School Of Evangelism Session # 3

Well, here's what we're going to do. We're going to spend some time in the homework this morning looking at and sharing together some of the things that you've shared and written down.

And there's a purpose for this. If you remember, what was the first homework assignment? Sharing your testimony with someone, right?

Now, basically, what we're asking you to do in this chapter is to basically write down a testimony of sorts, how the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has changed or affected your life as a

Christian. And this is important. Why? Why do you think this is important that we do this exercise?

Why do you think it's an important exercise for us to do and partake in? That's right.

And really, also, what it accomplished, something really simple. How many of you folks get a little bit of stage fright?

Right? And it's not always easy to share in the midst of a congregation or even an evangelistic opportunity.

And so this is going to help break down, chisel down, some of those walls that we have up in regard to our sharing and our methodology.

And so here's what I'd like to do. If someone would like to start us off to share what they wrote, we'll do that.

Yes? I can't believe we're doing homework. There you go. Yes. Amen.

Amen. Amen. I don't know if I have any more time for questions.

Yeah. So I thought for sure. Sure. And that's really what we're looking for, right? So I love what she did.

She took a familiar hymn and song. That's not just familiar in the church. It's familiar everywhere, isn't it?

Amazing Grace. If you start hymning that anywhere in this country, someone will know what you're saying and singing.

And I love that. I tell my wife as well, she sometimes struggles with how to write down her testament. I said, listen, it's real simple.

You were lost. Now you're found. You were blind, but now you see. And that's the framework of almost every testimony.

You were lost in your trespasses and sins and the way you used to walk according to the prince of the power of the ear, but God being rich in mercy made us alive.

That's the story of Ephesians 2. And so we were once lost, blind. Now we're found and we see.

And so anyone else have something they'd like to share in regard to the homework? If not,

I will just start picking people. That's right. Preemptive.

Come on, Miguel. What do you got? Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. That's very good. Thank you. Anyone else? One thing that I want to hear, though, is, first and foremost, what is the good news?

What did we learn last week? What is the good news? Ken? I had to learn, and when

I did that, I also learned that. So that was the beginning point of the end of spirit here.

Yeah, so it was a big mistake for me to know that someone else was in charge of an evil omnipotent being who accomplished his work.

Yeah. Now you brought something up that might be an interesting talking point for us to maybe delve a little bit deeper into right now, which is the fact that when

I asked the question, what is the gospel? His response was the inbreaking of God's kingdom, which is sort of more or less what

I wrote down in the beginning of the teaching. But then later on, we also go a little bit deeper into what the gospel is and saying, according to Paul in 1

Corinthians chapter 15, 1 through 5, that the gospel is according to the scriptures that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures.

Is there a contradiction between the gospel of the kingdom of God, which Jesus herald, which

Jesus preached, and the gospel that we see in the narrative of the New Testament writers, such as Paul, who said the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus?

How do we harmonize those two thoughts of the kingdom and the resurrection? How do we harmonize that?

Is there a harmony to it? Jesus. That's right.

Yeah, well said. Anyone else have a thought on that? How do you harmonize?

Yes. Yeah. That's right.

Anyone else have a thought? Yeah. You have something you want to share?

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point.

What is a kingdom without a king? That's right. And the kingdom centers around its king, the king being the

Lord Jesus Christ. His life, death, burial, and resurrection evidence that he was the anointed one, the son of David, the son of God, the son of man, who was promised to us in Holy Scripture.

He fulfills all the requirements and prophetic standards. And he is himself the one who reigns even now, today, as king of kings and lord of lords.

He's ascended at the right hand of the Father. And it's interceding for us, even as we speak. Praise be unto him.

Amen. That's an incredible Savior that we have in Jesus. And so the kingdom gospel is the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Because it is in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection that, and his ascension to heaven, where he reigneth now at the right hand of the

Father, is confirmation that God's kingdom reigns and that soon he will rule all the nations with the breath of his word and bring to nothing the nations that are opposed to him and his reign and rule.

And so we, as Christians, we are heralds, proclaimers of the kingdom of heaven.

And we say that there is a better kingdom, there's a better government, there's a better way, and a better ruler than what we have in the world today.

