back to indexWed Bible Study (BCC 2) - 12-07-16
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And so because it's our last session, the people who are bringing snacks are actually 00:00:14.680 |
So if you come at 7.16, there will be no dinner for you. 00:00:18.880 |
So 7 o'clock, please come on time at 7 o'clock because we are having dinner. 00:00:23.160 |
If we start dinner at 7.20 and we don't finish till 8, we're not going to be able to do our 00:00:27.880 |
So please come at 7 o'clock if you want to eat. 00:00:40.680 |
And then as you guys are eating and having fellowship, we're going to be doing our final 00:00:46.760 |
And then after that, after next week, we're going to be taking, I think, three weeks, 00:00:50.240 |
maybe four weeks off for the Christmas and then the first or second week of January. 00:00:59.840 |
So today the topic, today and next week's topic is going to be on... 00:01:24.400 |
Today's session is going to be on evangelism. 00:01:28.680 |
And again, a lot of this stuff may be review for a lot of you, but again, I think it's 00:01:34.560 |
important enough that we understand, you know, where all of our ministry philosophy and theology, 00:01:40.880 |
where the rubber meets the road, a lot of times you'll see in the preaching and in evangelism. 00:01:46.800 |
You know, depending upon what the church believes and what the theology is, you're not going 00:01:53.000 |
to see a whole lot of difference in the way that we sing. 00:01:55.800 |
You're not going to see a whole lot of difference from church to church in the way that we pray, 00:02:01.640 |
You're not going to see a whole lot of difference. 00:02:02.960 |
But where you will see the distinction is in the preaching and in evangelism and how 00:02:08.320 |
you view evangelism, how you practice evangelism is where a lot of the theology kind of gets 00:02:15.960 |
So today and next week, we're going to be talking about evangelism. 00:02:56.840 |
So the first, so the way I have it, I don't have, I just kind of left spaces for you to 00:03:05.560 |
I mean, it's a pretty straightforward question. 00:03:08.520 |
It's one of those, no duh, you know, the Bible tells us so. 00:03:12.880 |
But again, understanding the heart of God, understanding all of scripture, evangelism 00:03:21.520 |
Typically when we think of lordship, we think of time management, we think of finance, right? 00:03:27.880 |
But when you take a careful look at the scripture, lordship basically means that somebody else 00:03:33.720 |
who is above you is dictating or telling you their priorities. 00:03:37.680 |
So whatever they desire, whatever their priority is becomes our priority. 00:03:46.720 |
So spending of money, time management, all of these things are under the umbrella of 00:03:50.000 |
the bigger picture of what God is doing in his history. 00:04:40.600 |
Alright, good. Okay. Alright. So, this is the Bible. 00:04:46.600 |
Alright, good. Okay. Alright. Sorry about that. 00:05:15.800 |
A, the whole Bible is a recorded history of God pursuing sinners. 00:05:21.960 |
So if you were to understand the theme of the whole Bible, we have to say in one word, 00:05:28.880 |
Old Testament all the way to the end of the New Testament. 00:05:33.800 |
The Old Testament, just a quick overview of the theme. 00:05:37.760 |
It starts, again, obviously in Genesis with the creation and the fall of man and the promise 00:05:46.320 |
All of Old Testament history is a fulfillment of that prophecy in Genesis 3.15. 00:05:53.000 |
He establishes the nation of Israel, Genesis chapter 12. 00:06:00.360 |
It's going to come through the nation of Israel. 00:06:03.440 |
And then the giving of the law in the book of Exodus chapter 19 to 24 gives the basic 00:06:08.600 |
outline of how this is going to be fulfilled. 00:06:11.600 |
So the giving of the law is to set up for the need of what he is going to come and do. 00:06:23.000 |
The Bible doesn't describe a whole lot about what happened before they fell. 00:06:29.560 |
It's not a recording of what heaven will be like. 00:06:36.340 |
But the reason why creation happens and only two chapters we hear about what happened in 00:06:41.960 |
the creation and then right after, Genesis chapter 3, it's the fall because all of the 00:06:46.600 |
rest of the Bible is about the fulfillment of this prophecy. 00:06:51.000 |
And how is it going to, the nation of Israel, Israel is given the law and law reveals what 00:06:59.400 |
Creation of the tabernacle, right, basically teaches how does it, what kind of relationship 00:07:12.920 |
And then after the giving of the law and tabernacle, the rest of Israel's history is about the 00:07:17.960 |
failure to live up to the commandments of God. 00:07:26.880 |
God establishes Israel, the channel in which they are going to come. 00:07:29.200 |
He gives a law, the tabernacle, all of it to establish the blessings and curses and 00:07:34.120 |
the rest of Israel's history is all about how they fail to fulfill the commandment of 00:07:41.720 |
And they serve as an example to the rest of mankind. 00:07:48.240 |
The prophets come and they give warning because of the rebellion against God. 00:07:54.840 |
And then the prophets almost always end with a promise of restoration of the remnant of 00:08:04.480 |
I just gave you a broad outline of all of the Old Testament. 00:08:08.680 |
Any part of the Old Testament you read is going to be under one of these umbrellas. 00:08:13.860 |
So the point that I'm trying to make in the Old Testament is the whole of Old Testament, 00:08:18.080 |
whether it is historical, whether it is the giving of the law or poetry or the prophets, 00:08:25.240 |
