Overcoming Objections in Evangelism

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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October 6, 2021

00:00: Fine, but I have no idea what happened.
00:02: I guess the battery died.
00:05: Oh, well.
00:07: So the five most common objections that we hear.
00:10: Why did I pick five? Well, no reason.
00:13: I could have done ten.
00:14: I could have done two.
00:17: But when I was thinking about the subject of evangelism, particularly at the fishing hole, the fishing hole booth, we do ten days of evangelism every year at the fair.
00:29: And it's at the Callahan Fair.
00:33: Callahan is a, I mean, I live there.
00:37: It's a country location.
00:40: And a lot of people from Jacksonville go, but it's, I mean, it's in the sticks, you know, it's out in the woods.
00:47: And so what you end up seeing in Callahan is you end up seeing a lot of people who live in a saturated cultural Christianity.
00:59: Mama goes to church.
01:00: Daddy goes to church.
01:01: Grandma, Papa go to church.
01:02: I've been in church since I was in diapers.
01:04: Of course I'm going to heaven.
01:08: I was brought up in it.
01:11: So you will rarely come across anybody at the fishing hole that has no knowledge of anything that you're talking about.
01:20: Now, you'll run into a lot of people who know a lot of wrong stuff, but you'll rarely run into somebody who's never heard anything.
01:29: You know, it's like, what was this, Ronald Reagan said? He said, it's not that my political opponents are, it's not that they're ignorant.
01:40: It's what they know just ain't true.
01:46: So the first thing I always do, and before we get to the five objections, the first thing, understand, this is something that I use as an inroad to talk to people.
01:55: I ask the question, do you understand the gospel? In fact, we have a sign.
01:59: When you go to the fishing hole, the booth has a sign.
02:02: Mike already talked about it.
02:03: It's wood.
02:04: It's hanging behind you.
02:06: And it literally says, do you understand the gospel? I have a shirt that I wear that says, do you understand the gospel? And the reason for that is I think that is a very good way to begin the conversation because people who do understand the gospel, yes, I understand the gospel.
02:23: Can we talk about it? How do you share the gospel with people? That's a great way to see if they really do understand.
02:31: How do you share the gospel, Brother Mike? How do you share the gospel, Miss Dorothy? That's how you begin that conversation.
02:37: Because one thing people do love to do is people love to tell you what they know.
02:42: And if they do know, they'll love to tell you.
02:47: But I've had people say, you know, I really don't understand it.
02:50: I've grown up in church.
02:51: I don't understand the gospel.
02:53: I had a pastor one time, and it's no lie.
02:58: We used to do it.
02:59: There was a little market that met over here by the Verizon store.
03:08: And we set the booth up there a few times.
03:10: Pastor came by, looked at the sign, and he goes, that's a hard question.
03:14: I said, really, what do you do? I'm a pastor.
03:16: I said, it shouldn't be hard for you.
03:18: If anybody should know the answer to this question, it's you.
03:21: That's your job.
03:22: If a mechanic came up and didn't know how to change tires, we'd fire him.
03:25: You better know the answer to this question.
03:29: So do you understand the gospel is a good way to get into a conversation with people, but you're liable to run into objections pretty quickly.
03:39: I'll give you the five, and then I'll go back through them, give you how I would answer them.
03:42: The first one is, you know, I don't need the church to worship God.
03:47: And you say, well, why is that? That doesn't seem like an apologetic objection.
03:50: It really is, because the person who says that doesn't understand the Bible, and they really don't understand the gospel.
03:56: If a person says to you, I don't need the church to worship God, or I don't need to go to church to be a Christian, they really don't understand scriptures.
04:04: They don't understand the gospel.
04:07: So that right away, if you're not prepared for that objection, you need to be.
04:11: Because that'll be one, I put that as number one, because that's the one I've heard the most.
04:15: As I go to talk to people, hey, do you understand the gospel? Yeah, can we talk about it? Yeah, well, let me ask you a question.
04:19: Where are you a member of a church? Oh, I don't need the church.
04:22: I got, you know, it's me and Jesus.
04:24: People say, I don't go to church.
04:26: I am the church.
04:28: You know what I say to that? There's a Greek word for that.
04:30: What is it? Baloney.
04:31: It's absolutely baloney.
04:32: You are not the church.
04:34: The word church means assembly, and you can't assemble by yourself.
04:37: You are not the church.
04:39: But people will say that.