As we're looking at world conflicts, everyone's looking at what's happening in the Ukraine, and one of the things that's really fascinating that's coming out of this situation is the amount of praise that President Zelensky of the

Ukraine is getting because of his bravery. And it's like, it's been a long time since we've seen world leaders really step up to the plate like that and show what courage and bravery looks like.

Yeah, I want you to know that Jesus has been on the front lines of this work since the beginning. He's been on the front lines with you, he's been the front lines in and through you, and this kingdom work that we have.

And that mentality should not be lost on us brothers and sisters, that this work will take courage to accomplish.

It'll take courage. That's why Jesus says, be of good cheer, take courage, because I'm with you.

And so he'll be with us as we endeavor to be faithful to this good news message. Anyone else have anything they want to share from the homework?

Anyone else?

Any takers? All right. All right, we'll move forward then.

We're gonna move to the third chapter, and this is gonna be a really fun chapter. And this is gonna be how to share the gospel.

This is the kind of the meat and potatoes of the teaching. And so I'm so glad that you're here. And for the sake of time, we'll just read some selections.

And hopefully you got to read all, if not most of this in your free time. But I wanna share, we're gonna go to the second paragraph, there is no greater joy or blessing.

And I'm gonna read that. It says, there is no greater joy or blessing than to share the good news about Jesus. Here in this lesson, we will go over some easy, simple methods that we could use in our

Christian ministry to share the simplicity of the message of Christ. I want someone to turn to 2

Corinthians chapter 11 in verse three and read that for me. Who'd like to read that text? 2

Corinthians chapter 11 in verse three. Who'd be willing to read that,

John? Man, a pure and sincere.

Some translation says it's the simplicity of Christ. And so is there a simplicity to the things of the word?

Yeah, yeah, anyone, a child can pick up this book, read it, understand it, and receive its simple truths.

That God created the heavens and the earth, that there was a fall from grace in the garden of Eden, that God promised a savior, and that all of biblical history is the outworking of redemptive history, where God is working in and through peoples and nations and kings and kingdoms to fulfill his purpose of ultimately bringing creation back into right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

And so there's a simplicity to our message, and there's a simplicity to our methods as Christians, how to share the gospel.

It's not gonna be something that is complicated by any stretch of the imagination.

This is very simple things. And so we want to make sure that we're not being led astray as the serpent led astray

Eve. And the only way we can do that is by grounding ourselves in what? In the word, in the word of God.

Who'd like to read that next paragraph there? Go ahead, Fa. In the name of the

Savior and power of God, what exactly are we witnessing? The answer is simple.

We are witnesses of the Jesus, of the Jesus that because we have put our faith in Christ, have died to live in Christ.

We too were buried with Christ, and because Christ now lives forevermore, ever through age, the evidence of this is the new birth and the spiritual life in Christ.

We experience the resurrection power of Jesus the moment we receive Christ in our body. It is now our mission to share this good news of the resurrection.

How are we witnesses of Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection? How are we witnesses of that?

Ken? We see with eyes of faith. Yeah, we see with eyes of faith. That's a very good point. What have you experienced?

I mean, what did we just exercise the last couple of weeks? Our testimony, right?

And our testimony is that we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he was buried, that he lived, that he was buried, he died according to the scriptures, and he was raised again on the third day.

That's our testimony, that because he lives, I now have spiritual life. I'm now born again.

I have the hope of everlasting life. I have a hope and expectation of a resurrection from the dead.

And it's not because we simply, you know, checked a box or because, you know, we've made a simple head commitment, but rather because this is the most important event in human history, the death, resurrection of Christ, and it has changed our lives even here 2 ,000 years later.

How incredible is that? And so we're witnesses of Jesus. So some of you guys know I grew up as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

I am still a JW. I just like to say I'm a different kind of JW. I'm a Jesus witness now.

And part of sharing, and part of being a witness of Jesus that we have to share and witness to others about the king and his kingdom, his death, burial, and resurrection from the dead.

Any questions on that? So I'll read the next part.

Does this mean that it is our responsibility to save people? Now, here's a really interesting and important question.

Do we save people? No. Do our gospel proclamation, are we the ones doing the saving?

No. We can't save anyone. You cannot save a single person.