all of it is about a holy God pursuing sinners. 00:08:36.120 |
So Genesis begins with the promise of the Messiah coming and New Testament begins with 00:08:47.740 |
Jesus calls his disciples and when he calls them he says, "I will make you fishers of 00:08:54.280 |
Because this, again, is in the context, it wasn't the beginning with Jesus' ministry. 00:09:02.800 |
God's been pursuing to make fishers of men from the very beginning. 00:09:07.840 |
Jesus trains his disciples to preach about the kingdom. 00:09:11.400 |
Matthew 10, verse 1, the primary message and primary preparation for the disciples is to 00:09:21.620 |
Obviously that Jesus' death and resurrection is a fulfillment of all the prophecies. 00:09:30.880 |
After he has accomplished his work, his ministry purpose for his disciples is to continue the 00:09:39.060 |
Jesus came to fulfill the work that God's been doing and then he sends his disciples 00:09:49.440 |
The whole book of Acts is a fulfillment of that great commission. 00:09:52.640 |
Book of Acts begins by saying, "You will be my witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, 00:09:57.980 |
So the book of Acts, the 28 chapters are outlined by their period in Jerusalem, a period in 00:10:04.460 |
going to Samaria, and then a period of going to the remotest part of the world. 00:10:09.900 |
So the whole book of Acts is a fulfillment of the great commission. 00:10:13.220 |
The next book, the book of Romans, is a detailed analysis of the gospel message that they are 00:10:19.580 |
And so rest of the epistles about how the gospel came into the different regions. 00:11:07.420 |
So how important is evangelism to the great, not only the great commission, but to lordship 00:11:15.260 |
It doesn't matter what kind of steward you are and how great of a time you use and how 00:11:19.020 |
giving you are and all of that, but God's primary work is pursuing sinners. 00:11:25.740 |
If we're good stewards and good people and good moral people, outside of the context 00:11:29.900 |
of pursuing sinners, then we can't properly say that he's our lord because our lord is 00:11:38.700 |
He can't be farming, farming chicken and then you decide to be farming goats. 00:11:53.260 |
If this is God's work, if this is everything that we know about our God in the old Testament 00:11:57.740 |
and new Testament is revealed to us in the context of pursuing sinners, what does it 00:12:06.620 |
It's to be joining his work, joining what he's doing. 00:12:14.040 |
We can't call him lord and savior if he's just lord saying like, "Well, I give my tenth, 00:12:22.540 |
So not only is that important, if you are not engaged in evangelism at some level, it's 00:12:31.140 |
very difficult to understand the Bible, right? 00:12:35.900 |
It's very difficult to understand the Bible because the Bible is written in the context 00:12:40.900 |
So it's almost kind of like you don't, you miss the whole point of what the author is 00:12:45.460 |
trying to say if you're not engaged, if your mind is not engaged in evangelism. 00:12:51.140 |
So all of scripture is written, all the epistles are written in the context of bringing sinners 00:12:59.620 |
Suffering is in the context of expanding the kingdom of God. 00:13:02.820 |
Persecution is talking about in the context of expanding the kingdom of God. 00:13:06.900 |
Purity in the church is written in the context of pursuing sinners in the kingdom of God. 00:13:11.780 |
So everything that we know about scripture is in the context of pursuing sinners. 00:13:15.400 |
So if we're not actively pursuing sinners, you're trying to understand God outside of 00:13:26.660 |
If you want to, okay, I had another illustration. 00:13:28.620 |
If you want to understand Kobe Bryant, you have to understand basketball. 00:13:34.780 |
So you can't know everything about Kobe Bryant and then know nothing about basketball if 00:13:38.860 |
you really understand, because that's how closely tied who that person is with basketball, 00:13:45.020 |
So if you really say, "Oh, I know everything about basketball and then Kobe Bryant, somebody, 00:13:48.540 |
and then somebody says, "Oh, he's a basketball player." 00:13:53.300 |
You don't know anything about him then, because that's his identity, right? 00:14:06.760 |
But to what extent this is important, I think that's something that we need to be reminded 00:14:11.500 |
The second thing I want to cover is then who should evangelize, right? 00:14:18.620 |
There is, and I think, my guess is most of you are sophisticated enough to know that 00:14:23.420 |
you're not going to say evangelism is for the pastors or missionaries or elders or deacons 00:14:30.460 |
I think everybody, if not, most of you will agree that it is for everybody. 00:14:36.740 |
But for whatever the reason, even though we say that, we kind of have a lesser degree 00:14:42.320 |
of a calling depending on what you are, right? 00:14:48.020 |
First and foremost, God established the church. 00:14:53.060 |
Now the reason why this is so important is because evangelism has to lead to something, 00:15:01.180 |
Remember we talked about that before about the kingdom and we talked about the church, 00:15:05.360 |
that salvation is transference of one kingdom to another kingdom, right? 00:15:10.580 |
So evangelism has to be connected to the church. 00:15:13.940 |
If somebody accepts Christ, and I remember reading a statistics years ago, that Billy 00:15:18.700 |
Graham statistic, they said that out of all the people who come down and raise their hand, 00:15:25.740 |
And out of the 6% who make it to the church, very few of them remain after a year. 00:15:31.820 |
So according to their statistics, less than 1% actually continue to walk with the Lord. 00:15:36.940 |
