Overcoming Fear and Passivity in Evangelism
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | Two weeks back, we looked at missions
00:00:06.560 | and personal evangelism, the goal of it all.
00:00:09.240 | Why did Paul specifically give his life
00:00:11.680 | to spreading the gospel?
00:00:13.720 | And we got the answer.
00:00:14.760 | Paul was all about winning, winning.
00:00:17.880 | He mentions the word win five times in four verses
00:00:21.400 | in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 19 to 22.
00:00:24.360 | Now is our focus in APJ 1898 recently.
00:00:28.520 | It's pretty easy to speak of evangelism
00:00:30.940 | in the abstract like that.
00:00:33.100 | And it's far more challenging to actually do evangelism.
00:00:36.560 | So today I want to encourage you with a story.
00:00:39.160 | This is the story of one man's attempt
00:00:41.600 | to win another man to Christ, a story of two neighbors.
00:00:45.560 | And it's a story that will challenge us
00:00:47.020 | to consider the all important question
00:00:49.440 | behind all of our evangelism.
00:00:51.520 | What is Jesus worth to me?
00:00:54.400 | Your answer to that question
00:00:57.040 | becomes your shareable testimony.
00:00:59.000 | It's what you offer others
00:01:01.120 | as you seek to win them to Christ.
00:01:04.480 | When it comes to personal evangelism,
00:01:06.320 | I'm encouraged by gritty and honest stories
00:01:09.640 | of doubt and hesitation and overcoming fears.
00:01:13.840 | And that's what we get today.
00:01:15.320 | The story of one man, Pastor John,
00:01:18.260 | seeking to win his next door neighbor to Christ,
00:01:20.440 | a man named Alan.
00:01:22.460 | And a very rare extended story told by Pastor John
00:01:26.480 | back in 1982, over 40 years ago.
00:01:30.280 | Here it is.
00:01:31.820 | - I have a neighbor named Alan.
00:01:33.800 | And he's a single man and in his 40s, I would guess.
00:01:40.080 | When Noel and I moved into the neighborhood over here,
00:01:43.520 | I met him probably the first or second day.
00:01:47.320 | And in that conversation,
00:01:49.520 | I asked if he went to church anywhere.
00:01:51.720 | He said, "No."
00:01:54.700 | And my response to that was,
00:01:57.300 | "Well, you're sure welcome to come to Bethlehem anytime."
00:02:00.280 | Knew I was the pastor there, I told him that.
00:02:02.740 | And I dropped.
00:02:04.260 | Now, the reason I dropped it there,
00:02:06.540 | I mean, I assume when somebody says
00:02:07.760 | they don't go to church anywhere,
00:02:08.820 | that they probably don't know Christ,
00:02:10.220 | because Christ moves his people into fellowship.
00:02:13.220 | The reason I didn't follow up on that,
00:02:14.780 | though I suspected he needed the Lord very much,
00:02:18.500 | is not because I had a very clear and wise strategy
00:02:24.460 | for reaching him in the next few weeks.
00:02:26.620 | It's because I was inept and my faith was not vital
00:02:30.860 | and Christ was not very precious to me at that moment,
00:02:34.580 | communicating to me a love for this man.
00:02:37.920 | Now, a year goes by.
00:02:40.660 | During the year from the summer of '80 to the summer of '81,
00:02:43.860 | I saw him, I don't know how many times,
00:02:47.500 | but never in any extended conversation,
00:02:49.860 | just passing along the way, "Hi, Alan."
00:02:52.820 | "Hi, John," and that was it, pretty much,
00:02:55.460 | even though he lives right next door.
00:02:57.580 | And during the year, I could hardly ever go to prayer
00:03:03.660 | without him coming to mind.
00:03:06.180 | I would go to God feeling low sometimes and say,
00:03:09.560 | "God, I want power.
00:03:11.980 | "I want blessing on my life.
