The Fruit of Evangelism

So you've been out sharing your faith. Maybe today was the first day you ever went out and engaged a stranger in conversation. Maybe you finally got up the courage to share the gospel with your roommate at college or your coworker in the next cubicle.

Or maybe the lady that is at the check stand every time you go through your regular grocery store. Maybe you've been out on the streets or on college campuses or outside of high school campuses or wherever it may be.

Maybe you have been out there sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ for weeks or months or years. And one day you say to yourself, where is the fruit? Where is all the fruit for all of this effort? But maybe you've been discouraged by others who have asked you that same question.

Where's the fruit? Where's the fruit? How many people have you seen come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ? Maybe you've never seen anyone come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean there isn't any fruit.

Here's the first piece of fruit and probably the most important piece of fruit. You're glorifying God by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're setting aside yourself. You're dying to self. You're putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're making his name known.

You're denying yourself, taking up your cross and you're following him. In every sense of the word, when you go out there to share the gospel with people, you are worshiping God. You are making much of his name.

Paul even said, I wish to know nothing else but him and him crucified. That's the first piece of fruit and that is a beautiful and glorious piece of fruit. Another piece of fruit is this. Another piece of fruit is when you're handing out gospel tracts and you see someone and they start to read it and they tear it up, throw it on the ground or they wad it in a ball and throw it in the trash or they turn around, march back to you and say, I don't want this.

Do you know that's actually fruit? Do you know why? Because they were convicted by what they were reading. You planted seeds. No, maybe they didn't read the gospel. Maybe you didn't get to share the gospel with them but you brought them face to face with their own sin.

You brought them face to face with the reality that they've always known that God is and they will stand before him one day to give an account. Maybe someone else will come along and water that seed. Maybe the person is crumbling up that gospel tract, shoving it down in their pocket only to take it out later to read it and come to faith in Christ.

Do you know what another piece of fruit is of your evangelism efforts? Christians who are out on the streets. I can't tell you how many times I've been open air preaching or engaging people in conversation and I've had Christians come up to me and say, thank you for what you're doing.

I'm glad you're out here. I know you're out here all by yourself but I just want you to know that I'm praying for you and I'd like to come out with you sometime. Does that happen every single day? No and unfortunately, the angriest hecklers I ever meet are people whose first words out of their mouth are, I'm a Christian too.

And we know how discouraging that can be. But open air preaching, being out on the streets, handing out tracts, engaging people in conversation is primarily about bringing the gospel to the lost but it also serves the purpose of edifying the church, of encouraging other believers to do the same.

Maybe even bringing conviction upon some believers because they are not doing what you are doing. So there's lots of fruit, even if you don't always see it. And keep in mind, you have no idea who God might be saving through your efforts.

It might not be the person you see as you're open air preaching. It might not be the person that you're talking to across the table at Starbucks but maybe it's the person at the other table who's eavesdropping on the conversation.

It might not be the person who you watch tear up the tract and throw it in disgust. But a nameless, faceless person who out of a crowd of people took one of the tracts and went home, read it and repented and believed the gospel.

I wanna remind you of someone else, a great prophet of God who according to American evangelicalism standards bore very, very little fruit. His name was Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. 40 years of prophetic ministry and he saw only two of his countrymen come to repentance and faith in God.

Who among us would call Jeremiah a failure? So if you're concerned about how much fruit you're bearing when you're trying to share the gospel with the lost, when you're out doing evangelism, just keep in mind you're in very good company.

In the company of Jeremiah, the prophet. Don't be discouraged, don't quit, persevere and God will reward your efforts.