back to indexEV Training Class #2
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So this is the accountability portion of this class. Alright, so number one, our 00:00:18.120 |
mission is God's purpose. God's purpose. Number two, our passion is God's glory. 00:00:28.560 |
Number three, our heart is love and obedience. Number four, our evangelism is 00:00:35.400 |
God-centered. Number five, our confidence is God's sovereignty. So pretty easy, right? 00:00:42.920 |
It was just the headings. So okay, and then number six, this was a little bit 00:00:47.200 |
open-ended but there is an answer to it. What does it mean when we say that as 00:00:51.080 |
evangelizers we must be careful to distinguish results from efforts? So the 00:00:55.960 |
idea or thought behind this one was that we're just simply meant to be 00:01:01.960 |
faithful preachers of the Word. So we don't have to worry about the fruit of 00:01:07.880 |
belief because that's on God. So number seven, in God-centered evangelism what is 00:01:13.960 |
involved is not only integral but primary. The local church is correct, 00:01:19.280 |
letter A. And then number eight, nine, and ten, just go ahead and answer those. And 00:01:26.520 |
the extra credit, list out the four Greek evangelism words. Remember these? Let's go 00:01:33.800 |
in order. The first one, the preach. Preach was uangelizo. The second one is 00:01:45.720 |
teaching which was didasco. Didasco. Don't worry if you didn't get it. The 00:01:53.000 |
English would be sufficient, right? Letter C, or the third one would be to 00:01:58.160 |
herald or to proclaim or to invite which is keruso. And then the fourth 00:02:03.600 |
one was the idea of witnessing. It sounds like martyreo. Okay, martyreo. So go 00:02:15.480 |
ahead and uh, so each one of those, if you got the Greek words, if you got the 00:02:19.280 |
English words you don't get a point. So you can write it, that's fine. But if you 00:02:24.880 |
wrote it in the Greek and somewhat it sounds similar, you can give 00:02:28.880 |
yourself an extra point for that. Hey, you're not turning these in. This is just 00:02:31.920 |
for you. So point per. So it's possible 14. 14 out of 10. 00:02:42.760 |
Okay, so we're gonna be doing this every week. It is important to get here on time. 00:03:01.120 |
Today, I get it, 730 in the morning. So please, next week we're gonna go back to 00:03:07.360 |
nine o'clock if you can try to get here at nine promptly so that we can grade 00:03:17.120 |
Well, last week we went into the whole motivation and the heart behind 00:03:23.800 |
evangelism. That is likely one of the more important concepts that you're 00:03:30.160 |
gonna have to keep in mind. That our desire and our heart, where our motivation 00:03:35.880 |
lies, if that's not there, everything else that we do for the next five classes, it 00:03:40.360 |
won't matter. You'll learn and perhaps you can, well it'll matter in the sense 00:03:46.400 |
that you might be able to evangelize a little bit clearer or crisper, but you 00:03:51.400 |
yourself, it might not be done out of a heart that actually honors the Lord. 00:03:56.120 |
So it actually says that in Isaiah chapter 44 and Isaiah chapter 55, God 00:04:03.040 |
lists out all these things to the Israelites. He talks about oxen or cows 00:04:07.200 |
and he talks about goats and then he talks about the grain offering and 00:04:13.120 |
he lists all these things out and right next to it he puts, "Don't do this. It 00:04:17.720 |
actually is as if you were drinking swine's blood." For the Israelites, it was 00:04:22.720 |
an act of worship. The way God received it, he said, "It's detestable." So 00:04:27.000 |
everything that we do, although we live in the new covenant now, there is still 00:04:31.120 |
the aspect of if we're not doing it for the right reason, if our heart is not in 00:04:34.680 |
the right place, we have to question, like is God pleased in it? So that's why 00:04:41.600 |
last week's class on motivation was so important. Today we're gonna go into the 00:04:47.220 |
first of the four in the gospel presentation itself, which is God. This is 00:04:54.180 |
the beginning of all of it, so the introduction. Although we can simplify 00:04:57.560 |
the gospel so that it's clear and understandable, we must not aim to reduce 00:05:02.000 |
the message of the gospel down to its minimalist form. Like any good teachers, 00:05:06.320 |
we are using various methods to help people understand the Christian worldview. 00:05:11.360 |
So the temptation is to not present the whole gospel and then I would say, I 00:05:18.960 |
would kind of pose this, the opposite, there's another temptation in the 00:05:22.720 |
opposite direction, which is to just be in with the fear of trying to get the 00:05:27.720 |
whole gospel, you just kind of list them out. And so tracks aren't bad, I think 00:05:33.600 |
they're helpful sometimes. You know, many of you might have used like the four 00:05:39.320 |
spiritual laws and things like that, but what you want to do is be able to be as 00:05:44.800 |
comfortable with these four points as possible so that you can interact with 00:05:49.280 |
people where they're at instead of saying, "Here, let's take you through this 00:05:53.200 |
tract." Tracts are helpful, I'm not saying it's wrong or bad. Actually, they're 00:05:57.720 |
probably beneficial, but for you to be as comfortable with the gospel and to be 00:06:03.800 |
able to take it from different angles, like you could spin it around and it's 00:06:07.360 |
like a globe, where you spin it around, put your finger somewhere and you know 00:06:10.600 |
exactly where you are, and you know how to lead people into this kind of 00:06:14.120 |
conversation. So there's going to be nothing new that comes out the next four 00:06:17.880 |
weeks. So I don't know if you're disappointed, this is an evangelism 00:06:22.240 |
training course, but I think this really is the way to evangelize. So the first 00:06:28.320 |
one is, "God is the creator." God is the creator. 00:06:34.280 |