04:41: So the first objection really is the objection of, I don't need the church.
04:45: I don't need organized.
04:47: People say, I hate organized religion.
04:49: What, do you want it to be disorganized? Because I know some Pentecostal churches where it's crazy.
04:55: But that's the idea.
04:57: So the first objection is, I don't need church worship God.
04:59: The second one is, I'm a good person.
05:03: That's the one Brother Mike pretty much just nailed.
05:06: People will say that.
05:08: Had a conversation with a relative just two weeks ago where I sat with him and I asked him, I said, if you died today and you face God, and he said, why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say? By the way, I do like that question too.
05:20: That's D.
05:21: James Kennedy popularized that question, evangelism explosion.
05:25: And his question, that was a question he used with everybody.
05:27: If you died today and God said, why should I let you in heaven, what would you say? Some people don't like that.
05:33: I don't want to talk about death.
05:34: People get freaked out.
05:35: I love it because people say, what if I died today? I say, if you died today, and I said this to my relative, if you died today, what would you say? And he said, I would say I've done my best.
05:45: And I said, that would not be enough.
05:49: Your very best is nothing but glorious sins before a holy God.
05:57: Your good is not enough.
06:00: Without Christ, you will go to hell.
06:02: So number two is when the person says, I'm a good person, you take them to the law.
06:06: You show them their sin.
06:08: You deal with, I like Romans 3, 9, none is good, no, not one, you know? And I think about that in the same way when the rich young ruler, going back to him, when he came to Jesus, he said, good teacher.
06:20: What did Jesus said, slow down, there is none good except God.
06:28: So that's the first two.
06:31: The third one, and this one is, as I said, I went through these, and I sort of, I put them in order.
06:37: I've gotten all of these at least a couple of times, but I put them in order of how often.
06:43: Third one, I would say, is mid-range of how often.
06:48: And this one is, the Bible is unreliable, irrelevant, or impossible to interpret.
06:55: I put that all in the same category.
06:57: Doesn't matter how they say it.
06:58: If they say the Bible is irrelevant, the Bible is unreliable, or it's impossible to interpret, all of that is simply saying God's word is not God's word.
07:05: However you want to say it, God is either inept, and he can't give us a word that we can understand, or he's aloof, and he gives us a word that is unreliable.
07:14: Either way, it's an attack against God, it's an attack against his character, and it's an attack against his word.
07:19: So how do you handle that? A couple of things, you may want to write this down.
07:23: I don't know if you're interested in this, but this is something that I like to keep on the tip of my tongue.
07:29: First thing, the Bible is the most reliable work of antiquity that we possess today.
07:36: There is no other book that was written that long ago that has as much attestation and testification of its accuracy than that book.
07:46: It is the most well-attested book of the ancient world.
07:51: There are more copies, there are more translations, there are more handwritten manuscripts of this book than any other book by far.
07:59: So to say it's unreliable is, you just don't understand.
08:04: You don't know what you don't know.
08:07: That's number one.
08:08: Number two, the Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years by 40 different authors in three languages over three continents.
08:19: And yet it all has only one message, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
08:25: You couldn't get 40 people from the same church to sit in the same room and agree on that much.
08:33: But we've got 40 authors, different languages, different continents, over 1,500 years and they all point to the same thing.
08:39: So not only is it reliable, but it's consistent.
08:43: And consistency is the hallmark of truth.
08:47: Thirdly, the Bible does have difficult passages.
08:52: There are passages that even I don't fully understand.
08:57: But the truths that are essential are easy enough that even a child can understand.
09:05: So when you say the Bible is too difficult to interpret, God loved the world this way, He sent His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
09:14: Does that make sense to you? Is that impossible to interpret? No, it's very easy to interpret.
09:19: That's why it's the most popular verse of the Bible.
09:22: God loves the world.
09:23: He sent His Son.
09:24: If you believe in Him, you will not perish.
09:26: If you don't, you will.
09:27: Very easy to interpret.
09:30: So that's how I would address that.
09:32: Again, you've got to be willing if the person is making that objection, push back a little.
09:39: You know what happens often, though, when you push back? They start to...
09:44: People are real tough until you get tough with them.
09:46: My dad taught me that.
09:48: He said, tough guys are only tough when you get tough with them.
09:50: Or tough guys are tough until you get tough with them.
09:52: You know, if somebody starts, oh, the Bible is full of contradictions, show me one.