And again, this was a statistic from many, many years ago. 00:15:41.900 |
But if that's the case, that means 99% of the people completely missed the whole point 00:15:47.800 |
If they heard the gospel and say, "Well, I believe in Jesus," and they just walked out, 00:15:52.620 |
Because the scripture says in 1 Timothy 3.15, sorry, it's so small. 00:16:02.940 |
Okay, "If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in a household of God, which is 00:16:07.260 |
the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth." 00:16:12.660 |
So the pillar and buttress of the truth was not an individual or group of people, but 00:16:17.300 |
Matthew 16.18, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and 00:16:23.860 |
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 00:16:26.660 |
Again, I've mentioned this before, but when we talk about gates of hell shall not prevail 00:16:30.260 |
against it, for years I understood this as kind of like a, you know, you gather in the 00:16:35.140 |
church and Satan can't attack it, but if you look at the language, the gates is not the 00:16:43.260 |
That the gates of hell will not be able to withstand the church. 00:16:50.860 |
And hell is on the defensive, at least that's the way Jesus described it. 00:17:00.260 |
So church was not meant to be a fortress to kind of hide in. 00:17:03.620 |
So he says, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not be able to withstand 00:17:09.780 |
Acts chapter 2, you know, the early church, when the first converts come to Christ, it 00:17:16.620 |
says, "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, 00:17:21.140 |
they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with 00:17:24.860 |
all the people, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved." 00:17:29.900 |
You see how people were being saved, and when they're being saved, it's described as, "Oh, 00:17:34.020 |
they got saved and they just got added to the kingdom." 00:17:41.880 |
So the first thing that we know is that church as a whole, the collective body of Christ 00:17:50.260 |
Not just the pastor, not just a few people, but the whole church. 00:17:52.980 |
So the church, and I remember having this conversation with a young pastor with a brand 00:18:00.700 |
new church, and the church is growing, and one of the things that I was really convicted 00:18:06.260 |
by, especially in the last few years, our church has been around almost 20 years. 00:18:12.580 |
And some of you guys are new to the church, and some people have been here for 10, 15, 00:18:20.020 |
But just like anything else, after you've been in one place for a long time, everything 00:18:29.220 |
Everything sounds similar, and sometimes just because it's different, it sounds better, 00:18:35.980 |
And so how do you keep that excitement and that passion and the vision when you have 00:18:42.660 |
the same thing, same person, same group for 20 years, right? 00:18:48.940 |
And I think the challenge that we have is the church, the calling for the church is 00:18:58.260 |
It's not just in the beginning part where you're church planting. 00:19:01.100 |
Now usually when you first church plant, that's when everybody's excited about evangelizing 00:19:05.980 |
because they want to see new people come to the church. 00:19:08.180 |
But for some reason, after a church gets to a certain point, it's kind of like, "Okay, 00:19:17.300 |
I don't even know the people who are already here. 00:19:20.900 |
Well, the early church had 3,000, and then another 4,000. 00:19:26.260 |
So the purpose of the church is for world evangelization. 00:19:31.140 |
So whenever somebody asks me, "How big is okay? 00:19:38.180 |
When our church is 7 billion and the whole world is reached, that's when God says, "Okay, 00:19:44.460 |
Until then, our vision will always be the Great Commission because that's His vision, 00:19:50.020 |
It doesn't mean we're going to have 7 billion people. 00:19:52.180 |
I understand what the question is, like how do you manage the church and all that. 00:19:55.820 |
But again, as far as the vision is concerned, we have to function like a church, brand new 00:20:02.940 |
Again, Ephesians, "To me though, I am the very least of the saints. 00:20:08.940 |
This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring 00:20:13.460 |
to light for everyone what is the plan of mystery hidden for ages in God who create 00:20:18.260 |
all things so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known 00:20:23.060 |
to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places." 00:20:39.500 |
This was God's intent always through the church, right? 00:20:42.820 |
And you see glimpses of the church in Israel's history. 00:20:45.580 |
How God breaks the whole body of the Old Testament saints into tribes and then to families and 00:21:01.020 |
Number two, or letter B, under who should evangelize. 00:21:05.260 |
B, different gifts were given to build up the church. 00:21:10.140 |
There are certain things that I'm able to do because I'm the pastor, I have a mouth, 00:21:14.820 |
I was trained a certain way and so I can evangelize by preaching and teaching and shepherding 00:21:30.940 |
But in the church, there are certain people that are better reached by you. 00:21:38.780 |
And this is the honest truth and I'm not just saying this. 00:21:43.540 |
If I saw, personally, if I saw somebody like me coming to me to evangelize, I would not 00:21:53.440 |
If somebody's good at selling something, I'm automatically turned off by it. 00:21:58.940 |
Usually when I meet a salesman who is saying all the wrong things and won't make eye contact 00:22:05.060 |