Isaiah 44 24. Can we maybe start from Agnes and we'll go to Sue. 00:06:43.800 |
"Blessed is the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb. I am the Lord who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all above, who spread the broad earth by myself." 00:06:54.440 |
Okay, so this idea of God being creator is clear in Scripture, that's obvious. 00:06:59.960 |
Actually, Ariel, maybe you can read Revelation. "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." 00:07:12.440 |
And then Marsha next. "1 Corinthians 10 26. For the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness." 00:07:20.280 |
It's simple in our Christian worldview to just say God is the creator. But 00:07:30.080 |
there is a difference between truthfulness and truth. Truthfulness is 00:07:35.760 |
when you just learn Christian concepts, you learn truthful things. It's 00:07:40.960 |
different when you yourself truly believe something to be truth. And for 00:07:45.160 |
that to happen, you have to be able to defend it. Even something as simple 00:07:49.200 |
as this. You can talk to an unbeliever and say, "Hey, God's the creator." 00:07:52.640 |
You can say, "It's in the Bible." But you have to feel the confidence in, and even 00:07:57.840 |
Scripture, is it going to be just because you learned it in church? You 00:08:01.600 |
read it somewhere in the Bible? Remembering, even in Isaiah 44 when it 00:08:07.280 |
says, "Blessed is the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb. I am the 00:08:10.640 |
Lord who makes all things." It's so simple, but it gives you a lot of confidence in 00:08:15.320 |
this fact. He makes all things. He stretches out the heavens all alone, 00:08:21.080 |
spreads abroad the earth by myself. God alone was creator. There was no one else. 00:08:27.280 |
There was nothing else. It was God. He created. We hammer each of these things 00:08:33.360 |
down as concepts in our minds that are not just concepts, but a truth that we 00:08:38.200 |
individually believe. So there are ramifications to this. This is the 00:08:41.880 |
beginning of the gospel, that God is the creator. It's not easy to 00:08:48.160 |
always start with that, that God is creator. But this is our starting point. 00:08:52.880 |
And so, letter A, everything belongs to God. Everything has its origin and source 00:08:58.040 |
in God. Everything belongs to God. Everything has its origin and source in 00:09:04.680 |
God. That is the ramification of God being creator. You could talk to 00:09:09.240 |
unbelievers like this. If God creates, then the natural next thing is that 00:09:16.760 |
everything that is created then belongs to Him. We have a hard time with this 00:09:22.640 |
concept, but this isn't a hard concept. If you create something, it belongs to you. 00:09:27.960 |
That's in our society. That's how we're wired. And so, if God is a creator, if 00:09:33.960 |
they admit, "Yeah, I believe that God created the world," then you belong to Him. 00:09:37.920 |
That's the next natural ramification. Psalm 24. Let's go backwards. 00:09:59.360 |
"For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the 00:10:04.600 |
birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts that field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you. For the world is mine, and all is holy." 00:10:11.480 |
Okay, remember last week we talked about the fact that it's very easy to get lost 00:10:16.600 |
in man-centered gospel preaching. These thoughts are going to help you anchor 00:10:23.660 |
this down. We don't shake on this. We're not ashamed of this 00:10:28.080 |
concept. That you belong to the Lord. You belong to Him. He created you. He gave you 00:10:34.080 |
breath. He sustained you. He gives you heartbeat. He gives you the next day. 00:10:37.680 |
There is no living. In John 1.1, when it says, "In the 00:10:41.840 |
beginning was the Word, and the Word was God," right after that, 00:10:47.480 |
it says that this being, who we later in verse 14 know to be Jesus, 00:10:52.800 |
it says that He is the one that sustains life, and that through Him all things 00:10:58.480 |
were created, and for Him all things are. That's what we find in Colossians 00:11:01.880 |
chapter 1. Everything, just everything, all of creation is found in Him. 00:11:08.240 |
Again, we got to anchor this down. It's very tempting not to say these 00:11:13.440 |
things. We're ashamed of this concept, I think. That it sounds not 00:11:20.000 |
palatable to an unbeliever, but we're unashamed of saying this. He created you. 00:11:24.800 |
You belong to Him. Everything in this world belongs to Him. The second 00:11:29.400 |
ramification is that He has full authority of His creation. So if 00:11:33.680 |
everything belongs to Him, then He has full authority. I didn't type out Romans 00:11:44.120 |
9, 18 through 24, but do you all know this passage? This is a very difficult 00:11:48.240 |
passage. The clay, yeah right, right. Will the clay say to His 00:11:54.440 |
maker, "What are you gonna do? Will the pot say anything to the one 00:11:59.040 |
who made the pot?" No. He has full authority over you. He's like, "Don't make me this way." 00:12:04.680 |
You can't say that. It was in His volition to do that. You could get 00:12:10.800 |
mad or whatever, but it was totally in His volition to do that. Letter C, He 00:12:17.120 |
cares about His own creation. This is an actual ramification of God being creator. 00:12:28.000 |
Someone who creates cares about creation. Letter D, His creation then, and these go 00:12:34.960 |
together, that's why the verses are down below in D, His creation carries His 00:12:39.440 |
imprint. His creation carries His imprint. Psalm 19, 1. Oh, Alyssa? 00:12:49.680 |
So everything that's made in creation, it will show what the Creator is 00:13:01.640 |
like, what the Creator thinks is beautiful, what the Creator thinks is 00:13:07.080 |
good versus not good. He won't create something He doesn't like, right? So in 00:13:11.040 |
