Beyond The Basics: Evangelism (part 2)

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Beyond The Basics: Evangelism (part 3)

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Today we are going to spend some time looking at how do we minister to people that we see day in and day out and boldly proclaim the good news.
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Last week, those of you who were here for Sunday school, you would have heard
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Pastor Steve talk about evangelism. This is beyond the basics and he will be stopped halfway next week when
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Pastor Steve comes back. He will continue on evangelism. The teaching began, how do you do evangelism.
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This week Pastor Steve is away, he is preaching in another church. So today is more like an excursus, it is more of a practical, alright how do
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I do these kinds of things, these things, who is sufficient for. And you will see as we get into our text, it doesn't really have too much to do with methods or saying here are ten ways you evangelize to your spouse or your co -worker.
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But it comes down to being a Christian testimony or a witness wherever you are and being single -minded about glorifying
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God in the place that God has put you. I have to start with the confession.
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These verses we are going to look at are very hard hitting, it is not about the people that we are going to be witnessing to.
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Very often we look at people who won't listen to us and we say, God how is this person so hard hearted and change them a lot.
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But most of the text that we are going to be looking at is how can we be faithful witnesses.
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What are ways in which we can glorify God in our own lives, in our own words, consistently over a period of time.
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And as I was meditating on this in the last couple of days, I said okay I think I have a reasonable handle of what
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I have to teach. And then this morning, just getting out of the house and over to church, totally lost it.
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I did not see it coming. I said something very ungodly and I repented of it with my wife.
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And then as I was reflecting, you know, how did this happen? How could this, an elder in a church, meditating on the word of God, coming down to church and then sinning.
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And in a way that, you know, a godly spouse would forgive. But if my spouse was not a believer, it would be very hard to say, you know, this man calls himself a
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Christian and how can he live in such a way? So, I strongly recognize the difficulty that we believers who have been saved by the blood of Christ and walking by his power and yet moment by moment, you know, there are times when we sin and we need to be cognizant of the fact that except for the grace of God, we cannot do any of these things that we are going to be talking about today.
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So, let's open with a word of prayer as we ask for the Lord to illumine our minds and then we'll get down to this text.
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Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning, Lord, to hear from you that your words would be illumined by your spirit and that our consciences, our minds would be transformed by your power.
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Help us, Father, to understand these and to apply them in our lives that we would indeed be bold, confident, holy in our witness to you here on earth.
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In Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right. So, let's get down to our notes here.
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Right on top, I have evangelism to strangers. This is just a kind of contrast, you know, how it is, how different it is to speak to somebody whom you speak maybe just one time.
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You know, you go meet that person and you tell them the good news and very likely you will never ever meet them again.
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You get to initiate the conversation. If you go downtown, you go tell them, you know, for example, if you were to die today and you went to heaven, would
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God let you in? And you are telling them the truth and asking them to consider eternal issues.
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And for the most of the time, you are driving the conversation. You are proclaiming the truth and then you leave.
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And they very rarely know who you are. You know, they just know that you are a guy who believes that this book is true and you are sincere about it and you love them enough to come and tell them.
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And that's pretty much it. You may get maybe a couple of tough questions. If you rarely, for the most part, they will ask very basic questions and you just answer them.
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If you have a tough question, you just tell them, I don't know, or I can find out and you move on.
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Because we stay with the essentials, just the gospel. But when it comes to family, friends, and people that we work with or neighbors, these people, we meet them over and over and over again.
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And there are certain things that you have to be careful of as believers on how you testify to them.
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I have a bunch of things put in order, not in order here, but things that you want to be considering when you are witnessing to people that you know.
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To begin with, I have here, so we'll just take these questions. The format is going to be more of, I'm going to give you some points to consider and we'll look at some scripture verses.
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Again, if any of you have any questions or even things that you want to share, you're welcome to jump in because this will be more of a discussion forum than in a straight teaching method.
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So the first thing is, they know you. The example I started out with, they know that you are a normal human being.
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You know, they know that you're not like a guy with a suit and a book that's come down to talk to them.
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They know who you are. Now I have two anecdotes to this and I want us to be careful of both of them in our mind when we think about how the people we live with know us.
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A few of them are given in their references there. John 6, you don't have to turn there, I have all the references printed out and some we will turn to.