00:03:13.380 | "Is there anything standing between me and you?
00:03:15.500 | "Is there?"
00:03:16.340 | Yeah, yeah, yeah, every time.
00:03:22.260 | I felt so guilty.
00:03:23.500 | And what happened was that I began to pray very fervently.
00:03:30.060 | And I asked the Lord to give me courage,
00:03:36.380 | most of all, love, that I'd be authentic,
00:03:39.140 | really care so that when I spoke, it was real.
00:03:42.740 | And then the Lord began very patiently
00:03:46.780 | to move me step by step.
00:03:48.260 | Here was step number one.
00:03:49.420 | He caused me in the spring to start carrying
00:03:52.540 | this little booklet around,
00:03:53.540 | "Becoming a Christian" by John Stott.
00:03:55.460 | I'd carry it in this pocket right here every day.
00:03:59.260 | And I vowed to the Lord, "Next time I see Alan,
00:04:02.840 | "and I'm gonna talk to him about his faith.
00:04:05.280 | "I'm gonna tell him, 'Alan, I care about you,
00:04:08.180 | "'and this book has been a help to me,
00:04:09.900 | "'and maybe you could read it and we could talk about it.'"
00:04:12.820 | That was my tactic.
00:04:14.060 | The Lord laid that on my heart.
00:04:16.420 | Okay, summer all the way through up to July,
00:04:21.340 | end of July, and it's time to go on vacation.
00:04:23.780 | Never seen him, hadn't seen him for three months.
00:04:26.980 | By carrying this thing the whole time, it's all shabby.
00:04:28.740 | I got a new one out and put it in my pocket.
00:04:31.460 | Then I think it was about the day before vacation,
00:04:34.220 | just before August, I had to get some grading done
00:04:36.900 | on the side of the house.
00:04:38.900 | And I had to get his permission
00:04:40.460 | 'cause it was gonna go over into his yard, I thought,
00:04:43.760 | and told him about the grading.
00:04:45.700 | Is that okay?
00:04:46.540 | Oh, sure.
00:04:47.900 | Alan, I said, "You remember last time we talked,
00:04:52.900 | "you said you didn't go to church anywhere,
00:04:54.860 | "and I assume that means you don't have much interest
00:04:58.040 | "in Jesus either, and you probably know
00:05:00.980 | "that I count him as my Lord,
00:05:03.500 | "and I'm really concerned when people don't care
00:05:07.140 | "about Jesus, and I've been carrying this book around
00:05:09.340 | "for three months in hopes to give it to you
00:05:12.740 | "so that maybe we could talk about what it means
00:05:15.660 | "to trust Christ.
00:05:17.660 | "Would you mind reading it?"
00:05:19.860 | Sure, I'll read it.
00:05:21.860 | He was going to the Boundary Waters the next day.
00:05:24.820 | He took it very courteously, thanked me for it,
00:05:27.460 | and the last I saw of him, he took Christmas.
00:05:31.580 | But I'm getting ahead of myself.
00:05:33.380 | After that, I was in constant prayer
00:05:36.100 | about how I should follow up on this.
00:05:38.260 | You just can't.
00:05:39.380 | If you really care about somebody,
00:05:40.380 | you don't stick 'em with literature and run away.
00:05:43.300 | What do I do next, Lord?
00:05:44.940 | What's the next move?
00:05:46.500 | One Monday morning in the fall,
00:05:52.620 | I was praying back here in my study,
00:05:55.500 | and I couldn't get off my knees
00:05:57.940 | until I made a vow to the Lord.
00:06:01.140 | And what I vowed was I'll call him tonight.
00:06:04.380 | Then I got up, and I told these interns that afternoon,
00:06:10.020 | "Guys, I'm gonna call him tonight,
00:06:12.180 | "and I'm gonna ask him if we could talk about the book."
00:06:16.940 | And they prayed for me, and 7.30, I called him.
00:06:19.940 | He wasn't home.