creation itself, there's an imprint of something about Him. And the pinnacle of 00:13:14.640 |
that we know from Genesis 1 is that it's us, it's humanity. Humanity is created in 00:13:20.160 |
the image of God. Romans 1, 18 through 23, we see that, that it's wired, 00:13:27.400 |
whether you're a believer or not, it's wired in you that there is a Creator God, 00:13:31.160 |
and that we are simply suppressing that truth that God is actually our Creator. 00:13:35.120 |
And in letter E, we have dignity. We have dignity. The biblical illustration, the 00:13:46.600 |
great biblical illustration of this is that He is the potter and we are the 00:13:49.400 |
clay. Since He molds the clay with intention, we know that He is a creative 00:13:53.480 |
God. Since He is the potter, He can make whatever shape He desires. Since He is 00:13:58.000 |
the potter, He's the one who has invested the time and the energy. Since He is the 00:14:01.520 |
potter, the clay bears the imprint of the Maker. You can see how this is very 00:14:08.200 |
helpful in talking to an unbeliever. If He is Creator, and if they admit to it, 00:14:13.800 |
which many people do, you're gonna go out and you're gonna ask, "Do you believe 00:14:17.440 |
that something created?" Many people walking out there say, "Yes." And who does 00:14:22.200 |
your life belong to? They'll say, "Me." I try to live a good life though, you know. 00:14:27.000 |
I say, "No, no, no. The ramifications of there being a Creator God is not 00:14:31.800 |
for someone to go and live on his own accord." Now you have to kind of 00:14:36.640 |
vet that out a little bit and see where that flows. Okay, here's some useful 00:14:41.440 |
questions. And this is helpful in bridging to Him as Creator. Letter A, "Is 00:14:49.680 |
this the way the world should be?" Try asking that question. Why? Because 00:14:56.440 |
how they answer that question is going to show what they think about the 00:15:01.520 |
Creator or lack thereof. Is this the world, is this the way the world 00:15:07.160 |
should be? In two weeks we're gonna be doing some role play. So you guys are 00:15:11.960 |
gonna be again taking on a different religious person or background and then 00:15:16.720 |
someone is gonna be a believer and you guys are gonna switch. These are some 00:15:19.760 |
questions you could ask though. As you're having this fake conversation, you know, 00:15:24.280 |
I'm gonna actually have you write out like a background of who you think 00:15:27.400 |
you are. So for the non-believer you can say like, "I converted at this 00:15:32.880 |
age," and stuff like that. And you're gonna really try to take on that role. So as 00:15:36.880 |
you're talking you can ask that, "Is this the way the world should be?" 00:15:40.040 |
And try to kind of go into that. "What do you think your purpose is in 00:15:45.040 |
life?" Think about how people might answer that question when you ask that. "What do 00:15:51.640 |
you think your purpose is in life?" What they say is going to prove or show or 00:15:58.800 |
reveal or manifest what they think of the Creator. "What do you think about 00:16:03.280 |
tree huggers?" There's a random one. The reason why I'm putting all these random 00:16:10.880 |
ones is because I'm trying to show you examples of different ways you could go 00:16:15.320 |
about this. You're gonna come across someone who's like an environmental 00:16:18.920 |
fiend. You know, they're all about the environment. And so you go, "What do you 00:16:22.840 |
think about tree huggers?" And they're gonna be like, "Oh great, you know, we got 00:16:27.020 |
to protect the environment." "Well why do we have to protect the environment?" "Oh 00:16:29.600 |
because we have..." And you keep going down this line. It's like, "Is there any real 00:16:35.520 |
reason other than the fact that you know that God created the world and He 00:16:40.080 |
created it good?" Letter D, "What kind of God is He?" If someone believes that there 00:16:44.000 |
is a God, you can ask this question. Here's some sins against this truth. So 00:16:51.500 |
this is what you should be looking for. When you come across this idea of 00:16:54.880 |
Creator and trying to help them see this concept of Creator, there are gonna be 00:16:58.880 |
people who just straight-up deny His existence. This is their 00:17:02.960 |
rebellion. This is their sin. Just be aware of that. If they're not denying His 00:17:10.860 |
existence, they might also be suppressing His existence. Or it could 00:17:15.240 |
kind of go hand-in-hand there too. You suppress His existence. 00:17:20.240 |
[Audience member] What's the difference between those? I've seen A like crazy. I haven't really seen B like crazy. 00:17:27.240 |
Yeah, I think they really do go hand-in-hand. You know, if you're 00:17:31.040 |
denying, you are definitely suppressing. But I have seen people who like just 00:17:34.480 |
straight-up feel like it's just suppressing. So we go onto the 00:17:40.960 |
campus every week. There are just lots of different types of people on the 00:17:45.280 |
college campuses. And they're all willing to talk. And they'll say something and 00:17:49.240 |
then the next sentence they're saying something that completely contradicts 00:17:53.160 |
what they said. And I say, "Hey, you're suppressing something here. 00:17:57.880 |
This is what you actually believe. You said it. It came out. 00:18:01.000 |
And then you said this. That's suppression." So they won't, a lot of 00:18:06.520 |
them will be like, "I'm not denying His existence. I don't know." I say, "Oh, you're 00:18:10.160 |
definitely suppressing something here. You know. You know. You said this." 00:18:15.640 |
So does that... Right, right. So people like to wiggle around and be like, "I don't 00:18:23.240 |
know." Bible says, "They know. They know. They're suppressing." So, okay. Any other 00:18:35.000 |
Oh, actually I do have a question. What if someone were to ask why did He create all things? 00:18:43.000 |
Because the answer that I gave to this person was that you can't say that, like, why a person creates. 00:18:50.760 |
