing waders. That's a no one on me You know what?

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That best is probably for all his tracks. He's got all those pockets. Hey You know like like the cargo shorts for your your truck

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You just I have them filled with gospel tracks and you're like man, but not Pam ready to go

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I will say like big wallets now that you can put tracks in that are like big folders

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Yeah, I've not seen the fishing waders either, but I have seen the wintertime Carhartt overalls.

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So You you probably need them up there in the mountain

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I'm Rocky top. No, man, like I live next to Next like y 'all seen

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The Hobbit So like here's lonely mountain, you know Pikes Pikes Peak is like lonely mountain, bro

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And then like my house is like way over here Here's a mic drop.

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I was street preaching and police officer approached me and said do you have a permit to do this? He said

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I do It's the Constitution of the United States Oh Nice room nice one, you know in Afghanistan if they catch you evangelizing in the street

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They will find you I think $5 ,000 or like 15 between five or $15 ,000 and you get to spend five years in jail either or or both.

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Oh Wow, yeah We just you know my first time going out street preaching

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I got threatened but with arrest by a police officer And I hadn't even done any preaching it. I had just pulled in But I there goes the next preacher right there.

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He need a red Cut them off before they even get started

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Do I look like I need Jesus? yes, I Look like I need

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Jesus to absolutely Come back Tyler He's just trying to be a theological

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That's a good preach the word even if it's just for one so amen true, you know, you gotta preach man

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Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use a bull horn. He's a bull horn

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Sometimes bull horns are just not that great of a quality exactly,

09:18

I In the 50s, but I never use a bull horn man Why do you preach with a bull horn so you don't have to yeah

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Yeah, that's a common complaint y 'all are just yelling and screaming yeah, I'm like, what are you doing right now?

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So, let's go ahead and Ask the question What is street preaching what is what oh my goodness, let me let me before we do that before we ask that question

09:53

I thought about this as we were approaching the podcast tonight. I Think context has a lot to do with it.

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So we want to get to what is street preaching? What is open -air evangelism? You know, are they the same thing?

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Are we pointing in the right or pointing at the same direction, but I think context plays a role in Perception How we define these terms?

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So let me give you my context and then you guys give me your context. So I'm rural

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I live in a rural area so when I when I think street preaching which most of us probably do we we think of Ray Comfort who's in Huntington Beach where there's tons of people walking by or you think of a big city with tall buildings and Tons of people are walking by I'm I'm rural and so in my context

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I'm thinking about The time that people most often get together where there's where there's a larger crowd it's gonna be a holiday a parade a festival or something like that where people meet around the city square or on Main Street or whatever and then you have your one two or handful of evangelists or street preachers and Then whatever those street preachers

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Which is going to be, you know, very few Whatever their tone is whatever their presentation is.

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That's gonna be That's gonna be the the perception of of all street preachers all the way around the world for us folks who live in this in this rural area, so that's my context of the subject street preaching and open -air evangelism

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And I'm of course I'm not speaking for everybody that lives in my rural area It's just based on my experience and my perception of what happens here.

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So what what's you guys's um context? To help you understand street preaching in my neck of the woods slightly south of Robert We're a little more a little more urban not like New York City, but probably halfway between rural and urban that that General City, so you have like they'll have like the farm areas and then you'll have like downtown which is pretty uppity and so what it often looks like here is

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You have people preaching in the streets, you know with bullhorns and things like that And then other times you have people that will just take like gospel tracks and they'll just hand them out to people they'll give out

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Bibles on the corner or things like that that you have a somewhat of a variety of methodology that's

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I wouldn't lean more towards the term open -air evangelism just because I think it encompasses a little bit more than Just preaching on the street corner.

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Mm -hmm Yeah, I would agree I was gonna say I think For me personally,

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I would kind of put street preaching under that umbrella of open -air evangelism and in my case the context

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I I live about 20 minutes outside of Downtown Knoxville and minutes once again, nothing like New York City, but it's it's a good -sized city and we we have a major college campus right downtown

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University of Tennessee, so We have an area it's called Market Square. It's literally a square in downtown surrounded by restaurants theaters other shops, so In the

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Years, I've been involved there's been times where I actually go down to a street corner do some preaching

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There's tons of foot traffic Generally now we're more in the square area.

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It's a little quieter. You don't have the traffic noise and Generally there were more we occasionally we have some guys preach a little bit

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It's more trying to get those one -on -one conversations going by handing out tracks just Approaching people.

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But yeah, I think like you said Rob it's gonna depend on really where you live

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I think like you said just kind of doing your best to whatever your context is go on to where the people are

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How close are you to Gatlinburg? I'm Our hour and a half from Gatlinburg Okay, well the reason why

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I ask is because it seems like Gatlinburg at least on my feed on tick -tock was popular here recently because you

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On one thread you saw Michael Myers of Decatur, Georgia, I think it's

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I think that's what he calls himself Michael Myers and he goes around his town and his wife

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Guy Him and his family I guess go on vacation to to Gatlinburg and so he brings his costume with him and then the other the other spectrum of things going on in Gatlinburg You had a street preacher and evangelist there and the police were called

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I he was they were saying he was disturbing the police or whatever so Gatlinburg was on my mind about I've never been up there to I've never done evangelism up there myself, but I do know some guys that have been up there on occasion.

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And yeah, it's always Crowded up there. So good number of people to to reach up there.

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I Don't know much about it, but I've heard that there are I Don't know how for me you get you guys are with us like the

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Southern Baptist Convention and their ministry branches evangelism branches missions branches

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But there's some organizations that have like resort Ministries where they'll send you to resort areas just for those type of ministries

15:50

Yes, Gatlinburg would make maybe one of those places Jesse what what's your context like?

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Well, I live in Colorado Springs so one of the most populated areas in color in Colorado, you know outside of Denver It's actually the most populated and it's definitely populated with the

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Multidiversity, you know, you got everybody here. You got people from Nepal. You got people from Mexico You got you know native

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Coloradans here. You got a bunch of refugees from California Migrating illegally to Colorado.

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You got all kinds of people coming over You know, so you got a lot of different types of population demographics, but it's very city

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It's very city. You got a lot of buildings You got a lot of houses a lot of urban houses and it's surrounded by you know

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Not well not surrounded by mountains, but one side it's around it's covered with mountains Um, so you got the mountains, you know, you got some rural areas on the east

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Definitely is what I call Kansas is where you know a few a few Blocks away from me.