and tell me exactly how much they make and what kind of profit they make off of this 00:22:09.180 |
and it sounds like they're not good at their job, I tend to let my guard down a little 00:22:16.100 |
But if somebody is smooth talking, he got his presentation down and this guy sounds 00:22:21.360 |
like a salesman, my immediate reaction to him is I don't trust anything that comes out 00:22:26.500 |
Because I don't know if that's genuine or not. 00:22:34.220 |
So somebody like me will not be very effective with somebody like me. 00:22:40.580 |
Evangelism, a lot of people think like, oh if you're a pastor and you know how to talk 00:22:45.860 |
and you know how to present, you need somebody like that to be effective. 00:22:48.980 |
There's a lot of people like me that wouldn't listen to people like me. 00:22:54.660 |
And that's why God has given various gifts to various people. 00:22:57.460 |
There's certain kind of personalities that you have and it's not all outgoing. 00:23:01.140 |
This is not like high school where you have the cool kids and the non-cool kids. 00:23:04.380 |
God has given gifts to everybody to serve a purpose because the whole world needs to 00:23:12.580 |
So if you only let people with my kind of personality to evangelize, you're only going 00:23:21.260 |
So in order for evangelism to be effective, it has to be the whole church using their 00:23:24.600 |
various gifts to reach out to various people. 00:23:29.460 |
So again, it says, "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors 00:23:32.740 |
and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry." 00:23:37.060 |
It's not just simply equip you so that you would know theology, it's to equip you so 00:23:41.780 |
So the purpose of all of this is not simply so that we can get on the same page and say, 00:23:48.180 |
It's to equip you so that you can serve better, evangelize better. 00:23:58.820 |
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 00:24:01.900 |
So everything that God has given us, he gave us for the purpose of sharing. 00:24:07.900 |
Not simply for us to enjoy, but for other people to enjoy. 00:24:13.140 |
So again, this is something that I've noticed. 00:24:15.300 |
And I've noticed even with the Welcome Team, that there are certain people who are, and 00:24:21.820 |
I've shared this before, don't be offended, I've noticed that awkward people tend to, 00:24:27.540 |
okay, my definition of awkward, awkward people tend to gravitate toward awkward people. 00:24:34.020 |
Awkward meaning like, they're not the most outgoing people. 00:24:38.500 |
And they got somebody who's like, "Oh, really bubbly and comes to, hey, come sit with us, 00:24:46.700 |
But I've noticed that people who tend to be a little bit more shy and not as social, they 00:24:53.340 |
tend to be better with other people who are the same way, because they feel more relaxed 00:25:02.220 |
So even evangelism, there are people at your work that would probably, you're probably 00:25:08.020 |
the best person to share the gospel with them. 00:25:11.380 |
And a lot of times we're thinking, "Well, I'm not gifted in speaking, and I'm not good 00:25:15.620 |
What if I, you know, fumble through my words?" 00:25:17.540 |
And maybe there's somebody in that group like me, trusts you better because you're not so 00:25:31.220 |
So in God's design, God designed it that way. 00:25:33.580 |
There's no one particular gift, one particular person that will be effective doing everything. 00:25:42.940 |
Every age, for whatever the reason, we have a tendency to think evangelism and mission 00:25:50.380 |
You know, and once you have kids and you get a little bit older, that's not for us. 00:25:56.860 |
Like I said, you know, if this is the heartbeat of God, until the day we die, it is our calling. 00:26:05.780 |
And I've met people, some of the people that I've been the most challenged by in evangelism 00:26:09.740 |
are, you know, again, like very early on, right after I became a Christian, I think 00:26:15.220 |
it was either second or third time I ever went street evangelism. 00:26:18.820 |
I met a man who was about 86 years old, just standing on the bridge with a pocket full 00:26:24.580 |
of tracks, Bible tracks, waiting for somebody to come and stand next to him because he doesn't 00:26:31.420 |
So I ended up, cause he was standing on the bridge. 00:26:33.940 |
I ended up just trying to share the gospel with him. 00:26:36.420 |
And then he waited until about, I was about halfway done, you know, and then he took his, 00:26:41.580 |
all his tracks out and he showed it to me and he shared with me what he was doing. 00:26:45.260 |
He lived in a nursing home nearby and this is about as far as he can walk. 00:26:49.220 |
And he would stand there and this was in Oregon. 00:26:52.380 |
He would stand there and wait for some young people to come and stand on the bridge because 00:26:56.380 |
that's, it has a really nice view on that bridge. 00:26:58.980 |
So he would just stand there until people come and then he would start conversation 00:27:04.260 |
And I remember that, that was one of the first, you know, first or second time I was out evangelizing 00:27:09.540 |
and that just made a deep impression in my heart. 00:27:13.620 |
So a lot of times it's like, you know, the inability to do it a lot of times is in our 00:27:20.620 |
First Timothy five, one and two, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would 00:27:24.020 |
a father, treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like 00:27:29.540 |
And again, in the, in the scriptures, there's descriptions, not simply for young people, 00:27:35.140 |