I can't save a single person. I love it when I'm preaching and people say, hey, pastor, next week my aunt is gonna be here and she's not a believer, or my brother or my sister, they're not believers.

Preach a really good gospel message. And I'm like, all right, well, I try to do that every week. But there's an expectation there.

They're like, man, if you do your job right, maybe my brother or sister or whoever this person is will get saved and come to know

Jesus. And is that how it works? I mean, there's an important aspect of declaring, preaching, we don't preach just because we don't, we preach with the expectation of results, of course, based upon faith.

But is the preacher the one who's saving? No. When you go and you knock on a door or you meet someone at the grocery store, are you the one saving?

No. But we believe and we confess that God is able to work in and through our witnessing and that ultimately salvation is of the

Lord. And so we leave salvation into God's sovereign, capable hands, knowing that he knows who his elect are and he will bring to fruition and accomplish all that he has planned and more.

And so no, it is God who saves. We are merely called to testify these things. The hearer must then receive faith or continue in their rejection.

It is not up to us to save. Rather, it is God who saves and damns. But an unbeliever could either be attracted or turned off by our presentation of the gospel.

Therefore, how we share Christ really matters. So it's not like we say, oh, well,

I'm not the one who saves, so what's the purpose of me even sharing the gospel? No, your activity is of great importance to the king and his kingdom.

But the way that we present the gospel can in itself be a turnoff or it could help the sinner recognize their need for the

Savior. What are some ways in which individuals can be turned off by our witnessing? What are some ways that, what's that?

Yeah, being super aggressive, right? Going out to a person's, like the

Westboro Baptist Church with those terrible signs that saying, God hates soldiers and God hates this person.

That's not helpful. That's not helpful at all. And so we don't wanna share the gospel in such a way that we come off as uncaring, unloving.

We wanna demonstrate the love of Christ in our sharing, in our methodology. So I'm gonna share with you some three practical things that's gonna help you in your witnessing work and in times in which you're sharing the gospel of individuals.

The first one is, be a good listener. James chapter 119 reminds us to be quick to listen but slow to speak.

So when interacting with individuals we are witnessing to allow time for responses. Really take time to hear them.

This is so important because sometimes when you've got preachers and street evangelists they just wanna monopolize the time.

And because of course, what we're sharing is really important and it's really good stuff. But sometimes in that we lose the heart of the reason why we're there.

It's to love people, to share the gospel and to hear people out in their circumstances. So will someone be more or less likely to respond favorably to your message if you take the time to listen to them or if you just steamroll the conversation?

Which one do you think will produce more fruit? Listening, right?

I mean, just as a case study for that, try that in your marriage, right?

You can talk over each other. Is that gonna produce a lot of fruit? No, but if you're slow to speak, quick to listen you're gonna see a lot more results in every aspect of life.

And so be a good listener. And it says, again, if you allow people to speak you will hear the things they are truly concerned about, what their desires are and what's important to them.

These are all things that we can use to open the door for gospel witnessing if we have ears to hear them.

So one of the things that will come up is that when people are talking to you and you're sharing the gospel, if you let them speak long enough, you're gonna hear the things that are important to them, the things that matter to them.

Like they'll say, man, I just can't believe what's happening in the world right now. I can't believe that, or I've got some tragic circumstances in my life,

I can't afford my rent, or my marriage is falling apart, whatever it is. And you allow them to speak and then

God will open the door for you to evangelize them in the state in which they're in. But we gotta take the time to listen to them, to hear them, to hear what their concerns are, to hear where their heart is.

And you're gonna have a far more effective way or door of opening to sharing the gospel that way.

Any thoughts or questions on that? Be a good listener. Number two, demonstrate genuine

Christian love. When engaging someone with the gospel, it may be tempting to demonstrate our intellectual and theological prowess in order to get the upper hand in a conversation.

But people are more concerned whether we care than how much we know. That's an important reality we have to keep in mind.

Our Lord reminds us that the witness that will mark us as different to the world will be our love, not simply our acumen.

And so why do you think demonstrating genuine Christian love is important in our witnessing work?

Why is that important? Yeah. So here's what's gonna separate us.