00:06:21.140 | Called him again.
00:06:21.980 | He wasn't home.
00:06:22.820 | He didn't come home all night.
00:06:24.300 | I felt good.
00:06:25.140 | I'd never, I hadn't done that for a long time,
00:06:27.860 | and that made me feel good that at least I'd done that.
00:06:32.860 | Now, I didn't feel right to call him the next night
00:06:36.740 | because the Lord started to lay on me another thing.
00:06:39.500 | Forget the phone.
00:06:40.620 | Let's have a face-to-face.
00:06:42.820 | Go.
00:06:43.660 | Jesus went.
00:06:44.660 | Go.
00:06:46.100 | Quit this intermediate stuff, and go if you care.
00:06:50.380 | Now, the next thing that happened
00:06:52.660 | was this Christmas open house we had.
00:06:55.380 | That was end of November, and he came.
00:06:58.020 | That's the first time I'd seen him since July.
00:07:00.500 | But the living room was just full of people.
00:07:02.180 | We sat on the floor together.
00:07:03.460 | He felt so good to be there.
00:07:04.980 | He's just natural and nice.
00:07:06.580 | Great.
00:07:07.420 | He's not as scared of me,
00:07:08.820 | and that's good,
00:07:10.140 | but I didn't ask him about the book fair
00:07:12.140 | because there's so many people around.
00:07:13.700 | I don't know whether I should have or not, but I did.
00:07:15.980 | And he left, and I felt good that he had felt free to come,
00:07:18.180 | and I felt like now I know he's not afraid of me,
00:07:21.980 | and so we can be natural with each other.
00:07:25.340 | And then I did something that I recommend to everybody.
00:07:28.180 | Monday, December 14th, I took a retreat day.
00:07:32.460 | For five hours, I prayed and read the Bible,
00:07:35.860 | and the Lord laid on me a great burden
00:07:40.860 | for last week's sermon and this week's sermon,
00:07:43.900 | and I suspected very strongly I couldn't preach it
00:07:47.100 | if I didn't follow through without it.
00:07:49.940 | That's the pressure for a preacher.
00:07:52.420 | The fruitlessness of our witness at Bethlehem
00:07:54.980 | really weighed on me,
00:07:56.580 | and I knew the problem was as much with me
00:07:59.580 | as with any of you,
00:08:01.540 | and therefore, as a leader and a pastor,
00:08:04.340 | I knew some changes had to be made in me.
00:08:09.180 | Sure, I witness every Sunday from this pulpit,
00:08:11.740 | and you may think, "Oh, Piper, he's so fortunate.
00:08:13.860 | He can just declare the Word all the time and feel great."
00:08:16.700 | And I talk to people about the Lord in my study
00:08:18.620 | every time they come there.
00:08:19.700 | I hardly let anybody get out without the Gospel.
00:08:23.340 | That's easy.
00:08:24.900 | But when it comes to going to the people in the world
00:08:29.060 | where they are, like Jesus did,
00:08:31.260 | I am as hesitant as any of you,
00:08:33.860 | so don't think any differently.
00:08:36.780 | We're all in it together.
00:08:38.860 | I knew something had to give in me.
00:08:42.340 | Something had to snap.
00:08:43.500 | Some long ingrained fears had to be overcome
00:08:47.820 | if I was going to be any authentic minister.
00:08:51.260 | If I was going to keep going as pastor,
00:08:54.380 | I said to myself,
00:08:55.380 | "I have to quit denying the Gospel through silence."
00:08:58.140 | If I'm going to stand in this pulpit and say to you,
00:09:00.100 | "Love your neighbor, love your neighbor,
00:09:01.820 | love your neighbor,"
00:09:03.140 | I had to quit contradicting that command by my own neglect.
00:09:07.620 | So, December 23rd rolled around.
00:09:10.540 | Early before breakfast, I was praying downstairs.