So there are times in my life when everybody in my life was at least 10 to 12 years older 00:27:40.980 |
When I was in college, all of my roommates, right? 00:27:48.380 |
And then after I graduated, I became a youth pastor. 00:27:51.480 |
So the rest of my life, everybody was younger than me, a lot younger, but there are different 00:27:56.780 |
periods in life where you're going to be surrounded by a bunch of younger people, a bunch of older 00:28:00.580 |
people and a lot of times with your peers, right? 00:28:04.180 |
But the danger that we get into is when we are only looking for our peers, right? 00:28:11.460 |
We should be looking for partners for ministry. 00:28:15.420 |
So whether they are 15 years younger or 20 years older, if our goal in life is to glorify 00:28:21.560 |
God, you can't say you can only glorify God with people between, you know, three or four 00:28:32.600 |
I mean, there's nothing wrong with having friends. 00:28:34.760 |
There's nothing wrong with that, but that can't be your primary goal. 00:28:39.280 |
Your primary goal has to be to glorify God and to partner with him. 00:28:45.840 |
I can partner with somebody who's 60 or 70 if we're doing the same thing, right? 00:28:51.280 |
So we can't have this mentality that I want to first meet my friends between the age of 00:28:56.360 |
25 and 30, and then I'll decide what I'm going to do, right? 00:29:00.360 |
No, you're going to, I think our priority should be find partners that we're going to 00:29:08.260 |
And I guarantee you, if they're on the same page, it's a lot easier to fellowship and 00:29:11.540 |
connect with people, whether they're 20 years younger or 20 years older, if you're on the 00:29:17.540 |
You can have a bunch of people exactly the same way, same background, you know, same 00:29:25.380 |
If your pursuit is Christ, if they're not pursuing it, right? 00:29:29.700 |
Every age, I'm not going to read this whole thing, but Titus 2, 1 through 7 talks about 00:29:34.580 |
older men and older women and our attitudes, and again, a church should always have as 00:29:48.420 |
So every once in a while, somebody would ask me, "Who's your target group in ministry?" 00:29:55.140 |
I always had a problem answering that question because the target group is whoever comes, 00:30:03.300 |
I can't say my target group here is collegians at UCI because that's not the church. 00:30:14.400 |
The collegians are a small portion of that, but you can't say my target is just collegians. 00:30:18.780 |
My target is just, you know, this age group of people, right? 00:30:27.140 |
This is another thing that sometimes people get caught up in, it's like, "Well, I'm just 00:30:34.780 |
Sometimes the best person to reach out to non-Christians is the brand new believer because 00:30:40.620 |
your testimony is brand new, and you know what it's like to be a non-believer better 00:30:44.460 |
than anybody else because you were just there. 00:30:49.460 |
And then what happens to a lot of people who become Christians for a long time is they 00:30:55.060 |
And even if you want to evangelize, you don't have any non-Christian friends in your life. 00:31:03.140 |
Mature believers should make every effort to be in the world, not be of the world, but 00:31:09.580 |
So if you're a student and you have an opportunity to do a project together, don't gravitate 00:31:17.820 |
You know, take that opportunity to do projects with non-Christians and interact with them 00:31:21.580 |
because that's how you're going to evangelize. 00:31:26.540 |
Street evangelism, street preaching, you know, going whatever. 00:31:30.140 |
I mean, I've tried every form of evangelism that you can possibly think of. 00:31:34.180 |
The most effective evangelism is lifestyle evangelism with people that you know. 00:31:45.820 |
Even street preaching in certain places has its place, but the most effective is always 00:31:51.020 |
with the people that you rub shoulders with on a regular basis. 00:31:54.820 |
Those are the people who are going to be the most open to you, right? 00:31:58.460 |
And so, again, for mature believers, it's our responsibility to make every effort to 00:32:05.380 |
And also for brand new believers, you're in a position that's probably, you know, best 00:32:10.500 |
position to be able to reach the non-Christians, right? 00:32:13.940 |
And you know, this one thing that a missionary said always stuck with me is like, "The land 00:32:24.460 |
Like, "The land of the blind, one-eyed man is king." 00:32:27.500 |
You don't have to be a PhD in theology to teach a bunch of people who just got their 00:32:41.860 |
You may not be an expert in the church, but you're an expert in the world, right? 00:32:50.440 |
So you know better than everybody else outside the church. 00:32:57.180 |
I'm not trained," because you know better than the other person, okay? 00:33:01.780 |
And we need, so that, again, the point of all of this is everybody, with every gift, 00:33:10.940 |
This we'll get into a little bit further into our ministry philosophy. 00:33:15.140 |
Evangelism should not be approached like an event, but a way of life. 00:33:18.020 |
Sorry for the tiny words, but that's what it says. 00:33:21.700 |
Evangelism should not be approached like an event, but a way of life. 00:33:25.820 |
Typically, we ask questions like, "Do we do evangelism?" 00:33:32.700 |
But evangelism shouldn't be an event that we do Thursday night at three o'clock, right? 00:33:37.740 |
In fact, the term that we should be using are, "Are you a witness?" 00:33:45.180 |
And if you're a witness, witnessinging happens 24/7, right? 00:33:51.060 |
Every opportunity we get, we try to be a witness. 00:33:53.980 |