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John 6, if you remember, is after the feeding of the 5 ,000 and then Jesus is teaching afterwards and then after this tremendous miracle, the people say, is this not
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Jesus, the son of Joseph? How does he say I have come down from heaven? A mighty supernatural miracle that no man can do.
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And right after that, they come and say, we know Jesus. Jesus, come on.
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What do you mean you're the son of God? Mark 6, same thing. This is what
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Jesus did. He taught those who heard him were astonished. How, you know, where did he learn this?
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What wisdom does he have and how does he do such mighty works? And then is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?
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And then in Matthew 13, very similar. Jesus says powerful things.
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People are astonished by the power of his teaching. They're astonished by the mighty miracles he's doing.
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And yet they say, Jesus, we know this guy.
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He can't be anybody special. He can't be a prophet. And that shows the sinful side of a depraved mind, which is the people that we witness to cannot submit to God unless God opens their heart.
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They saw Jesus even, the sinless man, God himself, do mighty works, teach mighty things.
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You and I cannot do everything that Jesus did. And yet those of his family, those in his hometown, people who knew him, said, you know, we will be closed.
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We are blind. We cannot do it. And all of us know here from the scriptures that the carnal mind is an enemy of God.
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It cannot and will not accept the things of God. So when you do teach the truth, when you do live a life that is godly, you don't want to be going by the default assumption that, yeah,
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I've given the truth, and it has to happen. They have to accept me. They have to believe the truth.
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They rejected Christ, and you want to be expecting a similar response as well.
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Jesus said when he came here, I have come to bring down a fire and a sword and a division.
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So when you get saved, those of you who got saved from within a family that you were the first one to be saved, or in a marriage you were the first one to be saved, you know that how the gospel brings a division between you and the rest of the family.
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They don't longer see you as a normal person. This guy is weird. And it is and it is tough.
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You know, you love these people. You want them to come to know to know the Lord. I mean, we have some examples here of how you've gone through that.
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And the Lord was gracious enough to save your spouse or your family. And you can see how God was good in opening the eyes of people who otherwise could not see.
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But you want to be conscious of this. No matter how good, how well you testify, unless God opens the eyes and convicts the heart, people will never see the truth.
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No matter how much they love you, no matter how much you love them. There is a flip side to this, how they know you.
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And this is the example that I began with. Tell me,
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I'll ask a question here. What do non -believers normally tell you when you talk about Christians?
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You say, I would love for you to come to know the Lord Jesus and join our church, maybe.
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What is the first response that most non -believers will tell you? Hypocrites, yes.
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Why do they say hypocrites? Those are two very good examples.
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We'll examine this more as we get into the text. But there is one side where there are people who call themselves
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Christians who do not live as believers do. And maybe they are not believers. They just claim the name of Christ. And then there is a misunderstanding of who a
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Christian is. That a Christian is somehow perfect, has arrived, and is not going to sin anymore. And every time you fail, it seems like you keep saying these things, but you are not meeting up the expectations of what
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I think a Christian should be like. So since you are like this, why should I be another guy like you? And that's a common misconception in the thinking of a non -believer.
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This is just the background of where you stand with your loved ones when it comes to evangelizing.
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Now let's get started. How do you start? I'm actually going to ask you that question.
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Let me get a few answers. How do you start evangelizing with your family members, especially those who do not want to hear the gospel?
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Or otherwise, maybe you have children who are unbelievers that you want to talk to. Yes, Steve? At the dinner table?
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Especially for a father, that's very true. So you are the one officiating at the dinner, and you have everybody together.
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It's fellowship time. And you speak about what is important to you. You say, I want you to hear this.
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And so you have the authority as well as a husband and as a father to speak. Anything more either on that or different?
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Yes, Peggy? That's very true.
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We're going to spend quite a bit of time on this aspect. Peggy said submissive and win them without a word, especially to wives.
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That's excellent. Yes, Daniel? Very good.
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So Daniel was saying times like funerals, essentially opportunities that come your way, events that quicken people.
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They are more open and receptive to considering eternal matters. And again, there will be an aspect where you need to be prepared.
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And when that time comes, you need to be able to share and direct them towards the truth. Yes, Bruce? Very good.
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Again, different types of events. And some of you can already start thinking of how events can be difficult as well.
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You have a Thanksgiving meal, and there is someone in the table you've invited who, when you start praying, throws up their eyes or wants to walk away or starts talking.