If we do, for instance, a door -to -door campaign where we're knocking on our neighbor's doors here in Lakewood Village, what will differentiate us between the vacuum salesman is gonna be, of course, our message, but also our love for them.

The person that's going to your house to sell you a vacuum doesn't love you, they love what you can offer them.

They love what you can do for them if you buy their product. We're not salesmen. There's a couple of things that kind of overlap, though, but we're not salesmen, we're not trying to sell anything.

What we're trying to offer is what we offer freely, and that's the gospel of Jesus Christ, the salvation of people's souls.

And so if we love them, we genuinely love them, say, hey, we're so glad that, you know, I'm so glad that you're here,

I wanna speak to you about this, or just demonstrate in your mannerism and the way that you speak to them that you have a genuine care for their souls.

And part of that, again, is gonna be having to be a good listener. Listening and being quick to answer questions and to answer them in a godly manner and response.

Yes? Yeah, praise

God, he sure is. Now the third part is gonna be don't fall for the bait.

Here's what I mean by that. In the polarized culture we live in, the secularists will attempt to bait you away from the law and the gospel into debates and quarrels about politics, social issues, and hot -button topics like BLM, Trump, gay marriage, and abortion.

Though all of these items have a robust biblical response, the individual invoking them is likely using the culture wars to evade their guilt of breaking

God's law and using such matters to run from the gospel. Such conversations are appropriate for follow -up conversations, but it should not be the meat of our discussion with the laws.

I want you to turn to 2 Timothy chapter two. We're gonna be in verses 14 through 16.

And who'd like to read 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 14 to 16? Pastor Connolly?

Have you ever had a circumstance where maybe you're trying to share your Christian faith and the first thing that comes out of their mouth is

Trump, or some hot -button topic in the culture, and that's what they wanna focus on and talk about.

Have you ever experienced that? Yeah, I've experienced that quite a few times. And why do you think that is not a good strategy to fall for that bait?

Why do you think that's more harmful than good? That's right, that's right.

I mean, are we political apologists or apologists for the

Lord Jesus Christ? Are we culture warriors or kingdom warriors?

Are we going to be caught up in the affairs of the world or the affairs of the king?

It's a real simple choice, especially in the context of evangelism.

I'm not here to defend any man but the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not here to speak and proclaim of any kingdom but the kingdom of Christ.

And so all those culture war issues are really irrelevant to the issues of the gospel as we share with individuals.

And so those are things that will come up again, and those are fine follow -up conversations, but that's not the meat of the substance that we are endeavoring to partake in, is not political discourse but spiritual kingdom discourse.

And so don't fall for the bait. And usually the bait is used in order to get your mind, your attention, your argumentation off of the gospel and onto something far less productive.

And so anyone have any thoughts on that? Not falling for the bait or maybe you have a experience?

Yeah, yeah. Of course, of course.

Yeah, great point. Yes. Excellent, good work.

And so we don't want to fall, pray, to some of the quarrels, as the word of God puts it, that do no good but only ruins the hearers, right?

And there's a time and place for those type of discussions. But for instance, if we're just meeting a person and we're sharing the gospel with them, is that the appropriate time to share?

Our thoughts on those issues? Not necessarily, right? Again, it keeps us away from the meat of the gospel and the substance that belongs to it.

Let me give, let's do a quick exercise though. Yeah, Pastor? Yeah, that's right.

That's right. Yeah, that's right.

Which is why I think the Apostle Paul says to Timothy, rightly handling the word of truth.

Rightly handling. There's a right way and a wrong way of handling the word of truth. And we want to handle it rightly.

And I think by avoiding quarrels and discussions, because ultimately, when a person brings up a point of contention, it's just that.

A point of contention. Which is to say that they want to maneuver the conversation in such a way that it is no longer beneficial, but now it's just argumentative.

And so, one of the things that Jehovah Witnesses are really good at, maybe I'll teach you some of that, tricks, because I think it's actually helpful, is their masters at redirection, okay?

And you have to be pretty good at that as well when you're sharing the gospel. Is you have to master the art of redirection.

Because when people want to go on all these other tangents, you have to gently, lovingly redirect them to what's the heart of the issue, which we're going to get to, what the heart of the issue actually is when we're sharing the gospel, because we haven't gotten to that part just yet.