But when we turn witnessing to an event on campus on Tuesday between 12 and 1, once we 00:34:07.580 |
I'm not saying that there isn't a place for that. 00:34:09.700 |
But primary form of evangelism, the most effective form of evangelism, is lifestyle, right? 00:34:23.340 |
The Word of God is the primary avenue in which the Gospel and the Church is established, 00:34:34.620 |
I even tried to make it bigger, and this is how it came out. 00:34:39.700 |
The Word of God must be preached in season and out of season, right? 00:34:45.380 |
Romans 10, 17, so faith comes from hearing and the hearing through the Word of Christ. 00:34:49.900 |
So if you want to be properly trained in evangelism, the most beneficial thing that you could do 00:35:02.340 |
That's the best, because that's the primary avenue in which somebody comes to Christ. 00:35:06.740 |
So if you're great at talking to people, but not great at leading them to the Word, then, 00:35:13.380 |
you know, I remember in seminary, I heard this story. 00:35:17.260 |
This is when the Seeker Friendly Movement was just coming in, and I remember this lady 00:35:21.340 |
was sharing a story about a good friend of hers that ended up walking away from her faith. 00:35:31.060 |
If somebody doing evangelism, the Church had all these events and outreach things, and 00:35:34.340 |
then she became a Christian and came into the Church, and then she heard the evangelism 00:35:40.220 |
training that they were having, how to market the Gospel and finding out what their needs 00:35:46.140 |
are and meet their felt needs and then target them at that particular time. 00:35:49.580 |
And they were doing all these different techniques. 00:35:52.580 |
And then she, again, true or not, she felt like she was duped. 00:35:57.940 |
If they used that technique to target my heart, then maybe my response wasn't genuine. 00:36:07.940 |
And again, we can't just blame that on the Church. 00:36:09.780 |
I mean, if her faith wasn't genuine, it wasn't genuine. 00:36:12.420 |
But when she found out the techniques that the Church used to get her to accept Christ, 00:36:19.460 |
it basically cheapened her experience, that it wasn't genuine. 00:36:24.820 |
And I remember back in seminary, listening to that, thinking, "Yeah, I mean, that's 00:36:27.940 |
exactly how people would feel if that's how they came." 00:36:31.940 |
It's like, "Oh, we're going to target them and make dinner for them every Tuesday night, 00:36:35.380 |
and then if they do that, maybe they'll be more receptive, and then we're going to pounce 00:36:41.380 |
And imagine hearing all of that years later and thinking like, "Huh, it was all just marketing." 00:36:50.420 |
And then they start questioning whether their faith was genuine. 00:36:53.860 |
So primary form is, again, it's foolishness to those who are perishing, but it's a power 00:37:03.580 |
He said to him, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced 00:37:07.860 |
if someone should rise from the dead, that even if they see miraculous things, if they 00:37:11.980 |
do not pay attention to the ordained Word of God, they won't respond." 00:37:23.980 |
Preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season. 00:37:30.500 |
In season, where they respond, out of season, where they don't respond. 00:37:35.980 |
Whether it seems to bear fruit, doesn't seem to bear fruit. 00:37:43.180 |
There's nothing that you're going to do in life that if you do that, the same result 00:37:52.140 |
Nothing you do in life will be—you'll get the exact same result every single time. 00:38:08.940 |
But if you're preaching and all you're looking for is summer and harvest, and then, "Oh, 00:38:17.900 |
"Maybe we should stop watering because I just watered today and there's no fruit. 00:38:22.820 |
Maybe what we should be doing is digging or doing something." 00:38:28.360 |
No, you water, you water, and you water because you know that the watering ultimately leads 00:38:36.820 |
That's why it says in season and out of season. 00:38:39.200 |
God has ordained the preaching of His Word to bear fruit. 00:38:46.180 |
All scripture is breathed out by God and proffered for teaching, for reproof, for correction, 00:38:52.440 |
That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 00:38:56.480 |
And that's referring to evangelism, bringing the gospel to the world. 00:39:03.920 |
So if you want to be trained as an evangelist, right, before you learn apologetics, before 00:39:10.160 |
you learn about the latest arguments, the ontological argument, the cause and effect 00:39:16.640 |
argument, I'm not saying those have no any place. 00:39:19.680 |
I'm saying before that, our primary place that we need to commit to is God's Word. 00:39:25.720 |
Then ultimately, by shining the light of Christ through our lives. 00:39:36.200 |
We can be very effective evangelists and sharing the gospel and doing all this stuff if they 00:39:45.160 |
I mean, even if they're curious, they'll shut down that curiosity if they don't respect 00:39:52.880 |
I'm not saying we should fake it, but if our lives don't match the things that we proclaim, 00:40:05.800 |
In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works 00:40:09.400 |
and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 00:40:16.920 |
Do all things without grumbling or questioning that you may be blameless and innocent children 00:40:20.320 |
of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine 00:40:24.840 |
as lights in the world, holding fast to the Word of life. 00:40:30.880 |
And I, you know, every once in a while I'll hear somebody say, "Well, God uses donkeys." 00:40:35.440 |
Yeah, he uses donkeys, but God didn't call you to be a donkey. 00:40:50.920 |