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That's where Kansas officially starts for me Other than that you have dense dense population and then you have tons of military presence

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So in my in my area you have I think You have a high military presence like you ever seen the movie war games in the 80s

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so remember when he goes in the mountains into that military base and into the mountain and plays a war game

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And then the military thinks there's a real is a real threat from Russia It's just a kid

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That actually exists It's called NORAD and NORAD is like not that far from me

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It's like maybe like a 20 -minute drive. You know what I mean? I could drive up to the gate and then they'll tell me you know, it's hit the road so I'm surrounded by like Like if doomsday ever came in terms of nuclear bombs

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Colorado Springs would be nuked like immediately Wow.

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Yeah, because we have NORAD we have Which is the underground Pentagon so we have you know, like Space Force on the ground stuff here.

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We have like like we have the Academy which is the Air Force Academy Top gun did not know that was in Colorado Yeah, so if you want to be a top gun

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You know, I mean like a Tom Cruise and like you want to fly Anything in the Air Force anything you got to come to Colorado and get trained you know,

18:34

I mean so so But if there's such a strong military presence, um, you think that alters the way that you do open -air ministry there

18:48

You know what? I haven't done much open -air Ministry here in Colorado Springs.

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I have more experience in downtown. I mean, yeah in downtown, Denver I have more because Denver is more more like LA so I imagine imagine if you get

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LA and Put it in the middle of like Mountains in front of a mountain range instead of a beach front, right?

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So that's that's that's Denver. Denver is very like LA Except, you know, you don't have that much traffic, but you do have very very heavy

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Urban, you know urban urban you got the newest airport in the United States is in Denver you have

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You know, you have a lot a lot a lot of people there and So Colorado Springs is like that but less way laid -back

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It's undecided, you know, you you get Colorado Springs where you're like, you know we can't really make up our mind if we want to stay in the 80s or Jump in the

19:57

Millennium It's like the infrastructure. Come on make up your mind 80s 2022 guys

20:07

Well, you know you What do you describe make for a really good conversation and maybe we can get into it a little bit later but I mean you were you were describing just a wide range of People different kinds of people you you've got military food.

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You got soldiers With folks boots on the ground, but also within the military, you know complex there.

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You've got engineers and people who think differently You of course, you've got doctors and lawyers and nurses everywhere, but you you've got the folks there in Colorado You know,

20:41

Colorado's gonna has the reputation of the cannabis Smoking.

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Yeah, we have we have two things. We have Dumb and Dumber And we have smoky weed

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I'm not even sure if that's great We made it yeah, we made it

21:04

Well and all the other people that you mentioned that live there from different New Paul Mexico Coloradans all kinds of places and so it makes me think about the question

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What's what's my approach? Is my approach the same? Is it different?

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Do I need to you know change? What do I need to change? That I think there's a very good conversation to have

21:31

Well, if I could yeah a little bit yeah, I've had the opportunity to do open -air ministry in South Carolina here and Several years ago.

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I went on a week -long mission trip to Kenya and while we were there we did open -air ministry a couple days and Open -air evangelism in Kenya is very different from South Carolina on the city.

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We were in Embu it's estimated that it's about 95 % Christian and You know there's that other 5 % and you we can debate whether or not the numbers are like all of the people in the book of life, but It was it's a such a different culture there that if the church is open people are gonna show up that as a whole they genuinely want to hear from God and so if there is a church that's open if They hear that someone's gonna preach the gospel here people will find a way to show up people will walk hours from out of town

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To come to this What it looked like for us to do open -air ministry during those days is we just walk down the streets

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And talk to people about Jesus You know walk up to some guy. Hey, what do you think about Jesus?

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You talk a little bit and you say well we're gonna head on down to this market and then we're gonna worship

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God and we're gonna hear the gospel and You're welcome to join us and spend some time with us

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Now my my homie our doodle seems edified he put on he's from Cali to he's from Bakersfield so he's more inland then than I was but he said back in Bakersfield a buddy

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Would get a permit to play Paul Washer sermon jam on a projector for a few hours

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Wow That is creative That is creative Yeah, wow permit so first of all, yeah, yeah you had to go to the local legal magistrate

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Get a permit maybe 15 bucks 10 bucks 20 bucks, whatever right make that investment to you have to have the technology you have to have the

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Projector you got to have the sermon jam and then you got to have the The white screen right and the tripod so there's a little bit involved there, right?

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And then you got to play it over and over again, so you just So yeah, I guess that's one way. I never thought about going up somewhere.

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I'm just playing sermon or playing like a sermon jam or I Guess that's what people do in the hood all day by playing music out loud.

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I Never thought of it like that. That's what they're advertising their music to me like what's up with that? Hey, there you go

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So why not play some John MacArthur or Paul Washer back back at them

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If you got the permits and it's it's gonna be allowed hey, why not?

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Yeah, I mean, we know how much we know how much all those sermons have touched us

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Yeah, it's so interesting to me how some of the creativity comes out in this particular field

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I would never thought to get a permit and put sermons up on the side of a building

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But somebody did That would that be dope to play it downtown where everybody's at like projected like Just play it.

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I'm sure there'll be people out there like complaining like if you're gonna play Paul Washer sermon

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You're gonna get the devil's reaction pretty hardcore against that I think it's

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The gospel and Paul Washer preaches nothing but the gospel Could you imagine people walking down the street and a

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Paul Washer sermon off to the side and all of a sudden he says What are you clapping for?

25:29

I'm talking about you Gallenberg has an ordinance against bull horns

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Yeah, I never been a big fan of horns, I don't know why and that was confirmed to me really really well

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When I was in LA last year or this year for the Super Bowl and the

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Super Bowl had Dude, it was it was like a spiritual warfare zone man. And there was this one guy

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Driving like two miles an hour and I can 1992 Honda and he I don't know where he got this bullhorn from man

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But this guy had a giant bullhorn the size of his door Of his car and he had a big

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Thunderman or something. Didn't he do? I don't know what he had He put in the backseat It took up all his backseat and this dude was just driving not caring about any relationship or anything.

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This dude was just like y 'all repair and he just like read scripture and stuff and I'm just like And he's just driving back like 17 times since I'm like man

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Dude, that is so annoying bro. Like that is not that is not edifying at all

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Like what you're doing is thinking you're your fist and a hornet's nest and you're you're stirring up the pot

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That's what you're doing. Like that's not edifying at all Let's let's branch off with what something you just said

26:58

Yeah, that's like ways well into number two. Yeah. Yeah, so So what things would be

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Less edifying or not edifying. I mean if you were to give some folks advice And Matt, you know, we can go to you if you were to give folks advice

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I don't I don't know that we really define street preaching and open -air evangelism Quite yet So let's tackle that.

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Let's let's give us some definition kind of what an idea of what we're talking about But but then bleed off into what

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Jesse was talking about. Um Advice What is not edifying?

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What what should we not be seeing? What is not helpful? I'd say just as far as just kind of defining their terms for me.