But yes, we also want to, I want to just bring this point real quick, because it was mentioned, you know, and it's a huge, huge issue in our culture today, and it's surrounding gay marriage and sexual ethics.

Right, so say we encounter someone in our witnessing at the park or at someone's home, and they say, you know,

I identify as a homosexual, I've got a gay partner, you know, what would you do at that point?

Would you just say, okay, we'll have a good day, or what would be your end to share the gospel with such a person?

Because clearly, they still need Christ, right? Jesus? At some point, gay,

P -Gay was in the music, the 80s, from 50s to the 80s, and by the 80s, they could move, and they helped people, or they didn't just see it as a mental illness, and it is not if you are a fucking gay, but you have to do it.

Okay. So, one of the main things I think is, to the goal is not just to change your path, but that part of the scene, but the broader spectrum of, yes, yes, you are a sinner, you need to repent, and the same way that I have to repent, the same thing that I have to repent, you see that according to the label of angels, and according to the label of the nation.

Yeah. Right from there, I just want you to see there, he has words in there, the same way that I have to say it. That's right, that's right, that's right.

You treat the person, remember, you're still talking to someone who is created in God's image, who is worthy of dignity, and respect, and their personhood, but is just like the rest of us, outside of Christ, objects of wrath, in need of the saving grace of the

Savior. That's right.

Yes. That's right.

And again, we wanna make sure that, when we're, again, speaking to these individuals, that we speak to them with dignity, but also the truth, because ultimately, the world is in a situation that it's in, is because they have no standard.

They've lost the standard. And this is the standard, it's the word of God. The standard is

God's word, and God's word is telling us what is right, what is wrong, what is good for man, and if we follow it, we'll be blessed, and it'll change our lives.

In the same way that I came from a Jehovah Witness background, people can come out of a homosexual background, or an adulterous background, or a whatever background that they had that was not in Jesus.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and you're gonna get more of that, where people are gonna say that Christianity is a white supremacist religion, even though we worship a

Jew. You know, that's a hard case to make, if we're gonna say, hey,

Christianity is a white supremacist religion, when the reality is this, you know, some of you may or may not like Billy Graham, but Billy Graham once said a great thing, where he says, it's not a white man's religion, it's not a black man's religion.

It's a religion for every man. And that's the truth. Jesus Christ is for everyone. Even for the gay, straight, transsexual, everyone.

The gospel is for everyone. So the world uses bait and hooks to try to get us away from the topic of the gospel.

Here's our, we also need to have a bait and a hook. And so the hook is what

I'm gonna teach you now. So we're gonna skip over a paragraph or two here. And I'm gonna teach you how to use the way of the master.

Anyone ever heard of the way of the master before? Yes, so most of us have, right? So it's a real simple methodology that is used to accomplish two things.

One, lead people to the law, because the law acts like a mirror.

It shows us our true selves because it is God's standard for humanity.

And so we show them and we ask a simple question. And I've done this a lot of times.

I've only ever had a person respond interestingly only like once or twice.

But you know, are you a good person? Most people would say enthusiastically, yeah,

I'm a good person, right? Because they think that they're good. And so I wanna try this exercise.

I'm gonna be the Christian fall. Would you be the unbeliever? And it's just really, you only have like two lines, one or two lines here.

And so do you believe you're a good person? That's right.

Great, mind if we put that to the test? Excellent. Well, God gave us the 10 commandments and it is the standard for what means to be a good person.

One of the commandments says, thou shall not steal. Have you ever stolen something irrespective of the value?

Yeah, most people would say, well, like, well, I don't think so. I'm like, okay, have you ever downloaded, especially my generation, have you ever downloaded music illegally?

Hands just fly up, all right? And so the reality is everyone has stolen something, even something such as a simple concept as time, okay?

People will steal time from you, they'll stealing time from God. One of the commandments says, thou shall not lie.

How many lies have you told in your life? That's right. You know, you're just like the rest of us,

Fa. One of the 10 commandments says, we were to keep God's name holy. Have you ever used his name in vain?

Well, that's a very serious one. It's blasphemy. One of the commandments says, thou shall not murder.