09:57: Can you take me to any verse in the Bible and prove that it's a contradiction of another verse? No, you can't.
10:02: But you say that because somebody else told you that.
10:05: You say, would you really say it that way? Depends.
10:08: Depends on who I'm talking to.
10:09: If I'm talking to blind Bartimaeus, a broken man, I might not be so aggressive.
10:14: But if I'm talking to a group of teenage boys and the one guy is standing up and he's going to be the hero, you better believe it, I'm going to knock him down.
10:20: Not harshly.
10:21: But I'm going to tell him what's what, because all the other guys are listening, too.
10:26: And they say, oh, wait a minute, this guy isn't going to let himself be pushed around.
10:30: He's going to stand up for the truth.
10:32: That's an interesting reality.
10:34: But guys are sort of that way.
10:35: Guys like to sort of push and see if you'll see if you're willing to stand up for what you believe.
10:39: So let's take a stand.
10:43: Number four.
10:46: Jesus was a good moral leader.
10:50: A good teacher, but he wasn't the son of God and he wasn't unique in any way.
10:56: He was a good leader in the same way, a good moral teacher, just like Muhammad or Buddha.
11:01: And I've heard this.
11:02: People say, oh, well, you know what? You have Jesus.
11:04: I have Muhammad or you have Jesus.
11:06: Usually in Callahan, it's not Muhammad.
11:09: Usually, usually in Callahan, you're going to get something to the effect that somebody will say, well, there's really no difference between Jesus and Buddha or Jesus and Muhammad.
11:17: They're all the same.
11:19: They're all trying to go to the same place.
11:21: They're just taking different roads.
11:25: So there's nothing really unique about Jesus.
11:31: If somebody says that, my response typically is to kind of go a little, go a little C.S.
11:37: Lewis with him.
11:38: If you're not familiar with C.S.
11:39: Lewis, he wasn't the greatest theologian ever, but he was a great thinker.
11:42: He had some issues with some of his theology, and I do take issue with some of C.S.
11:46: Lewis's teachings.
11:47: But he was a wonderful writer, wrote the Narnia series.
11:52: But he also wrote a book called Mere Christianity.
11:55: And in the book Mere Christianity, he said this.
11:58: He said, Jesus is only one of three things.
12:01: He's either a liar, he's a lunatic, or he's the Lord.
12:05: He's a liar if what he said was not true and he knew it.
12:10: He's a lunatic if what he said was not true and he didn't know it because he believed he was a son of God.
12:16: He wasn't.
12:17: If that's true, then he's a lunatic or he's the Lord.
12:24: So when you come to me and you tell me Jesus is a good teacher.
12:27: I say he can't be unless he's a son of God because he taught that he was a son of God.
12:33: And if he was wrong about that, then he's not a good teacher.
12:36: He's a lunatic or he's a liar.
12:39: So are you willing today? And I've said this straight to people looking in that.
12:43: Are you today willing to say Jesus Christ was a liar? No.
12:47: Are you willing to say he was a lunatic? No.
12:51: Well, then what else could he be? Again, you're you're you're putting the onus back.
12:57: They've said Jesus is a great teacher, but he's not the Lord.
13:00: He can't be because he claimed to be the Lord.
13:04: See how that works? And it really is just as part of the conversation.
13:12: John 8.58 is a good passage.
13:14: If you want a couple of scriptures, just scripture verse, I'm trying to give a verse to go with each one.
13:18: John 8.58 is where Jesus said before Abraham was I am.
13:24: I say, you believe Jesus is a good teacher? Yes.
13:27: But you don't believe he was a son of God? No.
13:28: You don't believe he was divine? No.
13:30: He's a good teacher, though.
13:31: He said before Abraham was I am.
13:33: That means before Abraham was who lived 2000 years before him, he existed before Abraham.
13:38: You believe he's telling the truth? Is he a good teacher? Because good teachers don't lie.
13:45: See, again, you're making them have to.
13:47: You're confronting them with the word you're confronting.
13:49: And you say, you sound so aggressive.
13:51: I'm not.
13:52: I enjoy conversations.
13:54: Mike and I've been out there together.
13:56: Andy and I've been out there.
13:56: We enjoy it.
13:57: Right.
13:58: People get laughing.
13:59: You get.
13:59: That's why I love these tracks, by the way.
14:01: And this I was going to say this to the end, but I keep these tracks because these tracks give opportunities for conversations.
14:09: This one here is beautiful.