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It's just simply Taking the proclamation of the gospel Outside of the church just going out in a any public venue

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Again, depending on your context that's going to look different just going to where people are

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Proclaiming the gospel and by various means by preaching handing out tracts conversations just simply going to where people are and Proclaiming the gospel to me.

28:15

That's it's kind of the the basics of open -air evangelism and as far as things that I don't think you really want to see it's kind of The way

28:28

I look at it you want to be Balanced in your message and I think a big reason for some stereotypes against street preachers is you definitely got those guys out there that are just all law and no gospel no grace and just like you say kind of on the bullhorn or on their

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Amplifier or whatever they've got just Screaming ranting red -faced and I know there were recently there was

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I mentioned the The Roe v. Wade protesters we were downtown one night and there was another group of guys.

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We didn't know them, but they started preaching and of course the little protesters they kind of surrounded them and one of the guys he just was just trying to out scream them and was red -faced and sweating and I mean you couldn't

29:25

You couldn't even hear what the guy was saying it was just The group I was with you're like, okay, let's let's just take a step back.

29:33

Let things kind of calm down because Nothing's happening with that guy and he was just trying to out scream the crowd and but I think

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Anytime you have an unbalanced approach Where again, you're you're all law or even somebody that's all love and all grace

29:54

Neither one of those in my opinion or what you want to see you want to you want to be balanced and present both and To just I mean there's times you need to be bold and be firm and what you say but also,

30:08

I mean as the name of this network, we want to share the truth and love and Just I think constantly be aware of Hey, where were we at one time before we heard the gospel and I try to keep that in mind myself because when you're out there you can it's easy to look at some of these people and get mad and because they're hateful, but I Think you want to you got a as best as possible.

30:40

Stay calm collected Approach people with the truth and love.

30:50

What about you other guys? Let's let a fine or advice. I Mean I think the abortion scenario is a fantastic example of what to do and what not to do

31:04

Simultaneously, what do you there's a way there's a way that we can do that well And there's a way that we can get caught up in the emotions and some of what

31:14

Matt was saying that we just get mad at But it is very easy to get lost in.

31:21

I hate this thing personally and Whether you're intending to or not, it's easy to take it out on people rather and then on the sin itself and direct that to Compelling to the to the gospel by which we were saved.

31:38

I Think that is really good Tyler. I didn't mean to cut you off, but I think that was really good 31 and 40 seconds.

31:48

I need to remember that mark so I could cut it out as a short That was I mean that that was really insightful.

31:54

That was really good so what you just said was sometimes we can get our

32:01

Let our hatred of a certain thing Bleed over in into how we treat

32:08

Somebody else right Wow. Yeah. Yeah, I completely agree with that when we were doing the

32:16

Ministry there at the abortion clinic in Knoxville. I think that was something Pretty much.

32:22

I didn't go as much as a lot of the other guys did but we always tried to talk about beforehand was

32:29

I mean as much as we hate this let's again, remember we're here to to share the gospel and Let that be our focus and and reach out to these people and And not present ourselves in a way that we're

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Hating them, but we're wanting to share the good news with them. So I think

32:53

Tyler is exactly right and that is a perfect example of that where it can

32:59

There's times I won't lie that you you get out there, especially getting a heated conversation with somebody on the other side of the issue that You're tempted

33:10

To go a little too far. Sometimes you got to kind of pull yourself back a little bit. I Think 2nd

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Peter chapter 1 is incredibly relevant in in some of that Fleshing out of what it should be and what it shouldn't be

33:24

In verse 3 it says God's power has given us everything we need for life and godliness

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So our knowing the one who called us to his own glory and goodness and by these he has given us valuable and superlative

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Lee great promises so that through them you might come to share in God's nature and escape the corruption

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Which evil desires have brought into the world. It's basically the substance of the gospel that we're called into light out of darkness for this reason

33:54

Try your hardest to furnish your faith with goodness in the Greek. It says are a tay Or otherwise translate as a virtue this ideal of what of what man should be what he ought to be what he needs to be so supplement your faith with what man ought to be and supplement your are a tay with Lost my place

34:18

With knowledge and knowledge with self -control and self -control with perseverance and it goes through basically the fruits of the

34:25

Spirit And this all flows from that faith that was once and for all delivered unto the

34:31

Saints That this the starting point is our faith in Christ and so ultimately What we do when we go out in the public square should flow from that is

34:44

From supplementing our faith with godly virtue and That godly virtue with the knowledge of God.

34:56

Did you have anything to add to that? Jesse the things that are less edifying and what advice would you give people to stay away from?

35:06

Yeah, I think staying away, you know staying away from Forcing the issue forcing it forcing it.

35:15

You know what I mean? Cuz you can't manipulate the Holy Spirit You can't force the Holy Spirit on anybody just like the scripture says

35:21

Where Jesus says the Holy Spirit will go wherever he wants to like to win and you can't you know

35:28

Really control the Holy Spirit. So You know the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the

35:33

Father and the Son right and it's a gift It's a beautiful down payment that God left on earth for his bride and It's very generic when people are out there and they're trying to force the

35:50

Holy Spirit down people's throats They're trying to force the spoon feed and force feed people the gospel when

35:59

You know what? I think it's just a waste of time It's like feeding the swine it's like talking to brick walls sometimes and it's like, you know

36:08

Christian should have some type of maturity and Awareness to say that you know you one if you know you're still

36:14

Terry ology you can't just like, you know, snap your fingers and then cause a revival right here right now and then to You can't force the issue

36:24

You can't just force feed all these people and get again Like you could talk to them too, they're blue in the face

36:30

And then they're still gonna reject Jesus and blaspheme them. So you got to recognize that right?

36:36

You got to know that And then and then I think the site on another issue is I say just be yourself

36:43

Don't don't be a superstar a rock star. Don't be trying to be John the Baptist or Elijah call down the fire from heaven

36:50

And you know try to perform, you know Do a moonwalk or like man

36:55

I need to pop balloons or something like that and something out of the ordinary that's like dude just be yourself, you know

37:02

And then lastly you don't need to street preach You know, I mean if you want to go out there and Street and participate in evangelism.

37:13

I think that's great Every Christian is called to be an evangelist right to preach the gospel where we're commanded to to go, right?

37:21

But if you're going and you're like, you know, I'm not sure I don't feel adequate.

37:28

That's fine but You're there. I always told his one young young guy who who

37:36

I was discipling a few years ago I was like, you know what showing up is half the battle, bro You know what? I mean showing up is half the battle

37:42

You know what? I mean, if you're gonna show up show up because that's that's the very important part, bro Let God figure out the rest you just gotta be here you just gotta be here

37:52

Okay, like that doesn't mean you need to show up. I mean and perform and preach and pass out a gospel track

37:58

Right just simply stretch out your arm Pass it out. That's all you gotta do a smile.