But Jesus said, if you hate someone, you've committed murder in your heart. Have you ever hated someone? Yeah, oh, perfect.

At least you got one out of them. One of the commandments says, thou shall not commit adultery. But Jesus said, if you lust for someone other than your spouse, you've committed adultery with your heart.

Have you ever lusted of your eyes? I won't make you answer that because you're sitting right next to your wife. But then the response is,

I'm not judging you, but according to your own admission, you are a lying thief, blasphemer, murderer, and adulterer at heart.

And if you were to stand before God on judgment day, would you be deserving of heaven or hell? Why do you think?

Yeah, well, you know what? You're absolutely right. God is nice. He is willing to forgive you.

But there's a means by which he is willing and able to forgive you. Do you know what that is? Do you know what God did in order to forgive you of your sins?

Well, he sent forfeit son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross, bearing your sins, everything you've done wrong, every sin that you've committed, every sin that you will commit,

Jesus nailed to the cross. And all that God is calling you to do today is to acknowledge, repent of those sins, turn away from them and trust in Jesus and his death, burn, resurrection.

The Bible says, God will grant you a new heart. Is that something you're interested in? Is it really that simple?

Well, you know, simple is a really interesting word because it is in one hand simple, yet infinitely complicated in that God is the one who came down from heaven to pay the penalty and consequences of your sins.

And so it is a simple response that is required of us, which is to repent, to turn away and to trust in Jesus.

But it is an infinitely powerful and complicated gospel that we have in that God is the one who came down in the person of Jesus Christ.

And so right there, we just did a very simple, thank you. Let's give him a round of applause there. Good job, buddy.

So we wanna, again, what we just did here is an exercise. Bringing someone through the law, the 10 commandments, most of us know the 10 commandments, right?

And then identifying, okay, are you a good person? Are you a good person? And as they begin to see, wow, okay, well,

I guess I'm not as good as I thought I was. Yes. That's right.

And that's how Jews are as well. If you ever speak to a Jewish person, they're gonna say, well, it's a spectrum, right?

So the good that I do hopefully outweighs the bad. And that's when you bring them to the truth of scripture.

The Bible says in Romans three, verse 11, there is no one good, no, not even one.

They say in Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If God's standard is perfection through the moral law, then you and I are not good and we're in trouble.

And if Jesus came, if you're speaking to a Catholic, if Jesus came, what did he die for?

If your good works can be in the balance here of whether you get saved and go to heaven or not.

For what purpose did Jesus die? And we bring it back to the cross because the cross is the citadel of our gospel witnessing.

It always comes back to the cross, that on the cross, our sins were paid for.

The sins of all humanity were paid in that cross by the shed blood of Jesus. Yes.

Yeah. So we wanna make sure that we're understanding the biblical argument that we're making here.

It says, I write, at this junction, we have taken them through some of the 10 commandments, God's moral law, and have helped them see pastor self -deception, that they are morally good.

The Bible says in Romans 3, 11, there is none righteous, no, not even one. Therefore, by taking them through God's moral law, we allow

God's word to bring conviction to the sinner. For the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We make it clear that we're not judging them, but rather are pointing them to their true spiritual condition, which is totally depraved.

It is at this point that we point them to the good news of Jesus Christ. Like I mentioned before, you will not have someone who will value the importance of the good news unless they first understand the weight of the bad news.

And the bad news is that we are all sinners in the same boat. We are all in desperate need of Jesus Christ and his life -saving gospel.

And it says, and I go on to say kind of a very brief way of sharing the gospel at that point.

Once you bring that person to the moral law and then pointing them to the cross, you can share something to the effect of this.

Do you know that the truth is that we are all deserving of hell, which is separation from the goodness of God, but he has made a way for us to be forgiven?

Do you know that, do you know what God has done for sinners to be forgiven, to be reconciled to himself?

And then you wait for that person to respond. And they might have an idea, right, that we live in a cultural

Christian country where people have heard of the concept of Jesus dying for our sins. So they'll probably respond to something of that effect.

It said, God sent his only son into the world to live the morally perfect life that we are unable to do. He went to the cross and died the death that we deserved and satisfied

God's justice. And he rose again on the third day where he is now seated at God's right hand, interceding for sinners.