14:11: It's from Answers in Genesis.
14:13: It tells the story of Jesus.
14:15: Christ's cross and consummation.
14:16: The pictures inside are nice and pretty.
14:20: And they have the story of Christ.
14:21: This is a wonderful thing to put in the hand of somebody while they're waiting on their their soda pop or whatever.
14:26: When they're standing in line, they've got this to hold this one here.
14:29: It may look like a cartoon.
14:30: This one, the best tracks I've ever had.
14:33: This tells exactly what Brother Mike was talking about, the law, using the law to bring about the knowledge of sin.
14:38: This little track right here is is awesome.
14:41: Right now, our young disciples are down there putting stickers on these because none of these have our church name on them.
14:46: They're down there.
14:47: We got thousands of these.
14:48: They're down there putting stickers on them so that the people who get these will know how to contact us if they need to.
14:55: You ever seen these? Yeah, you say, which one's bigger? Neither one.
15:02: They're the same size, but they look bigger.
15:03: This is a nice little trick.
15:04: My wife, this I bought these for her because she said, you got to give me the curves because she'll stand.
15:09: She'll give out 150 of these in an hour.
15:11: She every little child come here and she'll do it.
15:14: And on the back, it's got the gospel.
15:16: I got this coin.
15:17: I take the coin.
15:18: I make the coin disappear.
15:19: It's just a little trick I do.
15:21: Comes up.
15:21: This is something I've been doing forever.
15:24: People will take the coin for me.
15:25: It's got the Ten Commandments on one side.
15:27: It's got the John 3 16 on the other.
15:29: This opens up the door for the conversation.
15:31: So I'm not I'm not out there barking at people.
15:34: I'm getting them to have a conversation with me in whatever way I can.
15:37: But at certain point, like Brother Mike said, with Brother Andy said, at a certain point, it's going to get uncomfortable.
15:43: It's going to have that moment where it gets a little odd.
15:47: When you may have to say, hey, let me ask you a question.
15:50: Do you understand the gospel? This thing talks about the gospel.
15:53: Do you understand the gospel bookmark? This one we print.
15:59: This actually is ours.
16:00: We designed this.
16:02: It's got Second Corinthians five seven or I'm sorry.
16:08: Second Corinthians 521.
16:09: Yes, this and it's got the the explanation of it on the back.
16:14: It's a bookmark for their Bible.
16:16: There is Gideon's that give out Bibles at the fair.
16:21: They're not too far from our booth.
16:23: So when I see a kid walking by with a Gideon Bible, I say, hey, let me give you a bookmark for your Bible that tells you something about how to understand what Jesus did.
16:32: Here it is.
16:33: We give out hundreds, thousands of these.
16:36: You I'm not lying when I say we give out three to four thousand pieces of literature in 10 days because we just stand there and as people go by, we don't have conversations with everybody.
16:45: You couldn't possibly.
16:46: But when a group of teenagers comes up and I do the little coin thing, I got them because now they want to talk.
16:53: One of the things I ask, I say, hey, how about and this would be great for you, brother, Mike, because you're you're you're you're you know a lot about the Bible.
17:01: I sometimes I'll say, can I ask you take a Bible quiz? And I'll just come up with questions, you know, three or four questions off the top of my head, and I'll say, if you do it, you win big money.
17:12: It's a million dollar bill.
17:13: It's fake, but it's got the gospel.
17:14: And I'll and I'll do you.
17:16: Would you take a Bible quiz? I just come up with a couple of questions.
17:18: How many books are in the Bible? You know who wrote the most books of the New Testament, anything like that, and people get them into a conversation.
17:27: But then what's the most important question I ask? What brings the knowledge of sin? The law of God or something like that, getting to talk about the law.
17:36: But this is a this is another one I I got to get to my last one last one, you know, and I'll be out of time.
17:45: The last objection, and I've only had this objection a few times, but it is one that we need to be prepared for, because as our world changes, this will become the this will become more common.
17:57: And the objection is this.
17:59: I don't believe in God.
18:02: Now, I want to say that's the rare one, the rare people will argue about the Bible.
18:08: People argue about the identity of Christ.
18:10: People argue about the necessity of the church.
18:12: People argue about their own goodness.
18:13: Very few people will come out and say, I just don't believe in God.