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Those are difficulties, but those are good opportunities to be saying, we are here for a purpose, especially if it's your home, and you want to talk about it.
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So you want to be intentional in all these events that come your way.
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I want to just, yes? That's very good.
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And I think, Daniel, you kind of touched upon it. Even if you don't make it directly, you want to just generally ask the question.
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And Pam was saying, you read the news, and some tragic accident has happened, and then you don't just commiserate, but you actually ask the tougher questions about what happens next.
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Yes? That's very, very true.
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In fact, what you both last said is what I want to focus on as we move forward.
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Mike was just saying that even in the general things in life, what we call common blessings, a common grace that people have received, sunlight, health, and other things, you want to remind people that there is a
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God. You may not recognize him. You may not receive these things gratefully from him, but you have indeed, he is the one who has provided these things for you.
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And, you know, we heard many responses. I'm really glad for that. And some of you may be saying, yes, you know,
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I've been trying this, and I've been sincere in my efforts to do this, and God has blessed some, and others, you know, the people have just totally rejected it, but God was honored in the way
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I did them. And others are thinking, you know, some of my, the people I live with are, you know, really, really stubborn.
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You know, the moment I start saying something, they're not even going to pay attention to me.
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So maybe for my circumstances, that may not work. And maybe true,
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I do not know each of your circumstances, but I want to tell you one thing that you can resolve today to do.
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I have a reference here. Again, you don't have to turn here. It's Matthew 4. And in Matthew 4, it says,
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From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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What happens is, Jesus, 30 years, he's been living as a submissive son. He's been, you know, he was a carpenter.
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He was ministering to his family. And there was a time when God called him to public ministry.
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He was baptized, and we are told that the Spirit of God led him into the wilderness, and he comes back in power, and he proclaims the truth.
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You and I, when we look back at Matthew 28, we have a very specific call in our lives.
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There is one purpose. We are here on earth still and not in heaven, and that is to proclaim the excellencies of the one who has called us.
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Sadly, although we know that verse very well, you know, Jesus says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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And then he says, Go, make disciples. And that is a command that was to the initial disciples, and we all know to every single one of us, but sometimes we don't take that seriously enough.
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And I think it is urgent for us to remember that this is a command that we cannot walk away from.
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In fact, this is a command that we ought to love so much. You know, if the love that we have for our God and the love that we have for our neighbor is as it should be, we will take this command too hard and say, you know, maybe till today
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I haven't done this, but I want to do this. When I go home from here today, I'm going to try to see how
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I can go about the business of God, the reason that he still has me here on earth. How can
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I intentionally be prepared to share the good news, to proclaim the good news, to be a person who is a witness and an ambassador for Christ?
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And that is an intentionality to wanting to tell the truth, because many an opportunity comes and goes when we are just unprepared.
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And if we would, let me see if I can find the verse, if we would sanctify
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Christ as Lord in our hearts, as 1 Peter 3 says, you will always be prepared to give a reason for the faith that is in you.
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And the Lord will bring those opportunities by, but will we be a people that want to submit to God and proclaim the news, good news?
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Yes. Very good.
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In fact, when we are downtown, that's one of the tools we use all the time.
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We always ask questions because it makes the people think about things that they had never thought before.
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What happens when you die? Oh, yeah, I am going to die one day. I haven't considered it, or I thought everything would be fine, but do you want to know what the
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Bible says? In fact, I think the questions is one of the ways, you are right,
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Jesus uses that a lot. Many a time we can sometimes give answers when people don't know the question.
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Jesus is the Savior. What does that mean? What does he save me from? I am fine where I am.
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I think one of the people just said, I think it was Steve Pru, said we had to get the people lost before we got the good news, right?
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People thought they were fine, and you have to first work on asking them the tough questions.
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Are you really okay? Well, if so, how about these areas?
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What do you think about lustful thoughts or anger?
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I mean, we talked with the Muslim guy yesterday. We asked him, have you ever thought about this?
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That is true. So the approach you take with different people will be diverse. You know the people you live with, and you know the way that they would respond.
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We don't have any prepackaged plans to say, okay, I got this list, and I am going to read this. You just sit here and listen while I do it.
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Yes, and especially with fellow
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Christians, this is one thing I urge them to do, and I think actually
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Steve Alderman did the same. We met at Pentecostal, and we said, just read the
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Word. You have got to study the Word. So you just bring the Word, and let the Word and the Spirit of God illumine them.