38:04

That's it If if if if you don't feel like you're adequate or you can't really like open -ear preach

38:12

You know, I mean, that's fine Some people have that ability more than others. That's fine.

38:18

Well, you could pass out a gospel tracks. I'm sure your elbows work You know, I mean, you know,

38:23

I mean, um, I could You could pray you could come out with me and you can stand right here and you can just quietly just pray

38:31

You know, I mean So there's many ways to participate in evangelism

38:37

Other than opening your mouth and talking, you know, I mean and that's really edifying and And you know going out there and saying man

38:46

I need to I need to preach and it's like I need I need you know carrying that generic approach to say it's up to me to go out there and save people and I need to go up there and Preach Jesus and force -feed it down people's throats somehow.

39:01

I think that's not edifying. That's not helpful for the church It's not helpful for Christianity is not helpful for the gospel is not doing any service for the gospel

39:11

It's not doing it's not doing any love for those people walking by you know, and you're only hurting yourself as well because you're doing it in the flesh and not

39:20

Relying on the Holy Spirit to to do its job to save people right to regenerate sinners

39:29

You make an interesting comment you're talking about people trying to force the Holy Spirit, you know down somebody's third or force a conversion or whatever

39:36

Do you think that a person's soteriology? Plays a part in their approach or their methodology methodology.

39:46

So you have somebody who? Really believes in decisional regeneration. And so to me that seems like somebody who's gonna really be coming after you

39:55

But then you have somebody who's more reformed Calvinistic in their soteriology. They believe in the sovereignty of God It seems like they're gonna

40:03

Come at it with a different approach. Does that make sense? No, it makes perfect sense Makes perfect sense.

40:10

This is a great observation. It should be actually studied a lot more it has to do with the miss you all day missiology that topic

40:20

Because you know, that's one of the things I'm going through this season and my podcast is a miss you all day

40:26

Episode one. I talked to an elder from from LA. He's a reformed guy.

40:31

So shouts out to mr. Feedman anyway He may you know, we talked about that and the difference between armenianism and Calvinism and their approaches to evangelism

40:47

One has great comfort The Calvinist has great comfort in the fact knowing that we have assurance that God would do all the work for us

40:57

We're not there to you know, save the loss. We don't save people bro. We don't save people

41:04

God saves people Okay, and he does all the heavy lifting meaning he gets the stony heart and he converts it and makes it a heart of flesh

41:13

That's the head. That's pretty heavy -duty man. I don't know about you that that's how you do it I don't care what a f -250 says.

41:19

That's a heavy -duty right there now the the Armenian would say

41:27

I'm filled with anxiety and stress that I need to save these people.

41:32

It's up to me It's up to me to deliver this important message and I hope to God that they listen and repent

41:41

With my words and that you know based on my power through my strength personalities delivery

41:51

Positioning salesmanship, whatever performance it's up to me to to be a great performer to deliver this great message of the gospel and Convince this person with some sound reason with evidences

42:06

Whatever I got to do to get this person safe and the Calvinist sits back. It's like I could use reason to books.

42:13

I Have great comfort. I'm asleep great tonight because when I go home I know that all

42:19

I did was deliver the gospel and God will do the rest and I'm gonna go home eat some chick -fil -a

42:24

You got to go home and be stressed out that you Failed God because you didn't save anybody today.

42:32

So that's the Armenian position. It's filled with anxiety stress and a lot of rejections and letdown and Discouragement now, don't get me wrong the

42:42

Calvinist faces rejections and you know certain stresses and For for crying out loud for crying out loud.

42:51

Paul the Apostle was a shipwrecked like three times like talk about stress, bro Floating around in the ocean cast away, right?

43:00

So don't get me wrong. The Calvinist faced great tremendous turmoil and stress, too But we don't we we don't go home thinking about man.

43:08

How am I going to come back? Manipulate the game like you like like coach Bill Bill Belichick.

43:14

I'm gonna come back and play the Jets again I got it. I got a game plan like we don't do that God has the ultimate game plan.

43:21

God is the one that does a heavy lifting God gets all the glory It's Christ alone, right the five solas is

43:27

For is God alone Christ alone to the glory of God alone, right?

43:33

And it's not man our plans our manipulation None of that really matters.

43:39

None of that matters. It's not up to us. So we have great comfort in our approach to evangelism

43:45

Well on that note We got a comment that seems to tie into that a little bit from Donnie It says

43:53

Jesus was a street preacher think about how he preached to the people So I guess building off of what you're saying

44:02

Jesse, how did Jesus preach? Well, what did he preach?

44:09

What did he preach it's not about how Is what because how

44:15

I cannot do what Jesus did I can't walk on water I can't convert them. I can't convert water into wine.

44:21

Trust me if I can convert water into wine I will be the richest man in the

44:27

West in the West Banks of the Mississippi because I'll have the biggest winery there is

44:33

I could boom million -dollar business, but you can't I can't

44:38

I can't turn water into wine I'm not a miracle worker. Jesus is a miracle worker. So I can't use

44:47

You know the miracles of the Holy Spirit to partner in partnerships with my

44:54

Vocabulary like Jesus did but however, how did Jesus what did Jesus preach? He preached the very beginning

45:03

Repent Repent and believe But the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe mark 1 16 mark 1 mark 1 15 or mark 1 16 repent and believe

45:16

Right repent and believe so that's the first things he said he came out Straight out of Geneva straight out of Jerusalem straight out of Galilee repent and believe

45:26

Right, so it's not about how per se because we can never mimic Jesus in that way never

45:32

I cannot walk on water. I can't you know, do all those things now God may allow me maybe in a very supernatural way very rare way he may do a miracle here and there but The ordinary

45:46

Normal operation of the Holy Spirit is through the voice of a preacher speaking the

45:53

Word of God and then the hearer who has who has ears to hear will hear that word and By faith come to salvation like Paul says faith comes by hearing the

46:06

Word of God and to a preacher Well, this is a part. Go ahead Matt. Go ahead.

46:11

I was gonna say real quick building off everything Jesse just said as far as your your theology and the difference between Reformed Calvinism Armenians, I think too for for those who?

46:25

Don't have a full trusting in God's sovereignty. They're out there Thinking they have to say the right words those kind of things.

46:33

It's not only an open -air evangelism, but anywhere. I mean, there's There's the danger of you end up watering down the gospel

46:41

So you're not even even with your best efforts. You're you're gonna end up giving somebody something that can't even save them anyway

46:50

Whereas again as Jesse said the reformed guy the Calvinist. Hey, you put it all out there

46:58

Don't hold anything back and you know that God's gonna do that do with that what he wills

47:05

So you're not worried about? What you're saying? You're you're gonna give them the

47:10

Bible not water it down. Not not spoon -feeding anything as he said then

47:18

That is very interesting Matt. I mean even though I Think we would call them call them brothers

47:24

You know, we're not gonna we're not gonna question their salvation We're not gonna question their salvation

47:33

And we would call them brothers, but it's something you said it was very interesting We we may be presenting the same good news but What comes with that?