All that we must do is to put all of our faith and trust in Jesus's life, death, and resurrection and follow him as Lord.

Will you put your faith in Jesus? And if you notice Ray Comfort when he does this, he doesn't like to press people for making a decision.

He seldom does that. But I'm more of an old school Baptist. I like to press people, just a little bit at least, to make that decision.

Do you know why? Because you don't know when they're gonna die. You don't know when they're gonna step over into eternity.

You know, D .L. Moody was preaching in Chicago and was doing like a multi -week evangelism and one weekend he was sharing the bad news and he failed to share the good news.

He says, come next week for the good news. You know what happened that week? Chicago fires broke out.

Thousands of those people that were in attendance died. And D .L. Moody said, he learned from that experience, he says he'll never not be in front of a group of lost people and not share the gospel.

And so I like to press people, not because I wanna get some check mark on my book, but because we're talking about heaven and hell.

We're talking about life and death. And if you are able to bring that person to a point of decision, then that's a great thing and it should be encouraged and it's what we wanna do as preachers and proclaimers of God's kingdom.

So any thoughts or questions on that? That's right.

That's right. You've got to share the good news. Now the thing that I would do next, if someone responds favorably in that situation, you got something you wanna share?

Yeah? Yeah, not very popular as they once were.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure.

When will you put your faith in Jesus? In my mind, permanently. Yeah. You can present it, explain it.

Sure. Yeah, you can probably phrase it better.

You can, what's that? Using the word decision. Decision, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, not at all.

No, not at all. You know, there is a, again, we as Calvinists have to live in the reality that there is a tension between God's sovereignty and our ability to make a profession of faith in Jesus.

It's not like it's totally one or the other. It is, when we're creatures, according to our confession, we have a measure of free will.

We have a measure of agency. And so what the job of the preacher is,

I'm sorry, I mean, if you're not going to help a person make a decision for Christ, I know

I use that word decision, and it may make you feel uncomfortable. Maybe there's a better word that I'm not aware of.

But our job, according to 2 Corinthians chapter five, is to be ambassadors begging, imploring people to come to know

Jesus, be reconciled to God. And that's all we're trying to do here through this teaching, is beg people be reconciled to God.

And if there's a better way of doing it, I'm all for it. I don't have a monopoly on this. And so I'm very open if there's a better methodology or phrase that can be used, totally open to that.

But if we're not begging, if we're not imploring, what are we doing?

Yes, yeah, that's right, yeah, that's a great point.

Sure, that's right, yeah, you see, and I love that.

I don't believe in a weak gospel that can't save. I believe that when the gospel is being faithfully preached and proclaimed, we're gonna see results.

Because the gospel, the word of God does not go back into the void. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah.

No, you know, and again, this is not a foolproof in every scenario. You have to, as a herald of God's kingdom, meet the circumstance and the situation with grace and poison, and however, you know,

God leads you in that situation. Jesus? Yeah, that's right.

Every single situation. Maybe what I'm saying is that the tone, because of the word that you're saying, the tone, my posture, how my gesticulation, it is possible for.

Right. Yeah. That's why I believe that it's so important that I mentioned before, like, they'll just attack me, they'll just say like.

Yeah. Because of the relationship. Yeah. Because I have minor reasons that some people will get in there and be like, oh, how do you do that?

And it's like, and they don't do it in a wrong way, but I have minor reasons that, okay.

That's right, that's right. I'm aware of that, I'm working on that, but if we just follow, these particular, what do you do to say that?

That's right. All right, so we're not gonna get through the rest of this today, and we, this is too important to skip over, so next week when we come, we'll continue on this topic, and then we will do the recap together next week, and you can just not worry about the homework this week.

We will work on that together next week. And so let me offer a word of prayer, and then we can depart until service.

Father, we just thank you, Lord, that you are indeed a good and sovereign savior, that even our best efforts are not sufficient in saving anyone, but it is totally by your hand, by your grace, working in and through your people, the church.

Lord, I pray, God, that you would instill in us a desire, a discipline, for seeing people come to faith in Jesus.

I pray, God, that you would give us that, that powerful on high from the Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to empower us with the right words from your gospel in order to lead men and women everywhere to this life -saving message.