It's just something is like their nature and character. We don't attribute something to... 00:18:56.200 |
We don't say a person is Creator and then therefore He creates. We say He creates, therefore He is a Creator. 00:19:02.760 |
So what would be, like, an alternative response to that? 00:19:07.400 |
Why did God create all things? Maybe we could... Anyone want to respond to that? 00:19:12.360 |
I'm not saying you have the right answer or... 00:19:15.960 |
I'm just saying from a social point of view, we are created to glorify God. That is why He created us. 00:19:24.600 |
As for why He created everything, I don't know. Why He saved us, I really don't know. 00:19:33.160 |
It's nice to have the choir here, you know. So, yeah. He created us ultimately for His glory. 00:19:40.600 |
And there's a lot that goes along with that, though. You know, we have the right 00:19:45.400 |
answers, but to be able to engage with someone, you know, it's a lot more complex than that, right? 00:19:52.600 |
We know God is holy and wrathful and just, but we know that there's a lot more to that 00:19:59.080 |
than someone who's a judge with a gavel. So we can't have this one-dimensional view of God 00:20:04.840 |
and just say, like, God is for God's glory. That is absolutely true. And then we work with that fact, 00:20:11.720 |
right? Which you would do, like, as you keep talking. Another facet of it is He wanted to. 00:20:19.640 |
You know, like, you don't ask an artist, like, why'd you do that? It was His joy to. It was His desire to. 00:20:29.160 |
Why are you asking this question, you know? So there's a lot that we as creation accuse God of 00:20:36.680 |
without realizing because we're made in His imprint, we actually know the answers to it. 00:20:40.680 |
Like, if we were to ask, like, they're not fair questions, you know? So even the age-old question of, 00:20:47.720 |
like, how could a loving God, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? Even that question, it's wired into us. 00:20:55.880 |
But because we're, like, so, like, self-centered, the accusations that we throw against God, like, it's, 00:21:02.840 |
like, we could quickly make people see that it doesn't make any sense, you know? Like, for example, 00:21:07.960 |
like, if you just use a simple image of, I talked about this with some of the college students, but 00:21:14.760 |
I saw a video this past Tuesday of, like, cockroach eggs, and they were hatching. It was really nasty. 00:21:21.960 |
There's, like, thousands of little cockroach eggs in a little pack. But if you imagine, like, a 00:21:25.800 |
cockroach egg nest, like, embedded into your wall, everybody in this room is going to say, "Destroy 00:21:35.320 |
the house," you know? Like, "Just get rid of everything. It is so nasty, so vile, so ugly." 00:21:42.920 |
You can hear it kind of skittering around. It was so gross. There is no one that's going to 00:21:48.040 |
approach the other direction and say, "Oh, well, you're going to kill them? You know, like, give them a chance," 00:21:57.240 |
you know? There's no one that's going to do that. And so there's this, like, view that we come from 00:22:02.280 |
where, because of our sin and because of, like, our desire to preserve ourselves, we throw accusations 00:22:08.440 |
up at God. That's what happened as soon as sin entered into the world. Blame shift, blame shift, 00:22:12.360 |
blame shift. And so we're trying to help people see that, you know, when you come from a God-centered 00:22:19.000 |
worldview, the man-centered worldview just crumbles. In Psalm 2, it says, "God looks down at man, and 00:22:25.960 |
he laughs, he scoffs in derision," like, these people who try to just do their own thing, you know? 00:22:32.520 |
Huh? Oh, the cockroaches? I'm not looking that up again. Oh, so gross. Okay. 00:22:43.960 |
God is holy. God is holy. 1 Samuel 2.2. I forgot who was next. 00:23:24.520 |
Okay. Another concept we understand, man, how difficult is it to communicate a holy God to an 00:23:33.000 |
unbeliever? That is so hard to do. And yet, you can't convince someone of their sin unless they 00:23:40.600 |
see that. So you can get a lot of people to see that they're flawed, and you can see a lot of 00:23:45.960 |
people to even see that they're broken. You can't get many people to see that they're sinful before 00:23:51.960 |
a holy God. But this is our anchoring thought. We can't get to next week's lesson until we go 00:24:00.760 |
through this one, that God is holy. We can get someone to say, like, "Hey, are you a liar?" 00:24:07.000 |
We've seen that done before, right? That presentation. Do you lie? Oh, then you're a liar. 00:24:18.920 |
Covetor? You get the picture. Like, so if you do these things, then you are. And someone might say, 00:24:25.640 |
like, "Oh, yeah, I am." But until the holiness of God is seen, what are you trying to convince them 00:24:33.800 |
of? How can you convince them of their need for Jesus? There's no need to even get to those points 00:24:41.400 |
until they are able to see this. This is the truth. But here are some of the ramifications, 00:24:46.920 |
and then we'll kind of circle back to it. Letter A, God determines the standard of right and wrong. 00:24:52.120 |
If God is indeed holy, then what someone thinks right or wrong is does not end up mattering. He 00:24:58.920 |
dictates it. He says it, and that's how it is. Like someone who creates a board game, 00:25:05.400 |
they make the rules. No one can come by and start questioning you and be like, "Why? Why would you 00:25:09.880 |
do that?" He made the board game. That's how it is. Letter B, the holy God requires perfect 00:25:15.800 |
obedience to his law. The holy God requires perfect obedience to his law. 00:25:43.880 |
All right. So if God is indeed holy, then there are these ramifications that come out that we 00:25:57.400 |
must adhere to the holy law. Now, God being holy, it can be displayed. There is this idea, 00:26:11.240 |