47:51

Is is the preacher and his soteriology? It I think that's what

47:56

I was hearing from you. So yeah, they may get They may get the good news, but they're getting that person's soteriology their methodology how what they believe about the work of God the work of the

48:07

Holy Spirit and how salvation works and so I Know is it is it good news if it's all up to you?

48:16

I mean that you have to do something I mean, I I'm not trying to start an argument or or you know, belittle anybody or be offensive, but That's kind of how what's coming up here?

48:29

Yeah, and I think too I think even a Danger too is in in an effort to Get people to make a decision

48:38

You want to get to that point so quickly just try to hook them real quick and get them to make that decision

48:44

You just skip over a bunch of stuff. I mean you just like you say you want to Give them give them the good stuff and you're not starting

48:55

Where you need to stop you're just leaping over all kinds of stuff that That they need to hear that you got to give them the bad stuff to make the make the good stuff good right,

49:07

I Did want to touch on something else and it kind of goes back to this question that we got or or comment

49:14

Jesus being a street preacher and to me and what I've heard in the past in my experience This is only part of the argument

49:21

So the argument the rest of the argument that goes along with this is Jesus was a street preacher

49:27

The prophets of the Old Testament were street preachers the the guys in the

49:33

New Testament Apostles were street preachers and then you the other examples are with Whitfield Wesley, they were street preachers the open -air preachers and so That's what we should be

49:50

You know, that's that's a justification for us now, let me ask you this and Another part this is this is like a part a

50:02

B question. So part a is Have you had conversations with with those folks that?

50:09

Their main methodology is is the preaching? Screaming Preaching slash screaming and that's the only thing that they do if they if you see them out there.

50:19

That's what they're doing They're preaching very loudly They're coming at you and some of them are you know, just Banging on sand really hard And then they give justification like this argument.

50:34

Jesus was street preacher Prophets were street preacher Whitfield Wesley street preachers. So it's biblical.

50:41

It's what everybody's always done I'm getting out there. I'm being loud. That's the argument Do we is that a legit argument and then

50:52

I think part of that. I'm sorry. Well the other half of the question is I Hope I don't forget it.

51:02

I hope I don't forget it. Um, the other half the question is Okay, here it is we give

51:08

Jesus we give the prophets and we give the other gentlemen in the in the New Testament as examples of street preachers but you think about you think about those people as an example and in Jesse you brought up a good point a while ago

51:24

Not how he preached but what he preached. I think that was a great point and I think another

51:32

Good point to make here or something good to think about is well

51:38

They may have been outdoors presenting their message, but Where were they going to the people where people are or were people coming to them in most cases?

51:52

I mean you had I Don't know the story of Whitfield. I know I know a lot of stories about them

51:59

They were out in feel actual fields preaching But where people coming to them to hear them preach?

52:07

We're crowds coming to Jesus to hear him preach. We have a different Scenario, it seems like here in our context where we're we're going to where the people are

52:18

But these people that we're trying to use for examples as justification for our street preaching

52:24

People were coming to them But what do you guys make of that and and I'm just I'm just thinking out loud

52:31

So, what do you think about that? Right, so largely you saw a lot of people coming to see Jesus see this man who may be the

52:38

Messiah You brought a Whitfield often Whitfield's methodology It was to go to the pubs to go to like the the coal mines in the the public parks and some of that and That's where he would set up shop and start preaching.

52:53

Um, you had examples as well of scheduling Appearances sometimes years in advance and then they would market it in like the newspapers and put out all these ads and People would gather to hear this this guy

53:08

Named Whitfield that's creating such a buzz because it's estimated. I think 80 % of the

53:13

North American colonies Heard Whitfield preach at some point He was somewhat of a phenomenon in his day

53:21

And so you have some of that back and forth a little bit Sometimes people were going to see

53:26

Whitfield other times Whitfield was going to see people So I don't think it was one or the other.

53:33

I think it was I Think it had to do with adjusting to the the times a little bit

53:40

Adapting to the needs of his his context of his community Even if we look at the fact that it's the 1700s.

53:48

This is rationalism These are people that are being influenced by like John Locke and Baron de

53:54

Montesquieu and some of those philosophers of the day Looking at things very irrationally and because Christianity is not rational.

54:02

It has no place in society But they're still rooted in that pursuit of truth as an absolute and so Whitfield comes at it

54:13

He could get very emotional very Sentimental but at the end of the day, this was a reasonable thing to him

54:21

This was something that made sense and he made it make sense to other people by the power of God The Apostle Paul reasoned from the scriptures

54:31

When we look at our modern context We're not as committed to truth as an absolute.

54:36

So we have different barriers We have to push through that Whitfield didn't necessarily have

54:42

Because he didn't have Postmodernism he didn't have your truth versus my truth in the same force that we have it and so it does look different for us to reason from the scriptures in a society that doesn't necessarily want to reason and So when we talk about the the angry screamers and some of that on these are things we have to weigh

55:06

These are things that we have to consider. How best do we glorify God in this pursuit?

55:12

Of the people that God gives us How do we preach to the people in the 21st century instead of trying to preach

55:21

George Whitfield's own sermons? I think that's a good part of the

55:28

The challenge in our modern day is preaching in the modern day Well to me another thing that doesn't translate if we're using the those people as an argument for my open -air preaching

55:43

You know yelling They didn't have amplification they didn't have right they didn't have indoor facilities with with you know electrical amplification they they had to use the the sides of the the bank where where they knew the the acoustics

56:04

Right accommodate them staying there and preaching a message and was it George Whitfield Whitfield was straight -up act out the

56:12

Bible. He would do the voices and everything He was an actor a theater

56:20

Drama background a drama background. So he was like old -school Hollywood from back in the day

56:26

He's like forget that I want to preach it Yeah, they did not have Amplification and have some of the technology that we did so there was

56:35

Some of that craft like we were talking about earlier with putting Paul Washer on the screens that there was that creativity even then

56:41

Yeah. Yeah now now I guess we're more held accountable for Like there's no excuse

56:47

I guess to not give the word out because we have a variety a diversity multiplicity type

56:55

Avenue to choose from we have options you could choose to use your voice You could choose to use amplification.

57:01

You could choose to pass out tracks. You could choose to be creative You know what?

57:06

I mean? There's tons of different methods and I think There's no one prescribed method.

57:13

I think them. Okay, let me take that back in terms of method We have freedom to choose in that sense.