18:19: In fact, quick test, what's the what's the percentage of according to the latest Pew research, this is in the last 10 years, what's the what's the percentage of people who claim to be atheists in the in the whole world, according to the Pew study, having done various nations and statistics? I mean, less than 4 percent, less than 4 percent of the world claims atheism.
18:42: Now, about 10 percent claim to be non-religious, but that's not atheists.
18:48: There's a difference.
18:49: Non-religious would say, well, I have my own relationship with God or whatever, whatever.
18:52: I'm spiritual.
18:53: I'm not religious.
18:54: I'm spiritual.
18:57: But that's not the same as saying atheists.
18:59: I remember the young man who was standing right in front of me.
19:03: I said, can I give you this message? It's a gospel message.
19:07: And he goes, I don't believe in God.
19:11: And I was like, yes.
19:15: I've waited for you.
19:19: You're here and you are in the right place.
19:23: So I said, come lad, let us let us let us reason together.
19:27: And I was so excited.
19:28: I was like, I'm so glad that we get to talk.
19:31: I wasn't glad I didn't believe in God, but I was glad I was glad we were there because now I can ask you the question.
19:36: I say, you look over there and again, you say, how do you deal with that? Say, first of all, there's there's thousands of different ways to address unbelief in God, probably the easiest way.
19:48: It's called the teleological argument or the argument from design or purpose.
19:54: As you look at the you look at this, I did him.
19:56: I said, let me ask you a question.
19:57: I said that building right there, did it have a builder? And he said, well, yes, of course it had a builder.
20:03: I said, how do you know that? He said, because the building is there.
20:05: I said, so the building is evidence of a builder.
20:07: He said, yes, it is.
20:09: I said, so you're telling me creation is not evidence of a creator? Well, I'm not saying there is no God.
20:17: I just don't know if we can know that.
20:18: See, immediately you quit being an atheist.
20:20: I mean, like almost immediately you don't want to because he he got pushback.
20:24: He's not used to getting pushback.
20:25: He's used to getting affirmed.
20:27: People are used to having their idiocy affirmed.
20:30: You don't believe that.
20:32: Look at all this transgender nonsense.
20:34: There's a video came across my screen today.
20:36: This lady is yelling at a Sonic employee because the Sonic employee called him, sir.
20:42: It was a sir.
20:43: It was a dude dressed as a lady, but he wanted to be affirmed as a girl.
20:48: He wanted to be affirmed as man.
20:50: And he's screaming at a Sonic employee.
20:52: I mean, my goodness.
20:53: He's he's he's working at Sonic.
20:56: He's not a social justice warrior.
20:59: He's just trying to feed his family, working at a fast food restaurant.
21:03: And you're going to berate him because he won't call you.
21:05: I'm sorry, I'm on the wrong topic.
21:07: My point is this.
21:10: People get crazy about such ridiculous stuff.
21:13: People do, they get they go nuts about all this ridiculous stuff, but just push back just a little.
21:20: Say, you're telling me that all of the order in the world came from disorder.
21:26: Life came from non life design came from an unintelligent force.
21:32: You're telling me that everything you see around you is absolutely and utterly meaningless, because if you're nothing but stardust, then you don't mean anything more than stardust.
21:50: Now, again, how you how you go over that question and if you want to push further, ask them about their sense of ought.
21:57: Do you believe that there is a right and a wrong? They say, I don't believe in right and wrong.
22:03: I'll steal your wallet.
22:04: Then you'll believe in right and wrong because you're going to be mad because I did you wrong.
22:08: You believe in ought and ought not.
22:10: You know there's such a thing as ought not not.
22:12: But apart from a standard bearer, there can be no standard.
22:16: Again, I could spend all night on this.
22:17: The point is, when we deal with the subject of atheism, atheism is a bankrupt philosophy.
22:23: It's mentally bankrupt.
22:26: But you got to meet them where they are, just like Andy said, we got to address where they're at.
22:30: Poke, prod, push in love.
22:34: Don't let them be satisfied in where they are.
22:37: Make them have to think about where they are.
22:42: Last two things and I'll close.
22:44: Number one, don't be afraid to say, I don't know.
22:47: Somebody asked you a question about the Bible.
22:49: Well, you know, the Bible says this in this passage, says this in this passage.
22:52: What do you think about that, Nicole? If you don't know, say I don't know.
22:56: If it's something off the wall, because some people do come kind of cocked and loaded, you know, ready to ready to unload on you because you're the person with the Bible.
23:04: Right.
23:05: You're not there to be the perfect apologist, you're not going to be able to.