But does that mean that God is okay with us being Judas? 00:40:57.920 |
If we want to be used for noble purposes, what does he say? 00:41:10.480 |
I went through this, I think, in the very beginning. 00:41:15.840 |
Man-centered evangelism attempts to make the Gospel the most attractive to most people 00:41:18.880 |
because their primary goal is to get people in. 00:41:21.800 |
God-centered evangelism focuses on representing God and his message accurately. 00:41:26.680 |
Because we believe that true fruit is going to come from careful and accurate presentation 00:41:35.120 |
Man-centered evangelism ends, justifies, any means. 00:41:37.360 |
So if getting them through the door is the primary goal, do whatever it takes to get 00:41:46.440 |
How do we get these people to take this product and make it theirs? 00:41:50.720 |
God-centered evangelism emphasizes the fact that God has ordained the means as well as 00:41:55.280 |
the ends to bring about salvation of his elect. 00:41:58.480 |
So always remember, even Jesus wasn't fruitful everywhere. 00:42:08.160 |
The three years of ministry, the majority of the people who saw his miracles rejected 00:42:13.400 |
So we think that if we follow this pattern, that we're going to bear fruit in this way 00:42:16.640 |
all the time, he's going to get us in trouble. 00:42:24.200 |
Man-centered evangelism focuses on simply confession. 00:42:28.440 |
God-centered evangelism focuses on conversion. 00:42:43.720 |
There is nothing more we need to carry out God's plan of salvation. 00:42:48.240 |
Everything that we need for life of godliness has been given to us in the knowledge of his 00:43:00.640 |
We're not here waiting for God to do something. 00:43:03.320 |
He says, "No, God's saying you do something." 00:43:06.200 |
Everything that you need to act has been given to you. 00:43:09.240 |
You've been given the word, you've been given the Holy Spirit. 00:43:13.280 |
So when we come before God, like, "Give me, like I'm waiting for God to do something so 00:43:18.960 |
So we say, "Well, everything that you need has been given to you, so what are you waiting 00:43:25.440 |
There's, it might be that our motivation is lacking. 00:43:34.320 |
Not because God didn't answer our prayers or God's not doing something. 00:43:39.400 |
It's because we've given our energy to other things. 00:43:43.440 |
Maybe there's a lack of appetite for God because that appetite that God gave you for him was 00:43:51.160 |
And we're waiting for God to do something and God's saying, "No, everything that you 00:43:57.800 |
And sometimes, sometimes the best thing that we can do is to obey and act. 00:44:07.720 |
Now is the favorable time, behold now is the day of salvation. 00:44:10.880 |
When he says now, okay, and I want you to understand, Paul is not simply talking about 00:44:17.520 |
Now meaning everything that God has been preparing to bring salvation to mankind has been finished. 00:44:31.440 |
So when he says now is the favorable time, meaning that we're not waiting for the Messiah, 00:44:37.040 |
we're not waiting for the Son of God to be revealed, for his death, his resurrection, 00:44:42.440 |
we're not waiting for the Holy Spirit to be given. 00:44:44.520 |
He said everything has been given, it is finished. 00:44:49.600 |
There's nothing for us to wait for other than the final judgment. 00:44:56.180 |
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last 00:45:04.440 |
We're not supposed to be waiting for another revival, another thing to come. 00:45:11.320 |
Finally brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored 00:45:18.160 |
That this should be the attitude of every Christian. 00:45:20.920 |
To not just kind of, you know what, when I'm not in school anymore, you know, when my children 00:45:26.080 |
are a bit older, or when my business is a little bit, you know, settled down, or make 00:45:30.560 |
this kind of money, or you know, when I'm not so busy. 00:45:35.200 |
He said, at least in prayer, right, and it is in mentality that we, this is something 00:45:47.300 |
And ultimately we are called to be good stewards of our time. 00:45:51.520 |
Direct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of time. 00:45:58.160 |
So the opportunities that you have, you know, sometimes, I know a lot of you guys envy my 00:46:05.320 |
It's like, oh, I would like to wake up and read the Bible all day and just fellowship 00:46:13.480 |
And the reason why I envy you is because you're surrounded by non-Christians all the time. 00:46:18.360 |
You're surrounded by non-Christians all the time, and you have every opportunity, right, 00:46:23.480 |
and to be able to share the gospel with them, and go out and lunch with them, interact with 00:46:28.520 |
In order for me to do that, I've got to go on campus and get awkward looks from students. 00:46:39.120 |
So I, sometimes I envy, you know, that you have, that you're out there and you're with 00:46:47.680 |
You know, there's a good part of being a pastor too in evangelism because sometimes they'll 00:46:54.280 |
Tell them I'm a pastor and they just kind of like, like, I don't know what it is. 00:46:58.200 |
Maybe they grew up Catholic and they just start confessing. 00:47:04.280 |
You know, this guy looked like he just came out of jail. 00:47:08.040 |
And then I, literally, he's the kind of guy that you wouldn't sit next to. 00:47:12.800 |
And I went up to him and tried to share the gospel with him. 00:47:16.600 |
And he just started, for about an hour and a half, I was on the train with him telling 00:47:20.960 |
me about how his wife cheated on him and all this stuff. 00:47:25.520 |
But again, that kind of stuff happened because, you know, I'm a pastor. 00:47:30.600 |