when we think of just even the justice system, we have an inherent understanding of adhering to 00:26:19.080 |
a good law. And so when you try to display God's holiness, you can talk about it with someone 00:26:29.640 |
with images that they will be able to understand. But I want to kind of come back to this. 00:26:38.600 |
Don't stray too far from the authority of scripture. 00:26:41.080 |
Even just the ability to say, "Hey, this is God's word, and it tells us who God is, 00:26:49.800 |
that he is holy, and that one day when you die, you will come across a holy God 00:26:56.200 |
who is going to judge right and wrong." That thing, more often than not, if you guys have 00:27:02.760 |
gone evangelizing pretty frequently, more often than not, actually a lot of people believe it. 00:27:08.120 |
They don't buck against that too much. And I was very surprised by that the more I saw that. 00:27:12.040 |
Why don't people buck against this idea of the fact that they're going to be judged one day? 00:27:17.080 |
It's very strange. It's embedded in many, many religions that we're going to be judged on some 00:27:23.000 |
kind of standard. And so to get people to believe that God is holy just by saying, "Hey, it says 00:27:28.200 |
here in God's word that God is holy," people don't fight against that as much as I thought they 00:27:33.000 |
would. They fight against lots of other things, but I don't think there's a reason to try to 00:27:38.360 |
go too far with this. That's how it is. God is holy. So you can go into the morality, into the 00:27:45.640 |
ethics, like why is there right and wrong? You should, and you should talk about those things. 00:27:50.040 |
We'll talk about some of those things in the methodologies portion in section six, 00:27:54.200 |
and talk about why do you think it's wrong for someone to, "Is it okay for me to come up to you 00:27:59.000 |
and slap you in the face?" Would that be right or wrong? Wrong. Well, you have morality. It's good 00:28:04.680 |
to talk about all this, but sometimes you can get lost in that. It's like, man, God is a holy God. 00:28:09.640 |
Okay. Then letter C, and this is why the law of God is revealed in conscience. 00:28:19.480 |
So when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these, 00:28:25.960 |
although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law 00:28:29.800 |
written in their hearts, their conscience also being a witness, and between themselves, 00:28:33.880 |
their thoughts, if using or else if using them. Okay. 00:28:43.960 |
Yeah. So it's all in there. He describes even the Gentiles. They don't have the law, but by 00:28:49.560 |
nature do the things in the law. Remember the law being given to the Israelites was given as God's 00:28:55.480 |
grace to give a very clear path, but the law was actually written on the hearts of people. 00:29:02.200 |
It's there. And so again, it's not difficult to get people to believe in the fact that God is holy. 00:29:10.200 |
Here's some useful questions to address this. How do you deal with guilt? 00:29:14.120 |
Oh man, I've gotten some fascinating answers to this one. How do you deal with guilt? 00:29:19.880 |
There is no human being that can actually live with guilt. You can't. You have to do something 00:29:29.240 |
with it, whether you bury it or try to justify it or whatever. When you talk about guilt, 00:29:38.040 |
they'll just start talking about the fact that they actually do believe 00:29:41.400 |
that they are under some kind of judgment and scrutiny. It's immediate. And when you start 00:29:48.920 |
talking, you should talk about things as if people have an understanding of created order. 00:29:55.640 |
That they have these things that God is holy and that we are going to be judged by him. We can talk 00:30:02.120 |
to them as if they have an understanding of it. And when you do, when you try to go around and 00:30:08.120 |
convince them of something that you think they might not be convinced of, sometimes you do a 00:30:13.160 |
disservice to it. Don't be afraid. Don't be so scared that you're going to jump too far ahead 00:30:20.200 |
of them. They know a lot more inherently than we give them credit for just by being humanity. 00:30:28.600 |
Did that make sense? I don't know if that was clear. Okay. Let it be. Who determines the right 00:30:34.200 |
and wrong for you? Or even in our society? I'm sure all of you have used this one before. 00:30:39.720 |
Who determines right or wrong? What do you think God requires from us? 00:30:43.240 |
Just imagine the answers that come to this one. What do you think God wants from us? 00:30:50.280 |
We get a lot of like, "Oh, he wants us to be good people." 00:30:55.480 |
Well, if God is holy, there's a lot more to it than that. Let it be. On what basis does 00:30:59.480 |
God determine who goes to heaven and who goes to hell? And why? Why do you believe that? 00:31:04.840 |
Yeah, we're going to talk about open-ended questions at the end of this. 00:31:12.200 |
All right. Sins against this truth. People will try to deny an objective standard. 00:31:18.920 |
So don't let people get away with this one. If your standard is not my standard, then 00:31:25.640 |
at what point does our standards align? I can slap you in the face then, right? Because 00:31:30.760 |
it's not against my standard. Suppression of guilt, that's similar to the other one. 00:31:34.840 |
So if you corner people and saying, you corner people into a place where it's like, "Oh, 00:31:42.600 |
it's got to be some kind of objectivity here." Like your standard can't, like the fact that I'm 00:31:47.640 |
so staunch on mine, you're going to get cornered at a certain point and then they're going to start 00:31:53.320 |
trying to suppress the guilt portion of it. Involvement in false religions. False religions 00:31:59.960 |
have come up because of this. And then sin upon sin. People will, on top of their sin, begin to 00:32:11.080 |
sin more and more and more because in the face of God's holiness, there needs to be zero sin. 00:32:19.240 |