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You give them the truth, and then see what comes. But you brought up something that is very important, and I didn't have it in my notes.
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Sometimes when I tell my fellow Christians that when Pastor Mike preaches, it is
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Gospel -centric. Everything comes from the Gospel. Most other Christians think, how can you preach every message around the
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Gospel? You have got to preach about how do I live my life as a Christian? How do I evangelize?
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How do I do this? And people forget that Gospel is central to everything in life.
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Everything that the Scripture teaches. It is the work of Christ that procures all these things for us, and any time you lose the connection with what
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Jesus has done on the cross, everything else you teach can become works -based type of activity, which is why everything that we preach here, we want to make sure it goes back to the root, it stays at the root, and it is built upon the finished work of Christ.
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And when we talk about various truths, you brought up creation, you brought up the deity of Christ, you know, those are great, and especially for people that you are going to be speaking with on a long -term basis.
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When we go downtown, you have a very limited amount of time, and you want to try to bring the conversation primarily around the
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Gospel. When you try to leave them, especially if you are having a good conversation with them, you don't want them to leave with some idea that they are okay if they are not.
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You want to make it clear to them that this is what the Bible says about sin and hell, Jesus and salvation.
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But when you are talking with people, especially that you know well, maybe you have given the Gospel already, all these various ways, in fact, what
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Mike was saying is important, that you can connect. If you are a Christian who is convinced that you live because of Christ, you can see everything that happens in your life as an outflow of God's work in you, and you can see
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God as the sovereign ruler of everything that happens, then any single subject that comes your way, you can see the hand of God in it.
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But most people don't. So that's why I think, Joni, when you asked them the questions, it makes people think about what they see and hear around them all the time, but they have never considered that there is a divine element to life that they have not seen before.
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And you have them ask the right questions, and no matter where the conversation leads, they will see that you are living for Christ.
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It is not just a question of, you know, did I do this right or wrong? It is about, my life is about Christ, and it's about God, and that's the central question that all of us have to face with.
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And that actually brings us back to this question, how do you start?
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If your life is based on the Gospel, if you know that you live, for me to live is
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Christ, and to die is gain, and everything that you see around you is focused upon God himself, then when they observe you, it is not just a question of, oh, you know, this guy is just a weird
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Christian. It's like this guy really believes what he says. You know, everything that he sees around him is about God.
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And so when the tough times come, when God works in that person's heart, and they are breaking down and say, well, you know,
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I thought my money is going to take care of me, and it doesn't, and my health will be fine until I'm 80, and it's not.
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But this guy, he has a hope that is sure.
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I want to know if that is true or not. In fact, that's the next question. You know, how do you keep bringing up the Gospel?
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Let me read this whole verse here for you. It's 2 Corinthians 12, 8 to 10.
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This was about a particular circumstance in Paul's life, the thorn that he had in his flesh.
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Three times he pleaded with the Lord that it would leave me. And he said to me, Paul says of God, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
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Therefore, Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
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For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
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For when I am weak, then I am strong. When we initially looked at the life of Christ, we said, you know,
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Christ did everything perfectly and people rejected him. You and I know painfully that we are not like Christ in his perfections.
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Yet we are living the life of Christ in us while we are here. And the one thing you want to keep in mind is when you go through trials, when you go through difficulties, when you think that life is just too hard, and you are just resting upon Christ alone in your walk day by day by day, that, my friends, is a powerful testimony to the world around us that is watching.
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How does this guy live, or does this woman live, in these circumstances when everybody else would have just given up and gone?
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They have a strength that I cannot understand. Some of you can probably give examples of how people have approached you when this happens.
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And you want to be thinking Christ -centered in all of your life when you go through trials, when your life is a showcase of God's grace to you.
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Let's keep moving on. The next one is, when do you stop preaching? We heard this last
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Sunday. Who knows the answer? That's right.
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So you start proclaiming the excellencies of Christ, and the person starts, what was the message?
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Hogs and dogs. Yes. When the person starts to defame and insult
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Christ. Mind you, again, it's not insulting or defaming you. I mean, Paul just talked about the insults that he goes through, and he still keeps proclaiming the truth.
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But when Christ is dishonored, you need to have the wisdom to discern that this is not the time to keep talking.