But again, because I'm not out there all the time. 00:47:37.440 |
Probably opportunities are all around you if you are, if you just open your eyes. 00:47:42.440 |
If you have a fertile heart that is eager, you know, you don't need to be going out and 00:47:51.560 |
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but wise, making the best use of time because 00:47:58.000 |
Again, the older I get, the more precious time becomes. 00:48:02.880 |
Money, sometimes you get a lot and you lose, it comes and goes. 00:48:07.720 |
Sometimes you get a lot, sometimes you don't. 00:48:13.560 |
So when you're single, it's like you're always, I mean, it's not just singles, like every 00:48:18.040 |
stage in life you're at, you're always looking to the next stage. 00:48:23.240 |
You're always looking to the next stage and then that looking to the next stage causes 00:48:30.280 |
There's things that you can only do as a single that you can't do. 00:48:33.800 |
Ask the married guys that you can't do once you get married. 00:48:37.960 |
And that's an opportunity that's never going to come back. 00:48:40.680 |
There's things that you can only do as a young couple that don't have kids. 00:48:47.280 |
There's only things that you can do because you don't have kids. 00:48:52.820 |
And there's only things that you can do when your children are young. 00:48:56.640 |
And when they get past that age, you can't do that. 00:49:00.400 |
So every stage in life, there's things that are uniquely gifted to you. 00:49:05.100 |
But if you see that as a burden, just waiting for you to be delivered to the next stage, 00:49:10.080 |
that stage is going to have another burden that you're waiting to be delivered by. 00:49:13.760 |
And then you're going to end up spending the rest of your life thinking that way. 00:49:19.600 |
And there's people around you that need to, you know, need to hear the gospel that you 00:49:27.760 |
Paul says, "I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost for a wide door for effective work 00:49:40.440 |
And I want to share a little bit about our church philosophy in the way we do missions. 00:49:45.120 |
People ask me all the time, like, "Did you have a heart for China? 00:49:54.160 |
The reason why we started going to China is because the door was opened and there was 00:50:01.320 |
And I happened to be an ESL teacher at that time for five years and wondering, "What 00:50:07.080 |
And I remember, those of you who were with us in the very beginning of China, remember 00:50:10.560 |
I shared with you guys many times, you know, like, it's not for me to pick and choose, 00:50:15.400 |
like, "Well, these people, I don't even, I have a heart for these. 00:50:19.200 |
I have a heart for, we should have a heart for whoever God has a heart for. 00:50:27.600 |
And I talk to people and it's like, "Oh, that's, you know, I don't like going to India 00:50:33.760 |
And really it is very, you know, unlike the United States. 00:50:38.520 |
Then why are you still wanting to go to India? 00:50:41.000 |
Because there's a lot of unreached people in India. 00:50:50.040 |
So we're committed because there's a need and that's the only reason. 00:50:53.920 |
And if there's a need and we move forward, since I've been going out, this is like my 00:51:04.500 |
But I didn't go there because I had a heart for them. 00:51:11.760 |
If we target people we have a heart for, a lot of times you're not going to have a heart 00:51:24.840 |
God doesn't make you the best parent before you have kids. 00:51:27.760 |
God will give you the strength to stay up all night after you have the kids. 00:51:33.040 |
God will give you the strength when you have the kids. 00:51:37.960 |
When you obey, God will give you the strength. 00:51:42.280 |
If you're waiting for God to do something for me to move, God's like, "I've already given 00:51:46.880 |
You need to move so that I can come alongside." 00:51:51.840 |
There's a lot more but I'm just going to end it with this. 00:51:54.920 |
And let me just explain the discussion questions real quick. 00:51:58.160 |
Is there someone you have been praying for to come to Christ for a long time? 00:52:03.280 |
If so, how have you tried to share the gospel with them in the past and what did you learn 00:52:11.280 |
What are some things that you said or didn't say? 00:52:14.040 |
Maybe you can glean wisdom from each other in the way that you approach somebody and 00:52:22.200 |
What is the biggest fear in sharing the gospel with people you are familiar with and acquaintances 00:52:30.920 |
So this one is for people that, again, typically we have a harder time sharing with people 00:52:36.840 |
And it's almost easier to share the gospel with strangers than with those people, like 00:52:42.920 |
So what is the biggest drawback to that and how can we encourage each other to have courage 00:52:50.960 |
And third, who is the one person that you haven't shared the gospel with that you would 00:52:56.760 |
Take some time to consider practical steps that you can take to implement your plans 00:53:00.520 |
and pray for each other to keep one another accountable. 00:53:02.800 |
So this is somebody that if you had one opportunity to share the gospel, is there somebody that 00:53:11.000 |
And again, this is not just to think about it, but to make practical plans. 00:53:14.940 |
Even if it's just giving them a note, even if it is, you know, I want to invite them 00:53:18.340 |
to the Christmas service so that they can hear the gospel. 00:53:22.120 |
Make a tangible plan so that you can implement this as an application. 00:53:28.240 |
So let me pray for us and then I'll leave you to your discussion.