So when you're encountering one sin, you either confess and repent of that sin or you have to 00:32:25.400 |
sin more to be able to suppress that sin. And that's what you'll find people doing in light 00:32:29.400 |
of a holy God. So all of this, it feels very theoretical right now, but we're going to be 00:32:36.760 |
reviewing these things as we go out. And once we, when we're going out, as you're talking, 00:32:41.960 |
if you start, if you keep these things in mind somewhere in your brain, it's going to, 00:32:45.800 |
you're going to, it's going to start making sense. You're going to be like, "Oh, I see what you're 00:32:48.280 |
doing here." You know, like this stuff is just, it's out of, largely out of a book called 00:32:53.880 |
The Metzger Book. Did I tell the truth? Is that what it was? I thought it was like a TV show and 00:33:02.200 |
I got confused for a second. Yeah. So, so a lot of it comes out of these people who have gone 00:33:08.040 |
evangelizing a lot and they've used all their study to kind of confirm many things. And the 00:33:16.200 |
things that I pulled out of the book are the things that I've gone out and done a lot of. 00:33:20.200 |
And I'm like, man, these are the things, these are the main things I kind of see a ton. Okay. 00:33:25.400 |
Any questions up to this point? All right. The, The Chantry Book, the Today's Gospel is a great 00:33:34.520 |
resource by the way. Very small, thin book, pretty cheap on Amazon, I think. But he says here, 00:33:40.280 |
"Preaching on the attributes of God is essential to the conversion of a man. Without a knowledge 00:33:44.680 |
of God, a sinner does not know whom he has offended, who threatens him with destruction, 00:33:48.920 |
or who is able to save him. Apart from some clear apprehensions of God, there can be no personal 00:33:54.040 |
approach to God, and personal savior becomes a hollow phrase." So again, if you don't anchor on 00:33:59.560 |
this idea of God being creator, God being holy, then everything else we're going to talk about 00:34:03.960 |
will fall apart. So given all this, what is the starting point and what is the common ground? 00:34:11.080 |
I do believe the general revelation is a very good place to begin. Probably the place to begin. 00:34:17.000 |
Sometimes when I'm looking at someone, this is the thought I have, and just running through my brain, 00:34:26.840 |
you know that God is, you know that God is God the creator. 00:34:32.280 |
Like, and talk to them like they, like they know. If you're constantly trying to convince them that 00:34:40.360 |
God exists, you know, it just goes down a rabbit trail. And when you just, when you anchor this 00:34:46.600 |
down, you'll hear them say something, some certain things, and you'll hear it in those 00:34:51.960 |
comments that they're using. Like what you just said just proves that you believe in a God. 00:34:59.400 |
It comes out so much. But if you don't have that anchoring thought in, you're going to spend a lot 00:35:05.640 |
of time trying to convince it, and you're going to miss the idea and the thought that like, man, 00:35:10.200 |
what he just said proved it, but he got away with that statement. And you're still trying to make 00:35:16.040 |
him believe that there's a God. Yes? Is it still like an appropriate starting point when you're 00:35:21.000 |
talking about like a staunch atheist? Yeah, I mean, with an atheist, it's, it's pretty easy. I mean, 00:35:28.760 |
we've all used this, I'm guessing the same strategy. Where does anything come from, right? 00:35:34.040 |
That's like the first line. And they're going to go and go and go. But at a certain point, 00:35:40.680 |
they're going to say, I don't know. They have to. That's the end for the atheist. I don't know. 00:35:45.320 |
But it's a, it's a higher philosophy, or like, it's a, it's a more sophisticated philosophy 00:35:51.080 |
for them, right? Like I'm more sophisticated because I'm able to say, I don't know. 00:35:57.080 |
Right. Which is faith. And so I still think it's a starting point. I say like, I believe 00:36:05.480 |
something too. Like I have faith too. And I believe that God created everything. 00:36:11.320 |
I would say that to an atheist. I believe that God created everything. And pull him into the 00:36:17.960 |
biblical worldview rather than play in his playground. Because he knows. So don't play 00:36:28.520 |
their game. Don't go into their world and, and be like, well, I'm going to try to convince you of 00:36:34.920 |
the fact like what you just said, like you don't know, proves that, like, first of all, at the very 00:36:41.880 |
least that there is place or space that perhaps God exists, right? And they're going to say, 00:36:49.240 |
well, I guess, you know, like, and so you go from there and you get to the point where you say, 00:36:55.400 |
well, God created all things. So I would say that next, even if they're not fully here, 00:36:59.800 |
them taking that step into the biblical worldview, maybe he does as an atheist for him to say that, 00:37:06.200 |
I would say, well, God is the creator. He exists. Everything we see around us has been created by 00:37:12.840 |
God, you know, and we do that unapologetically. We say it with a smile on our face and we say 00:37:17.960 |
it very nicely. But we say, basically, what we're saying is you're wrong. Not because we have all 00:37:24.040 |
the truth, like, like perfectly like wrapped up and stuff like that. But by the confidence that 00:37:30.840 |
we have in our word. So, okay, I keep moving here. So you know that God is, God the creator, 00:37:39.960 |
but you also have the moral law that God is the Holy One. That's your conscience. You know 00:37:46.440 |
that there is right and wrong. What is guilt? You have these things that points to some kind 00:37:54.360 |
of creator that is actually, at the very least, good or better or the word we use is holy. 00:38:02.600 |
Launching the conversation, start with a common conversation. So don't like go and like, 00:38:11.320 |