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I have a captive audience maybe at the dining table. I'm proclaiming the gospel, and then off comes all these abuses against our
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Lord, and you know this is not the time to keep preaching the word. And sometimes in a family circumstance, you know that you've given the gospel to them, and any more direct words are going to be unprofitable, and you need to know when to, like Peggy was saying, stop speaking and start living.
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And that's the next question. How do we live? And this gets to the heart of what we are looking at today.
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Let's actually turn to 1 Peter 3 .1. I think this was what Peggy was referring to in terms of submission.
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And I want to just take that principle, especially from the marriage relationship to the broader relationships of life.
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You know, how do we, as a loved one of an unbeliever, live when they are close to the gospel?
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You've told them and they've rejected it, and what do you do now? Wives, be subject to your own...
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1 Peter 3 .1. Subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.
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And again, you contrast the inward and the outward, and first the outward. Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.
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Those of you in this circumstance know how true this word is.
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I mean, whether we have experienced it or not, God's word is always true. But when all your conversations have failed, when the person is just not open to talking anymore, there is a testimony of a changed life.
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I was talking with Sunita, one of Sunita's relatives, an unbeliever, great guy, and we talked about why he wouldn't want to submit to this great
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God. And he had various reasons, but ultimately we talked about Christians he knew in his own family.
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And there were some he said, you know, my son never talked to me. He respects me so much that he would find it very hard to bring up something that he disagrees with me.
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But that guy, I know when he became a Christian, that was a sea change.
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I really want to have that thing that this boy has. But he was still not ready to submit.
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But there was something about his son's life that was extremely powerful. And I said, you know, you want to consider that more.
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What changed your son's life? And there is a very, very powerful testimony of a life that is lived.
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Yeah, it is tough. You know, you see this person who doesn't want to love your
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Lord as you do, and yet when you live in a submissive, and it says a quiet and gentle, and a quiet spirit, enduring the differences that you have, and yet doing it all for the
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Lord, the Lord will use that as He sees fit. And then now
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I have two verses which are very controversial. The first one is in Matthew 5, Matthew 5, 13 to 16.
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You don't need to turn there because you know this verse very well. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the earth.
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There is something inherently in every believer. If you were to live the life that God has given you, in fact, if you are a believer, you cannot but live the life that God has given you.
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If God has transformed you, you will live that out no matter where you are. And if you are, and that's a quality of your life as salt.
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And when you are the light of the world, you cannot hide your life under a bushel.
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When you live your life, it is going to be evident to the world around you. And there are two aspects to this.
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On the one hand was the example that I just gave you of the relative who saw his son and said, you know, there is something unique about this.
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And there's another aspect of it which is found in the other passage I have here which is Ephesians 5, 6 through 12.
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And here Paul is actually instructing Christians about how they ought to live. And this is an area where basically it's sanctification.
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We came out of the world. We still have the flesh hangover in us.
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And day by day, by God's grace, we put that aside and become more and more like Christ. And that's what this passage focuses.
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And then right in the middle of that passage in verse 8, he says, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the
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Lord. Walk as children of the light. Let me just read the rest of the passage till verse 12.
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For the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the
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Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful work of darkness, but instead expose them for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
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Sanctification, as we talked about earlier, it is not a step function. It doesn't, you don't automatically get, you know, into perfection the moment you believe.
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It is a moment by moment submission to the Lord as our lives become more and more sanctified.
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But you need to be intentional to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
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And here is an area, you know, the first part we saw was your nature. You are now a new creation.
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You are a child of God, and that will be evident. But you have a responsibility to walk as children of the light.
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You need to disassociate with those things of your former life, and you need to follow after Christ as a disciple of God.
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And when you do that, there is something that is going to happen. We see that in John 1 when it talks about the light that came down into the world.
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We see this in John 3, 16 through 18 when the light of the world comes into the darkness.
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The darkness does not want to have anything to do with it. And there is going to be a conflict, that division that we talked about, when true righteousness is juxtaposed with the world.
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Because the deeds of the world will be exposed. One of the reasons why most unbelievers do not like Christians is what they thought was okay suddenly doesn't seem to be okay.
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There seems to be a different standard that they did not consider that suddenly exposes them.
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And you don't need to be intentional even about it. If you are intentional about your own walk with the
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Lord, those things will automatically happen. We are in the world as a testimony of what is good and righteous and true.
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We just read that. And that exposes to the world that hasn't considered what is an absolute standard.
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And that brings up those questions. Sometimes it's easy to bring those questions and talk about it.