57:20

Like yes, the Bible doesn't say use amplification only so I think though if there was a prescribed method in terms of a delivery of from the

57:32

Bible, I would say it would probably have to be Verse by verse expository preaching.

57:39

I think expository preaching in in street preachers Delivery would have to be

57:48

Right, like if if you're gonna street preach, I think it has to be I think it has to be a legit type of sermon

57:55

Directed to that type of audience like you can't just be like like what Matt was saying get straight to the hook

58:01

Come to Jesus like it has to be like verse 1 verse 2. This is what this says verse 3

58:07

This is how I applies to you. This is what this that context chapter book verse

58:14

Chapter verse the Bible first all you know what I mean? Yeah, I think that's the only method that prescribed by Bible Scripture is that you need

58:26

You need to keep it verse by verse expository I don't think it's very helpful to go out there and do it any other method

58:34

Because they are mostly unchurched because most of these people I think 60

58:42

I think it was like 60 % of Americans are baptized but in the Trinity So and I'm sure many of those people are not, you know covenant keepers many of those people are covenant breakers

58:54

They don't fuck they don't fellowship with the Lord or the Saints on Sunday. So they're they're backsliders, right? A lot of Americans are just backsliders.

59:02

So What? Right. So the I think there's no prescribed method in the

59:08

Bible in terms of microphone versus no microphone Like I interviewed

59:14

Noah Wyatt Recently and he's from Illinois, Illinois now in the app,

59:21

Indiana, Indiana my bad and What he does is he just put whips out a guitar and start singing worship

59:29

Doxology how great that art like I'm thinking I'm like he's going all out so You know what

59:35

I mean? And it gets people, you know wrapped up in a while when they hear that stuff So there's no prescribed method, but I think if the

59:42

Bible did prescribe a Method it probably have to be expository preaching

59:50

In terms of going out there and preaching Like if you're gonna open up Psalms 23, that's fine but stay faithful to Psalms 23 stay faithful to that context stay faithful to to the genre of the text don't just don't just go out there take

01:00:06

Psalms 23 and just slap slap it on to This is like Iron Man versus the

01:00:13

Hulk and and and that's what Jesus does for you He is like the Hulk and you're just like, oh

01:00:20

No You just totally butchered the hermeneutical approach to Psalms 23

01:00:30

So Jesus is not the Hulk he's not angry and green so so there's there's some limitations to to street preaching in terms of What is prescribed because there is freedom and there's there there is options available

01:00:47

But there's limitations with those freedoms and options, right We're not gonna ride an elephant downtown to get attention, right?

01:00:55

So you so we're not gonna pretend a suicide to get attention like I'm gonna jump out You know,

01:01:01

I mean like something crazy. So there's limit and we're not gonna break laws in order to get attention

01:01:08

So, you know if you can't preach in front of a courthouse because the law says Well, we can't preach in front of the courthouse and we need to go somewhere else across the street then right, right?

01:01:17

By the same time you you know, we're not gonna butcher the text of Scripture We're not gonna open up and preach

01:01:24

Psalms 23 and this slaughter the scripture for the sake of reaching the loss

01:01:29

We got to preach expository. I think and then we got up because that's what the word says. Please preach the word

01:01:35

Why do why do most pastors preach? expository every Sunday Because that's not only the norm in the reform world but that's where most

01:01:46

Bible theologians concluded that this is the most faithful way to deliver the Word of God and And you know, what's there?

01:01:54

What's the difference when you go out to the streets and you deliver the Word of God? It's the same the same. It's the same method just the different tailored to a different audience and Not to church people

01:02:07

How do you feel about that Matt? I mean I cut out there a little bit So I'm having

01:02:13

I guess I'm having some trouble with my wife. I don't know. So what what what was the question? I mean, I heard most his answer, but I'm trying to think about what the question actually was

01:02:26

Well, he was he was talking about We're talking about justification those that those that Consistently do the the screaming preaching and they do that that that's the only thing that they do is the screen preaching and then you

01:02:44

Know their justification is well, all these people were street preachers Jesus the prophets the

01:02:49

Apostle They're all and then you had Whitfield and Wesley. They were they were open -air preachers And I talked about how well they didn't have an application application back then

01:02:59

They they were in fields. They were Here there and people were coming to them

01:03:06

They went they went to the people to but you know in a lot of the circumstances people were coming to them

01:03:12

And I'm I'm just kind of curious This justification that they use for their style of street preaching

01:03:22

Is it can it hold up? Because people come to them and then

01:03:27

Jesse what he was talking about, which is I think really really good He was talking about method and the only method really

01:03:37

That that the Bible Commands is is preach the word and I would agree.

01:03:43

I think it Then if it's if it's expository preaching here, it should be exposed for preaching there

01:03:51

Yeah, I don't say I think like you said if somebody's just out there Screaming and ranting raving.

01:03:56

I don't think that holds up when you look at scripture Like Jesse said earlier,

01:04:02

I mean we were obviously not going to be able to Do we're not

01:04:08

Jesus. We're not going to be able to do the things he did We're not the Apostles, but we can also

01:04:13

I mean not only look at their message, but we also do see in Scripture and I think as Tyler mentioned it mentions over and over to To reason from the scripture to use reason and we don't see

01:04:28

Jesus or any of the Apostles or that just out there just Ranting and raving and berating people.

01:04:35

So I think in a sense we can look at their methods as well as their message as Again things were we shouldn't be doing but again not comparing ourselves to them

01:04:49

And and I agree too with the the preaching but one thing I would say

01:04:55

I think there's a thing a little bit of difference from preaching in the the pulpit to the church where Corporate gathering in the church is for the believer.

01:05:09

I think you're Gonna approach that a little bit different. I think we talked in another episode maybe that the main purpose for that corporate gathering is

01:05:22

Not evangelism. I mean you should be getting people pointed to Christ in every message so in a sense there's

01:05:31

Some evangelism in every message because you are I mean most likely gonna have unbelievers there as well

01:05:36

But I think generally with the intent of going out and doing open -air evangelism

01:05:43

You're at least from my perspective I'm assuming everybody out there is an unbeliever and I Want I want to get right to the gospel.

01:05:56

So I think we can do that through preaching a text expository or just going to different text and Hitting all the points of the gospel but again either way like Jesse said stay faithful to the text and stay faithful to the gospel and don't don't be

01:06:22

Chasing down rabbit holes and using all kinds of crazy stuff stick to the text and and let the the

01:06:30

Holy Spirit work as Scripture says through the preaching of the word Here's the last question that I don't that I want us to end on and we hinted at it earlier and all of you guys

01:06:43

Have you as I've heard you? Touch this question as you've answered questions tonight

01:06:53

Jesse and Matt you talked about the different different places that you go out and the different places that are

01:06:59

Different people different kinds of people that are in your areas that are in Colorado Springs that are in Knoxville And that's going to be the case in every metropolitan city.