like say, hey, so what kind of background do you come from? And they're like talking about the fact 00:38:15.560 |
that they're Buddhist. And then you just go like, well, God is creator and he's holy, you know, 00:38:20.840 |
don't do that. But like, start with common conversation. What you're trying to do again, 00:38:25.640 |
like this isn't, this isn't like a step by step thing that we're going through. We're saying, 00:38:30.920 |
tack these things down in your heart, in your in your mind, so that you can at any point when 00:38:36.840 |
you're spinning it around in a conversation, these things are you're so intimately aware with the 00:38:41.000 |
gospel. We understand that, right? The four points are the gospel. We're so intimately aware with it 00:38:46.760 |
that when he says something like something pops up, and that becomes the grabbing point, like, 00:38:51.560 |
oh, he like this is where I can say that God is creator. This is where I can bring up the point 00:38:55.640 |
that God is holy. But start with a common conversation. Listen very carefully, please, 00:39:01.880 |
please, please do not, we're going to go out hopefully together. But as we go and do this, 00:39:09.480 |
do not be formulating just your own answer. Actually hear what they're saying. Try to 00:39:16.200 |
almost like try to step into their shoes. And why are they saying what they're saying? 00:39:20.840 |
Why are they thinking the way they're thinking? Why did he get defensive when I said this? 00:39:25.800 |
Yeah, you're, you're trying to understand the person. So listen carefully and wait patiently 00:39:30.120 |
for the answers. Our goal is not to, you know, be like in your face kind of thing. You know, 00:39:36.680 |
our goal is not to beat them in some kind of debate. Our goal is to care, to love, and ultimately 00:39:43.960 |
to restore God's glory in this person's life because God's glory is that important to us. 00:39:49.240 |
So we patiently a lot of times I think we are after our own glory, because this is what we 00:39:55.000 |
believe. And so our egos are involved in it. And so as we're talking with people, 00:39:58.920 |
we're not talking on behalf of God anymore. We're talking on behalf of our Christianity. And that's 00:40:05.960 |
very, very bad. You know, it's you lose the love and you lost it. So ask good questions. 00:40:13.880 |
So we don't have to be preaching at them. We're trying to circulate something here. So ask lots 00:40:25.080 |
of good questions. I gave you just some in this packet or in this section. The useful questions 00:40:32.760 |
in both the God is Creator and God is Holy sections. So those are some starting points, 00:40:36.360 |
but you can tell that those are just one out of thousands of questions that you can ask 00:40:40.520 |
based on these things. Ask permission to ask direct questions. This has been super helpful for me. 00:40:46.120 |
This was another one of those surprising things. Where are we here? 00:40:58.360 |
Oh, actually, let's backtrack. So sometimes you have to ask yes or no questions. Have you ever 00:41:04.600 |
wondered why we're here? Is this the way the world should be? Do you think that God is involved in 00:41:09.160 |
our world today? So what the yes or no questions do is it makes them, you and them, you affirm 00:41:17.720 |
them that we are on some kind of common ground here. Okay, so for example, do you think that 00:41:23.000 |
God is involved in our world today? If they say yes, there are going to be statements that they 00:41:28.120 |
make after that will disprove what they said. So you say, but you said yes, we agree to the fact 00:41:34.760 |
that God is indeed involved or something like that. So yes or no questions do have its place. 00:41:40.280 |
However, open-ended questions are better. The how, what, why, you can ask, oh, can you explain 00:41:48.440 |
that a little bit further? Those are good. Make them talk and make sure that they're not talking 00:41:57.080 |
you know, like nonsensically. So if you don't get it, don't just assume that, assume it, 00:42:06.600 |
you know, because they're a Hindu guy or whatever. So here's some of those questions that can help. 00:42:12.280 |
How did you make that decision? What motivated you to choose this job? Why is that so important 00:42:18.760 |
to you? Who determines if something is right or wrong? What do you think God requires of us to 00:42:22.280 |
go to heaven? How does someone in your religion get to heaven? Have them explain. You're trying 00:42:26.120 |
to get them to explain their worldview so that you can understand them better. All right, now we get 00:42:30.120 |
to ask permission to ask direct questions. We have here, can I ask you a personal question, Mike? 00:42:35.960 |
How do you deal with guilt or shame? How do I know if God approves of me or not? 00:42:40.520 |
So when they're difficult questions, when you feel like, oh, they're getting defensive 00:42:45.000 |
and they look uncomfortable, you could ask them for permission and it really helps 00:42:50.760 |
because it makes it feel like they're kind of in control again. They're not like backing up, 00:42:57.160 |
but they're like, I gave this guy permission. So now I'm the one kind of moving back forward 00:43:01.960 |
and there you can kind of re-engage. So ask permission to ask direct questions. Can I ask you 00:43:08.760 |
kind of a difficult question? I'm not trying to be offensive, but do you mind if I ask it? 00:43:15.960 |
Do you think you're a sinner? So if you just said, if you said like, hey, do you think you're a 00:43:22.280 |
sinner? They might be like, what? But the responses you'll get will be very defensive in nature. 00:43:28.680 |
But if you ask them, they're going to be like, oh yeah, you know, I think, yeah, 00:43:31.960 |
it gets a little more cordial. Though that's not our, that's not our goal. It's helpful. 00:43:36.920 |
Letter E, listen again and then apply the Christian worldview. 00:43:43.400 |
Okay. So you're, you're starting with a common conversation. You're listening and waiting for 00:43:47.800 |