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I've had many opportunities at work to do this where you just start bringing up these questions and say, you know, why?
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Why do we do things this way versus this way? And in other times, you don't even have to speak.
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You just know that people are convicted by something that is different between you and them.
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Let's actually move on. I want to finish all the way till at least this first paragraph here. Any questions on this so far?
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Because from this point on, we change our focus a little bit. Yes. Oh, sorry.
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Anyone? Brother Six. Okay. Let's hold that because I think
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I'd like to finish this aspect of the internal aspect of it and then we'll take a few questions at the end. All right.
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So now let's go over to this second section, prayer. I have many verses here that I want to emphasize and we'll take a little bit of time on each of these as we move forward.
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Matthew 5. I'll just read it for you. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
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From the Beatitudes, we've had that preached upon. And the one thing that we can actively do moment by moment and till we die is pray.
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Many of you would have heard the example of Augustine's mother. If you know the story of how depraved
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Augustine was as a young man and how his mother was faithful in her prayer for him, it'll give you a lot of courage.
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The boy was sinning and sinning willfully and rebelliously and over a long period of time and his mother never gave up in praying for him.
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So you want to be steadfast in your prayer for your loved ones. You never know whether the Lord would save the person or not, but you never want to give up in your prayer.
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No matter how much you are persecuted, how much you are rebuffed, prayer is one thing no one can stop and you want to be steadfast in your prayer for these loved ones.
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The next verse I have, these are two tough verses and I want you to be cognizant of this.
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One is in Matthew 6, 5 and 6 and the other one is in Luke 18. Matthew 6 is, you remember this, do not pray like the hypocrites.
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Go into your closet and pray. And this goes beyond the specific aspect of prayer.
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It goes to all of your life. When you either proclaim the gospel or you pray or you live your life as God calls you to live, you want to live it as genuinely.
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You're not just putting on a show for the people around you so that they can see and say, ah, this is how a
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Christian lives. You live your life as a true believer does, whether a person is watching or not watching.
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And especially when you pray, you're speaking with your Father in private and it has nothing to do with the other people who are watching.
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Be careful of how you live before others. I think someone in one of your earlier questions implied this.
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How do you speak with these people that you meet? Sometimes, I struggle with this a lot.
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I was telling Pam yesterday, when we meet strangers, I put on this, you know, okay, the game is about to begin.
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Let's start and then go rush and get a few feet for the
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Lord. And while the desire may be good, you want to be normal with the people you meet.
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Pam is an excellent example. If any of you have questions with this, talk to her. Just whatever you do, do it with the consciousness of how you normally live your life.
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Do things as you would normally do. Don't be a hypocrite, which is what it ends up being if we somehow, when we are among unbelievers, we live in a certain way just to be nice.
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And then when I'm in my home, in my closet, I'm living a totally different life. We should be walking the way the
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Lord has transformed us. It should be an inward change that is just naturally transparent to the people around you.
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And so the reason you talk to people is not because you've just made a commitment to talk to five people today.
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It's because you're just so aware of what God is doing in your life that every time you meet these people, you're seeing those opportunities that God has put in your life and you're just talking about what matters to you.
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And the people, when they see you, they're thinking, you know, this guy, you know, this is all he thinks about. And this is, you know,
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I want to know more about this guy. It's not about, you know, every time I see him, he's just picking that arrow and trying to shoot me.
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You know, this is who he is. And if they have any questions or deep issues, they know, you know, this guy will have something to tell me about life and death and the truth.
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So again, the hypocrisy is very urgent and especially with regards to prayer. And the second aspect of prayer in Luke 18 is the prayer of the
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Pharisee and the tax collector. We remember this most commonly when we came to faith in Christ, when we dropped everything.
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We said, you know, I have nothing except sin and I need my Lord to save me. I am the sinner.
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But when we become saved, we remember that, you know, it is all of God. But when we stand in relationship to an unbeliever, sometimes it's easy to forget that, you know, that's where we were and that's where we would be today except for the grace of God.
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And this attitude that this tax collector had, we don't want to be going around saying, you know,
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I am the sinner, I am the sinner, I am the sinner. No, you're not. You are now saved by the blood of Christ. And yet, it is but by the grace of God.
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And the attitude we need to have when we witness is to be one of deep and complete humility.