00:09:13.780 | And the Lord did something He hasn't done
00:09:15.900 | for ever in one sense to me.
00:09:19.340 | I was wrestling, wanting the resolve,
00:09:22.340 | yet not wanting the resolve
00:09:25.060 | to get up off my knees and go.
00:09:27.460 | And the Lord would not let me up
00:09:29.540 | until I vowed to do it.
00:09:30.940 | At night.
00:09:33.140 | Now, besides 18 months of prayer
00:09:37.260 | and faltering and little baby steps,
00:09:40.580 | the thing that brought me to that point
00:09:42.740 | was this question,
00:09:44.300 | how much is Jesus worth?
00:09:47.020 | And I took one of these big yellow sheets of paper
00:09:50.820 | and I laid it beside me on the couch
00:09:52.620 | where I was kneeling.
00:09:54.140 | And I wrote for myself,
00:09:56.940 | "How much is Jesus worth?"
00:09:59.060 | at the top of the page.
00:10:01.180 | And then here's what I wrote in answer.
00:10:03.580 | "Jesus, I would rather have You
00:10:06.260 | as my Savior and Leader
00:10:08.540 | than keep my health,
00:10:10.620 | have my sons and wife,
00:10:12.860 | or preserve my own life.
00:10:15.100 | You are more valuable to me
00:10:16.980 | than all I own,
00:10:18.900 | all the friendships I cherish,
00:10:21.180 | all the pastimes I enjoy,
00:10:23.500 | and all my plans for the future."
00:10:26.740 | And then I wrote, "Why?"
00:10:29.220 | Why is He so valuable?
00:10:31.540 | And I wrote three answers.
00:10:33.500 | First, "Jesus, I could have no peace with God
00:10:38.700 | without You.
00:10:40.100 | My conscience declares to me
00:10:42.100 | there is a God and I am an accountable sinner.
00:10:45.100 | And without Your death on the cross, Jesus,
00:10:47.500 | I would live daily in the misery of guilt."
00:10:52.700 | Second, "Jesus, without You,
00:10:55.700 | my life would be like a ship without a rudder
00:10:58.700 | in a sea of time with no destination at all.
00:11:02.700 | I want meaning and significance to my life.
00:11:06.500 | And I know if the Bible is true,
00:11:08.100 | only You can give that meaning
00:11:11.460 | because You give meaning to the whole universe."
00:11:14.580 | And then third, I wrote,
00:11:16.540 | "Without You, Jesus, eternity and death
00:11:19.180 | would be fearsome to me.
00:11:21.660 | But God sent You into the world
00:11:24.060 | so lovingly
00:11:25.380 | that if I just believe on You,
00:11:27.020 | I need not perish but have eternal life."
00:11:29.820 | And I put a text with each one of those reasons
00:11:33.220 | for why He is so valuable to me.
00:11:35.740 | And I jumped up off the floor
00:11:37.740 | and I said, "I'm gonna read that to Alan McCook today."
00:11:41.020 | And I went over and typed it on a piece of paper
00:11:42.820 | so I could give it to him.
00:11:43.660 | I haven't typed for years.
00:11:44.940 | Typed on a piece of paper so I could give it to him.
00:11:48.940 | Before I left the room, I asked the Lord for a promise.
00:11:51.180 | I need a promise, Lord,
00:11:52.260 | 'cause I'm gonna chicken out today.
00:11:53.900 | I'm gonna chicken out
00:11:54.820 | if You don't give me a promise.
00:11:56.820 | And you know what He gave me?
00:11:58.100 | Chariots of Fire, the movie.
00:12:00.500 | And the text,
00:12:02.260 | "He who honors me, I will honor."
00:12:05.500 | Comes from 1 Samuel 2:30.
00:12:07.260 | And I looked up another one.
00:12:08.500 | "If anyone serves me," Jesus said,
00:12:10.820 | "the Father will honor him."