23:09: So they ask you a question, you don't know, say I don't know.
23:11: We had a guy a few years ago, there was a lady who was a lesbian.
23:14: She was yelling at us.
23:15: I'm a lesbian.
23:16: I'm going to hell and I don't care.
23:18: Well, the next day she was at the fair and one of our guys went and talked to her.
23:21: Don Hemingway went and talked to her.
23:24: And she said to Don, she said, am I going to go to hell if I'm a lesbian? Don said, I don't know how to answer that.
23:29: I don't want to give you the wrong answer.
23:31: Let me go get my pastor.
23:32: He'll come and talk to you.
23:33: And I did.
23:33: And we had a 30 minute conversation.
23:35: It was great.
23:36: The point is, if you're not ready to answer the question, don't.
23:39: It's fine.
23:40: You're not you're not there to to be the perfect apologist.
23:44: And that's OK.
23:46: Lastly, focus on the gospel.
23:48: Don't focus on objections.
23:51: A few years ago, I saw Franklin Graham.
23:56: Now, you know, I don't know how Franklin Graham, how you feel about him, whatever.
23:59: I will say he did the best thing I ever saw on TV.
24:04: Franklin Graham was on Larry King.
24:07: Yeah, we talk about this.
24:08: Jennifer was watching it with me.
24:10: Franklin Graham was on Larry King Live with a bunch of other preachers.
24:13: And Larry King was asking them questions, objections to the Bible.
24:18: And every time they would get to Franklin Graham, he would say, well, you know, Larry, that's a good question.
24:23: But what I came on here to talk about today is the fact that every person that's listening to me is a sinner.
24:27: And if they don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will die in their loss.
24:30: Every time you couldn't shake him off of his perch, he was there to give the gospel and he wasn't going to allow any question to shake him.
24:41: He just said, you know, that's a great question, but here's what I came to say.
24:45: Boom was right to the gospel.
24:47: So remember this.
24:48: If you focus on the gospel, you'll overcome the objections because you'll keep going.
24:53: We had a lady call me a few weeks ago, called the church here, wanted to talk.
24:58: She wanted to argue with me that Jesus was a Pharisee.
25:04: Come to find out she was a lady who she was a Torah believer.
25:09: She believed the Old Testament, but not the New Testament.
25:11: She didn't believe in Jesus.
25:11: She didn't believe he was son of God.
25:13: She didn't believe that she was a sinner, Brother Mike.
25:17: So I began to talk to her about her sin, about her need for a savior, about all those things.
25:21: I don't want to talk about that.
25:22: I called you to talk to you about Jesus being a Pharisee.
25:27: I said, first of all, there's no evidence that Jesus was a Pharisee, but even your objection, that's not what you need to talk about.
25:33: You need to talk about the fact that if you hang up with me today and you continue in the direction you're going, you are going to go to hell.
25:39: You don't know me.
25:39: How can you tell I'm going to go to hell? I said, because you're a sinner and you don't have Jesus Christ.
25:43: That's the criteria to go to hell is you're a sinner and you don't have a savior.
25:50: If you get off that, you will lose.
25:53: You've got to stay on the gospel, deal with the objections, but get past them.
25:59: Stay on the gospel.
26:00: That's my time.
26:02: But hopefully that was helpful.
26:05: If you guys want to look at the tracks to get an idea of what we're going to have, you can come up here and look.
26:11: If you are interested, I need you guys to sign up so I know when the elders need to fill in the other gaps.
26:19: I cannot be here the first Thursday, the very first Thursday night.
26:24: I'm going to be here teaching at the academy.
26:26: So definitely need help that night.
26:28: But other nights as well.
26:30: So please sign up.
26:32: Mike and Andy and I will be there, you know, so don't ever feel like you're going to be alone.
26:37: You won't be alone.
26:38: But we need to we need to have more than just just us.
26:43: Any questions? Sorry if I got a little excited.
26:47: It's my it's my apologetics just happens to be my hobby horse.
26:51: Everybody's got one.
26:53: All right, let's pray.
26:55: Father, I thank you for your word.
26:56: I pray, Lord, that tonight you would.
27:00: Drive it into our hearts, drive the truth into our hearts so much so, Lord, that it overflows and we want to share it with others, that we have a desire to go into the world and preach the gospel, which is the very thing Christ has called us to do.
27:15: And it's in his name we pray.
27:17: Amen.