01:07:09

You're gonna have a plethora of different kinds of people from different different nationalities and So here here's the age -old question

01:07:23

Um Do I do I need to change what what do

01:07:28

I need to change does my approach need to change? When I go to somebody from when

01:07:34

I'm speaking to somebody from Nepal or or I'm speaking to somebody from Mexico or I'm speaking to somebody who's a

01:07:44

Hippie a hippie from the the 70s and 80s or I'm speaking to somebody who's a banker corporate

01:07:50

America um Do I need to change what my methods do

01:07:57

I need to change my message what What do you think about Approaching different people from different places

01:08:04

Yeah, it's a great question. You know, this is a huge topic is a very great topic.

01:08:10

I encourage everybody to continue reading Studying looking at examples. I think the best way you could do is

01:08:17

Start off with I think Charles Spurgeon wrote a

01:08:23

Sketch on a treaty on open -air preaching and What he went to obviously where he he painted is he started off with scriptures and kind of like a church history thing

01:08:35

And then he ended up going through the church history, but the theme the theme was street preaching and What you find

01:08:44

I think in that work of his you would find that it is a It is a great great tradition and it's a diverse tradition, so there's no one way

01:08:55

Despite what the Roman Catholics say I don't care what is it? It is you look at different parts of church history, you know

01:09:05

How did One person reach, you know, Ireland like st. Patrick It's going to be different how another person reaches the

01:09:14

Scots No, I mean Evangelists have different platforms

01:09:21

You know, I mean and you kind of have to be aware for those platforms, you know reaching India It's not going to be the same as reaching

01:09:28

San Diego You know or whatever so I think you got to be aware of your area

01:09:34

You got to be aware of your audience like Paul, you know when he went to Corinth He's like man.

01:09:40

I noticed that you guys are really You know involved in this like worship of God like you guys have a bunch of gods

01:09:48

Like I went to this museum and that museum will be here and this thing over here and I noticed

01:09:53

It's in your culture, you know what I mean? So like I think being aware of your surroundings and who you're trying to reach is really important because if you don't know who they are or What they do how you know what they love what what is their idol?

01:10:10

What is their? Their sin that they wrestle with and You know, imagine

01:10:15

Jonah going to Nineveh and not knowing anything about them. Like there's a reason why he didn't want to go there Because the

01:10:21

Assyrian Empire was evil and wicked and cruel Like you know what I mean? Just read a read up history and you'll know you're like, yeah

01:10:28

I don't want to go there man. They'll hang me upside down and torture me and then kill me They're very wicked people.

01:10:35

I gotta want to go there Lord. And he's like he knew something about them He's like I'm not going up in this So knowing your your context matters but changing your message

01:10:46

I don't think you should ever change the message of the gospel. The message is the message We should roll with it.

01:10:53

There's no there's no need to reinvent the wheel. The wheel is great. The wheel works

01:10:59

It's been the gospel has been saving lives. It's the power of God and to salvation.

01:11:05

There's no other weaponry we need There you know, can you quote from books and stuff?

01:11:11

Yeah, sure. Why not? But you want to roll with the gospel you want to roll you want to stick with the gospel?

01:11:20

In any context and I don't care what other people say about contextualization and they say well, you know you come over here and you got to mix it up and like listen

01:11:30

There's certain things about contextualization that makes sense like Hudson Taylor made way in China Because he dressed like a

01:11:40

Chinese man sometimes and he let his hair grow out and he looked like them He's like hey, these people would honor me and respect me

01:11:48

If I look like them because of their honor code and I get more gospel

01:11:54

Recipients if I dress like them and I look like them Now there's a lot of people in England that never stepped outside of their church and they were very legalist and they said

01:12:05

Hudson Taylor is It's a heretic. He converted to the pagans and it's like No, he did not now that's a pretty decent amount of contextualization

01:12:19

You know what I mean? Just because he grew that the gospel have that the gospel forbid a man growing his hair out ever like no

01:12:26

No, there's a lot of there's a bunch of Viking guys. I got saved and they're doing fine And they have long hair

01:12:33

They kept their beards right away. They kept their long hair and they're doing just fine You know, I mean so him growing his long hair looking like a

01:12:40

Chinese guy back in the day that you know He did that because he's like this is my only obstacle.

01:12:46

It doesn't break God's law. It doesn't go against the gospel I'm not he I'm not I'm not breaking any law according to God and God the gospel.

01:12:54

I'm not compromising the gospel here I'm still giving them the gospel and I'm still bringing them into the church and all these other things

01:13:01

So that's how he reached China, right? So that's a good healthy contextualization the bad way is to say

01:13:07

I'm gonna look like them walk like them talk like them and be like them where they impact me more than I impact them and The gospel is kind of just blurred and and lost

01:13:19

It lost his weight its power, you know and even when you look at some of the the different audiences in the

01:13:29

New Testament Right, like the way they wrote those epistles and some of those those

01:13:34

New Testament books because Luke Luke was a doctor Luke was a smart guy and Luke is some of the hardest

01:13:42

Greek to read in the entire New Testament. He is so analytical He is so in the details and that that works for the audience

01:13:51

He had when he's writing to the office thoughtful. I can't talk tonight. Yeah Um, he pours it on Yeah, you read

01:14:00

Peter you read first and second Peter. It's like grammar school Greek. It's the language of the people.

01:14:05

This is You know basic education. He's speaking to us regular folk

01:14:12

John is likewise John is actually considered to be some of the easiest Greek to read

01:14:18

John's basically writing like a father that that's his language is he's writing like a father to his children

01:14:26

That he's he's the fatherly one and you see some of that that Some of that carryover as they're writing to their respective audiences, you know

01:14:36

Peter writing to the persecuted Church John writing to Ephesus Ephesus had a lot of problems, but he was

01:14:45

Very he had a deep love for Ephesus. He really did and Just just throwing that out there

01:14:53

Oh, yeah, that's really really good It's a good reminder

01:15:01

And and what I was hearing from you guys and Matt if you want to if you want to jump in here too and talk about How to approach different people is the same what what

01:15:15

I'm hearing so far is the preparation for Going out into the streets and the preparation for The pastor on Sunday is very very similar you

01:15:28

You were think about your audience, you know your audience, but the gospel the the message the scripture that part doesn't change

01:15:37

But you keep in mind your audience as you prepare and as you present is it that's kind of what

01:15:43

I was hearing Yeah, I would agree. I think They gave good examples there and and I was gonna say if you don't mind

01:15:52

I was gonna Touch real quick on the last question. We had. Oh, yeah Do you mind if I do that just go ahead kind of the way it's impacted me personally and I just want to kind of use this as a way of encouragement for people who have maybe never taken part of this or Jesse talked about earlier feel inadequate about it.