00:12:13.460 | And I just paraphrased that for myself.
00:12:15.140 | I said, "Okay, if that's true,
00:12:16.980 | then it means He who aims in love
00:12:20.300 | to testify of my value, I will honor."
00:12:24.100 | And the Lord opened my eyes to see
00:12:26.740 | there is nothing in the world more valuable
00:12:29.100 | than to be honored by God.
00:12:31.100 | And I fought the battle all day with that text.
00:12:33.940 | And it was great.
00:12:34.780 | At noontime, I went to Logos Bookstore
00:12:37.020 | and bought "A New Testament"
00:12:38.780 | and "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis.
00:12:40.900 | And I wrote a message of hope
00:12:42.920 | and a prayer in each one of those.
00:12:45.940 | And I wrapped 'em up as a Christmas present.
00:12:48.740 | And that night, we had guests for supper.
00:12:53.420 | And after supper, I asked these people,
00:12:56.860 | I told 'em what I was gonna do,
00:12:58.340 | and asked 'em if they would pray for me
00:13:00.160 | while I go next door.
00:13:01.340 | And we prayed, and I called.
00:13:04.460 | "Hello, Alan?
00:13:07.140 | This is John Piper, your neighbor.
00:13:08.980 | I've got a Christmas present for you.
00:13:11.100 | Can I bring it over?"
00:13:12.660 | "Sure."
00:13:14.260 | He's home.
00:13:15.740 | Great.
00:13:16.980 | Victory number one.
00:13:18.300 | And I go over and knock on his door,
00:13:20.540 | and he lets me in.
00:13:21.460 | We stand there in the living room,
00:13:22.740 | and the television is on.
00:13:24.540 | And I say, "I got a couple of books here
00:13:28.260 | I wanted to give you for Christmas.
00:13:30.540 | And there's something else I wanna say, too.
00:13:34.100 | Is it okay?"
00:13:35.380 | "Sure."
00:13:36.220 | I said, "You know from our conversations
00:13:41.260 | that Jesus is real important to me,
00:13:44.180 | and I know that you don't believe in him the way I do.
00:13:48.460 | And I've been praying for you every day
00:13:50.900 | for almost a year.
00:13:52.700 | And I just felt this morning like I had to come tell you
00:13:56.740 | why Jesus is so valuable to me.
00:13:59.820 | 'Cause I'd like like crazy for you to believe in him, too."
00:14:03.460 | And I took out this piece of paper.
00:14:05.220 | I was gonna read it,
00:14:06.920 | but the television was on right there beside me.
00:14:09.340 | I just can't imagine the atmosphere.
00:14:11.060 | It was so rotten for sharing something so precious.
00:14:14.060 | So instead of reading it, I just held it.
00:14:16.180 | I wrote these down, I'll leave them with you.
00:14:18.500 | And I paraphrased.
00:14:19.660 | So this is how important he is to me.
00:14:21.500 | And I said, "These are the reasons."
00:14:22.780 | I gave him those three reasons in my own words.
00:14:25.660 | And then I said, "Al, have you ever desired
00:14:29.060 | that kind of a relationship?
00:14:30.300 | Have you ever wanted to know Jesus like that?"
00:14:34.620 | And he said, "Turn off the television, sit down."
00:14:38.540 | (Al gasps)
00:14:40.940 | That's great.
00:14:41.940 | And we sat down on the couch and talked.
00:14:44.580 | And among the things that we said,
00:14:46.980 | he said, "I read that book, 'In the Boundary Waters,'
00:14:50.420 | and I heard some Christians singing a song
00:14:54.060 | in the boundary waters."
00:14:55.460 | And I said, "That might be kind of nice
00:14:58.020 | to have faith like that."
00:15:00.420 | And I said, "What hinders, what's the hindrance?
00:15:03.900 | Why, is it what it would cost, lifestyle,
00:15:07.940 | or is it intellectual problems?"