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It is of the Lord and not of ourselves. And when we have this mindset, when we speak with people, it is easier for them to understand what grace truly means.
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It has nothing to do with my ability or their ability to be believers. It has everything to do with God.
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The next one is heart attitude. Actually, one other thing is in 1 Thessalonians 5 .17
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and that has to do with pray without ceasing. And especially for those of you whose spouses or children you struggle with not being believers, you know, constantly lift them up before the
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Lord. And actually, if you read that passage, it talks about how you deal with the difficult circumstances and yet you are thankful for God in those circumstances as well.
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Heart attitude. And I think the focus of all these verses is the gentleness. In 1
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Thessalonians 2, Paul talks about a ministry that he founded in Thessalonica. And he says, you know, we were gentle with you like a mother taking care of her chicks.
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And we didn't just bring the gospel to you, but we shared our whole life. And that ought to be the attitude.
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This would be especially for fathers dealing with children or mothers dealing with children in a relationship where you have an influence upon these people that you love who are rebellious and walking away.
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And yet you want to do that with gentleness. And then there are other aspects of gentleness, especially from Titus.
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And 1 Peter 2 talks about your work relationships. You know, how you deal with your masters or your bosses or colleagues.
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And even when they revile you, you want to be gentle. And your life, it is not just about I proclaim the truth and I walk out from here, but I'm living a life that is godly.
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And that will be convicting. Knowledge. A few things.
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Oh, we are out of time. Let me just say a few things and we'll close and we'll take questions after we close.
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Specific to knowledge, I want you to think about a few things. Sometimes we get caught up in a lot of things that are non -essential.
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You know, in 1 Timothy 6, he says avoid contradictions, what is falsely called knowledge. There are people who just talk about different, different, different things.
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And, you know, if you don't know the answer to those unnecessary, irrelevant things, just say, you know, I don't know, but there is something that is important.
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In fact, the rest of the verses I have here, you want God to, in 1 Timothy 2 .25, you want
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God to grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. And in 1 Peter, 2 Peter 1 .5,
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and this is what you want to ask, because when you are with people who ask you questions, because you are living with them, they are going to bring up questions.
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And if you do not know the answers to central matters, you want to have that knowledge from the
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Word. The Bible says, add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge. We've been talking about how we live a life that is godly, and you need to know the truth to be able to proclaim the truth to the people as well.
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So, knowledge is essential, especially with the people that you live day in and day out who have the tough questions in life.
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And you want to study the Word, and ultimately, you are growing in the knowledge of our Savior and our
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Lord. It has nothing to do with just acquiring knowledge for knowledge's sake. You get to know our Lord better, and you are able to proclaim that knowledge to those who need it.
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And then, finally, I have wisdom. And many of you know James 1 .5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let them ask of God.
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What is wisdom? The application of knowledge. You need to know how the truth bears on that particular circumstance that that person is going through.
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And you ask God for wisdom, and you will receive it. And James 3 .15 talks about the nature of this wisdom.
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It has nothing to do with, I know all these answers, and let me give you this answer as a doctor gives a prescription. But it is a wisdom that is gentle, peaceable, and loving, and wants to minister to those around us the wisdom of God Himself.
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And finally, trust in God. This is one of my favorite passages. I'll just read that verse.
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You keep Him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because He trusts in you.
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Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. Ultimately, whether the person we love will be saved or not, we do not know.
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We want them to be saved. We pray for them. We live a life that glorifies
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God, and we proclaim the truth as the Lord would give us opportunity. But ultimately, your focus is not on you, it is not on the people you minister to, but it is ultimately on God Himself.
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We want to stay on this rock, trusting in Him. And no matter how difficult your circumstance might be, or how hard the hearts of the people might be,
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God will give you the peace as you stay upon Him, stay focused upon Him, and He will use you as He sees fit in expanding
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His kingdom. The next few sections, it just talks about different people to talk to, and then some opportunities we have right here in BBC.
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So if you have any questions on those, please talk to myself, or Bernard, or Steve Nelson.
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And we will close now, and then if any of you have any questions, we can meet around here. Let's pray.
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Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time of considering how you have placed us here on earth until you come again.
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Lord, we pray for your strength, we pray for your spirit to give us that boldness, to not just learn about these truths, but to live them out, consciously seeking to glorify you, and to live as ambassadors of the
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King. Lord, I pray for everyone here that we will indeed live that out by your grace and for your glory.