answers. You're clarifying things. You're asking good questions. You're asking permission to ask, 00:43:52.760 |
ask questions. You're listening again. And as you're doing all this, you're, what you're 00:43:58.600 |
gathering is their worldview. And then what you're doing is you pull them into the Christian worldview. 00:44:03.160 |
So just the last thought, we sometimes think like if it's me and Marsha, 00:44:12.680 |
we sometimes think that they're there, I'm here and here's the truth. Okay. And so we're trying 00:44:18.920 |
to get to the truth, but what, how it really is, the actual picture is she's there. I'm standing 00:44:25.480 |
on truth. So you're pulling her here. So that, keep that, keep that there. Like the anchoring 00:44:31.800 |
is on God and who he is. Pull, pull them into that. All the other stuff, like it'll start to 00:44:38.760 |
fall in place the next few weeks as we go into man, as we go into Jesus, as we go into what is 00:44:44.440 |
conversion, how, how do, how are they called to respond and apprehend the first three points 00:44:48.840 |
for it to become a saving gospel to them? Okay. Any final questions? 00:45:05.880 |
all the homework is going to be written at the end of these. 00:45:08.440 |
So if it's not written there, it's not homework. Uh, homework should be, 00:45:18.120 |
is it handling objections? Is it that one? Okay. So handling objections. So this is a resource, 00:45:24.600 |
read through it. There are a lot of questions that you're going to want to ask here that, 00:45:28.280 |
uh, we're not going to get to because we're trying to get to the fundamentals of the gospel. 00:45:32.280 |
And so the handling objections portion might be helpful. Um, as a person who takes this class, 00:45:37.960 |
if you want to write up a little snippet to add to this packet, you can send me something. 00:45:43.560 |
There's like this objection that someone came up with and you're like, wow, that was a good 00:45:46.520 |
objection. Answer that objection, send it to me. I'll include it in the packet if it's, if it's 00:45:50.840 |
good. If it's bad, I won't. Um, if it's good, I'll add it so that the future classes will have more. 00:45:56.760 |
Okay. So you can help, uh, Burian like that. And then, uh, we are going to be also reading, 00:46:05.160 |
which, which two religions are going into? Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, 00:46:10.920 |
the people who come to your door, right? So we'll hit those. And then, um, 00:46:15.240 |
and then the memory versus for God. Hmm. Oh, it's in, it's in your resources section. 00:46:24.200 |
So I think it's your, your last resource right here. 00:46:27.480 |
There's four of them. So it's fair game for quiz. Just saying. Okay. 00:46:35.480 |
Does everyone, did everyone see it? The memory versus are back here. So you're not going into 00:46:40.440 |
the packet or the lesson itself to get it. It's right, right here. Okay. Actually, 00:46:48.840 |
we have time for no more questions. I got to run. So, um, Oh, I have it right here. Okay. 00:47:04.920 |
Just to be aware, um, in the calendar, uh, again, uh, we'll talk about it some more next week, but 00:47:15.000 |
why is nothing in my folder? In your calendar shows you the two things I'm asking you to try 00:47:19.960 |
to participate in, which is the, um, gospel, no, the evangelism time that we're going to be doing 00:47:25.720 |
in March. And then in April, there's a gospel night. Okay. So I'm going to be asking you to, 00:47:32.120 |
uh, like listen, listen for the announcements today during Sunday service and, uh, be engaged 00:47:36.360 |
with that because as a class, unless you have prior engagements, totally fine. You didn't know 00:47:40.840 |
before we had the class, so that's okay. Um, but if you have that slot free, um, try to think of 00:47:46.760 |
it as mandatory. Um, yeah, that way, uh, we'll go and we'll share the gospel together. And, uh, 00:47:54.280 |
it's two, I think very good ways to do it. It's the cold evangelism. And then it's the, 00:47:58.680 |
bring a friend to church type of evangelism. And then the middle two weeks, we're going to be, 00:48:03.640 |
um, I'm actually going to be asking you guys to write down the name of somebody that you know, 00:48:08.440 |
that you regularly are maybe interacting with, um, and to actually share the gospel with them. 00:48:13.320 |
Okay. So that one is a little scarier, I think, than cold evangelism because there's some skin 00:48:17.880 |
in the game there. So, okay. Are we good? Any questions? No questions? Okay. Let's pray. 00:48:23.800 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for your help to evangelize a gospel that truly is centered around 00:48:32.840 |
you, uh, that we might not waver as people who believe in a high view of God and a high view of 00:48:39.000 |
your word, uh, that we might not waver in, uh, deadening and diluting and, and making, uh, 00:48:45.480 |
boiling things down to, to, uh, something so simplistic that it is no longer the gospel. 00:48:51.000 |
Father, we know that the enemy loves it when we preach an incomplete gospel. Um, God, it is not 00:48:56.840 |
a gospel that is effective to save. And so God, I pray that this would be truly our anchoring thought. 00:49:03.560 |
You are a holy God. You have created us. Father, everything else falls under that. And so Lord, 00:49:11.880 |
teach us, teach us to fear you then that these are not things we're not just preaching. God is holy. 00:49:18.040 |
God is creator to others, but we believe it deeply. And so we tremble and fear you. We tremble 00:49:23.560 |
before you and we fear you. And so God, when there's, when we're sitting across from someone 00:49:28.680 |
sharing the gospel, we no longer fear them. And so Lord help us to be people who are able in that 00:49:36.040 |
place, not to love ourselves, but to love the person we're looking at. And most of all, to love 00:49:40.520 |
you that we would draw them to the one we love in Jesus name we pray. Amen.