00:15:10.580 | And he said, "Yeah, the latter."
00:15:12.300 | And I said, "Well, one of these books,
00:15:14.980 | C.S. Lewis, was a tremendous help to me
00:15:16.900 | when I was a freshman in college,
00:15:18.780 | overcoming lots of those hindrances.
00:15:20.700 | And I'd love to talk with you about that book
00:15:23.860 | and about those problems."
00:15:25.820 | And he said, "Yeah, that would be great.
00:15:28.580 | Could we talk again?"
00:15:29.620 | "Sure, thank you for my concern."
00:15:32.860 | Now, that's where the story stands today,
00:15:36.380 | that I pray for him every day.
00:15:37.700 | Now, that's the first time I ever did that in my life.
00:15:40.820 | Go to a neighbor, I've talked to other people
00:15:43.700 | about the Lord, a neighbor,
00:15:45.220 | the hardest people to witness to,
00:15:46.820 | and go into his house and say, "I love Jesus.
00:15:50.740 | It's so important to believe in Jesus.
00:15:52.060 | Can I tell you why it's important?"
00:15:53.780 | And I did it.
00:15:54.860 | And I would do some things very differently.
00:15:58.260 | Retrospect is always better.
00:15:59.780 | You learn by experience.
00:16:02.540 | Now, here's the lessons for us from that story.
00:16:05.380 | Number one, God is patient.
00:16:07.300 | Don't give up on God.
00:16:09.060 | He's patient.
00:16:10.820 | 18 months of guilt feelings, and he did not abandon me.
00:16:15.140 | Two, if you continue in prayer,
00:16:18.220 | this is all you've got to do, I promise,
00:16:20.140 | if you will not quit praying,
00:16:22.860 | the Lord will do the rest.
00:16:24.380 | That's all. He'll get you one way or the other.
00:16:26.420 | All you need to do is pray.
00:16:28.580 | What we do is we feel so guilty
00:16:30.380 | every time the name comes to mind,
00:16:31.820 | we put it out. We blank it out.
00:16:34.020 | But if you don't blank it out and you keep praying,
00:16:36.420 | He'll do the rest. He'll make the way.
00:16:39.500 | And third, if you do what I did,
00:16:41.620 | take a piece of paper and write out
00:16:43.300 | how much is Jesus' worth,
00:16:44.820 | put that in your own words,
00:16:46.060 | and then say why, and write why.
00:16:48.580 | There's your testimony.
00:16:50.460 | And it's yours. It's authentic.
00:16:51.620 | Doesn't have to come from any book.
00:16:53.500 | And you'll have a testimony,
00:16:55.220 | and you'll have the prayer support,
00:16:56.980 | and our church will be on the way to harvest in 1982.
00:17:00.540 | - Such a relatable, honest, motivating,
00:17:02.660 | humbling, encouraging story.
00:17:05.820 | I find it encouraging.
00:17:06.780 | At least this comes from John Pepper's sermon
00:17:08.500 | titled "How Much Is Jesus Worth?"
00:17:11.380 | Preached over 40 years ago on January 10th, 1982,
00:17:14.540 | the entire message is online at DesiringGod.org.
00:17:18.420 | Well, the Apostle Paul, writing in 1 Timothy 1:15,
00:17:22.380 | declared himself to be the world's worst sinner.
00:17:27.380 | The world's worst sinner.
00:17:30.060 | So was that hyperbole or simple self-deprecation?
00:17:34.340 | Or was it true?
00:17:35.620 | Was Paul really the world's worst sinner?
00:17:39.620 | You want to know? I want to know.
00:17:42.180 | A listener named Joel wants to know.
00:17:44.420 | And so we'll ask Pastor John next time.
00:17:47.380 | We'll see you Friday.
00:17:48.420 | (upbeat music)
00:17:51.020 | (upbeat music)
00:17:53.620 | [BLANK_AUDIO]