01:16:14

I mean, I understand I was right there it was probably now the first time

01:16:19

I ever went out was probably about six or seven years ago and Living here in East, Tennessee Kind of the

01:16:27

Bible belt. They say I mean, I don't necessarily agree with that anymore, but I was just I guess really naive you think everybody around here goes to church everybody's

01:16:37

Heard the gospel and honestly at the time. I was probably Just really starting to understand the gospel myself, even though I've been in church my whole life and that honestly the very first time

01:16:49

I went out on the street and Experienced with my own eyes and my own ears the hostility

01:16:59

Towards God's Word and toward the gospel Was just a huge Opener to me and it made me realize for the first time man here

01:17:11

Right in my own city right in my own backyard What a need for the gospel that there is and It I mean, it's completely

01:17:24

Changed my thought process kind of the way I view the gospel.

01:17:29

It's It's made me want to study know the gospel better so as I go out there and I Encounter these people and have conversations with them

01:17:45

You don't always have to have all the answers, but we should have a desire to to know more about what we're trying to proclaim to these people and to I mean almost always there's a apologetic

01:18:01

Part of open -air evangelism you start talking to people they're going to ask questions and It's it's good to know the answer so for me personally

01:18:11

Seeing that need for the gospel as has really driven me to study the word

01:18:20

Grow in that way it's also given me a small group of guys that that I know

01:18:30

I can rely on that we we chat all the time and I trust those guys because I've seen them go out there and do the hard work.

01:18:39

I know That they're willing it's like say it's like a little a small band of brothers

01:18:44

None of us go to the same church. We're not in church together on Sundays, but I'm closer to those guys than honestly anybody

01:18:55

That I've ever went to church with because I've been out there in the trenches with them So I think it gives you if you're able to go with people consistently

01:19:04

You build that Relationship on that firm foundation of the gospel and on Christ and again, ultimately,

01:19:12

I think in and having a desire to to be able to proclaim the gospel more clearly and Answer people's questions again.

01:19:24

It's driven me to the scriptures and in my study and those things ultimately It should drive us to love

01:19:32

Christ more to to love the person That we're out there proclaiming.

01:19:38

So I think this ministry For me has personally just completely

01:19:45

Changed my walk in the faith From that very first time I hit the street.

01:19:52

So just as an encouragement I would say to people if you've never done it

01:19:57

Try to find somebody who has or is doing it now and as Jesse said just go out there and just First time even just stand there and watch just see what's going on how they approach it just pray just but as he said just be out there and just kind of see it with your own eyes hear it with your

01:20:20

Hear it with your own ears, and I think if a lot of people Would do that.

01:20:26

I think it would would change the perception of a lot of people and I think too we see all the time not only people that are hostile to the word but so many people that say that they're

01:20:40

Christians and then you ask them a basic question and They're just like deer in a headlights you realize how many people out there

01:20:52

Even if they are saved how little knowledge they have or how many people are false converts,

01:21:00

I think I'm Beginning to see that more and more you just ask them. I said, what do you think?

01:21:06

The gospel is and most most of the time in our cases. They won't even answer. They just stand there and Stare at you like you got three heads.

01:21:14

It's like I mean So it's it's very eye -opening top of ministry,

01:21:19

I think and I think it do it would serve people well to To see that for themselves again, just encourage people

01:21:28

To go out there and experience it. Well, thank you guys for your

01:21:34

Thank you guys for what you do and thank you for your insights that you gave tonight. I truly appreciate it

01:21:40

For whoever may watch or listen I believe it would be edifying and helpful for for all of them who watch or listen and Let's just end on this

01:21:50

Matt Who Knows who may watch or listen,

01:21:55

I mean this is this is open air to the whole Internet We don't know who God will send our way

01:22:03

Present the gospel to us as if you were on the streets And you were pleading with the lost and and Tyler When he finishes, will you?

01:22:13

Will you pray as if you were praying for that person that just heard the gospel I? Will do

01:22:21

I would just begin out begin with we have to first begin with our

01:22:27

Creator God and realize who he is realize that he is a perfect and holy and righteous

01:22:36

God and by contrast we as his creation part of his creation we are

01:22:45

Sinful we are by nature rebellious Against our

01:22:50

Creator rebellious against this perfect and holy God And as part of God's character as well.

01:22:57

He is also a just God and because of his perfect holy righteousness

01:23:03

He can have no Fellowship with sin and because we are sinful that breaks our fellowship with our

01:23:12

Creator and It's not Anything that we can do in of ourselves

01:23:20

To reconcile that broken relationship In our simple state we can do nothing good.

01:23:27

The Bible tells us that we are dead in our trespasses and sin but God is also a

01:23:36

Merciful and gracious and loving God and in his love and mercy

01:23:43

He Provided the way of reconciliation for sinners and that way was in providing and sending his son

01:23:52

Jesus Christ to come and be born in the flesh And even though he was born in the flesh.

01:23:59

He was a hundred percent man, but still 100 % God as well He lived a perfect and sinless life that we could not live and in doing so he was able and willing

01:24:12

To be the sacrifice that was necessary to reconcile us to God and in doing that he went to the cross suffered a horrible death

01:24:25

Was buried three days later rose as he said he would to Justify who that he said he was

01:24:34

He walked the earth Seen by many witnesses and at the appointed time

01:24:40

Ascended back to heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father and we're told in Scripture that for all of those

01:24:48

Who believe in Christ and repent of their sins that they will be saved

01:24:54

So that's our plea today to believe upon Jesus Christ The God -man believe in who he was that he was

01:25:01

God believe what he did He lived a perfect life that you couldn't that he went to the cross and died as a substitute

01:25:10

To satisfy that wrath that we deserve to put your faith in him and it's in faith alone

01:25:16

It's not through anything that we can do But to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ today.

01:25:29

Oh Lord our Lord How majestic is thy name in all the earth?

01:25:37

Lord your gospel has gone forth Not because Matt's a good speaker not because we're great communicators because it is your gospel

01:25:48

These are your words And you have sent it out on your own authority by your own power by your own spirit and by those same things

01:26:03

It will do what you set it out to do this gospel will take roots

01:26:09

Where you have planted a gun? And for the person that has heard that today God, I pray that you will

01:26:18

Do what you set out to do before the foundations of the world That you will gather the fish

01:26:24

You will reap the harvest that you have planted God save sinners

01:26:32

Amen Thank you guys for all your your help tonight and your input, thank you everybody for watching we really appreciate it

01:26:41

Thank you for watching the laborers podcast. We hope you will come back and join us again

01:26:46

In the meantime, remember that Jesus is King Go live in the victory of Christ go speak with the authority of Christ and go share the gospel of Christ.