Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 26, 2020 | UNCOMFORTABLE - Evangelism (Connor Kraus)

Transcript

September 26, 2020 | UNCOMFORTABLE - Evangelism (Connor Kraus) · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, how's everyone doing tonight?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have some good food out there?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, specifically, I want to hear from children.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who in here is going to plan on going out to Gary's Berries here in a couple minutes?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's not even very loud as I thought it would be.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who's really excited about it?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, very, very good.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to say there was one quick announcement that we needed to talk about.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: That when we go out to Gary's Berries, they are actually going cashless this year.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have cash, they will take it at the door and you can get a gift card or a gift certificate there to use while you spend there.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have a debit card or a credit card, you can use those actually in the pumpkin patch area.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to buy a pumpkin or a chicken leg, if you didn't get enough pork to eat or any other kind of concessions or those kind of things, they are going to be cashless while you're in the Gary's Berries.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And also I saw something else out there, uh, which I don't usually see uh too much on a Sunday morning.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a lot of K-State shirts out there and had a really yeah over there we see Dave over there, they got a really, really good win today, so that's exciting.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna start off right now and ask you one thing.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is this is for the kids, but the adults can participate as well.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So who in here has ever done any gardening or planted a garden?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or helped with farmers with farming, or even just planted maybe a flower?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you kind of know what I'm talking about.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: When I was younger, when I was growing up, my dad had a huge garden.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we had asparagus and Brussels sprouts and broccoli and cabbage and peas and beets and just all sorts of things.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: We actually gardened a big plot of land at our uh our house, and then also our neighbor was elderly, and so she said we could go ahead and garden hers as well.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: My dad really loved it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we would prepare the ground, my dad would till that, and there was a lot of preparations that goes into planting a garden.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I remember that there was a farm across the street from us, and there was a farmer there that said, and my dad asked, Can we come and get some cow manure?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, some dried up cow manure, which, if you're a kid, and maybe I shouldn't say this when I'm teaching at church, but if manure is poop, so we went and got cow poop for fertilizer, maybe we should just call it fertilizer, and we would mix that in.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And what didn't smell too bad because it was really dry, but we did this a lot, and I remember my dad we would get ready to plant, and so he would till it and we would make lines, rows for the seeds, and he would tell me, and when I was little, my thumb's a lot bigger, he said, put them about an inch apart.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, I don't know what an inch is.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, use your thumb.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now I think my thumb's probably about two inches long, but I'd use my thumb and I'd put the seeds in there, and then I'll never forget this.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Before anything happened, we would pray for the seeds.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: My dad would say, Okay, let's pray for the seeds, and we would pray, and then he'd do what he called put them to bed, so we'd push the dirt all over them and they'd be planted.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's kind of interesting that the Bible relates farming or gardening to our faith, and even sharing our faith in God with others.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And God's word does tell us that we are supposed to go and share Jesus with the world.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28, 19 tells us, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey all the commands that Jesus gave them.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we are supposed to go out and share our faith with others.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to tell others about Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, for most of my life, and probably for a lot of you, that could be really, really, really scary when you go to talk to somebody about your faith.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we should say in this sermon series, uncomfortable.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would say things in my head when I would try to tell people about Jesus, like, what if I said the wrong thing?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or what if uh they asked me a question I didn't know the answer to, or important to me.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: What if they didn't like me because of that, and it would scare me?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, today I'm gonna talk about a few truths from God's word that should help us become more comfortable sharing God's word with other people.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: First off, let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 6 through 7, and it says there, and it's Paul talking, it says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God causes the growth.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, kids, if you're listening, let's ask this question.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: It said, Paul planted, Apollos watered, but who did it say in that passage of scripture, made those seeds grow?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: God.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, yeah.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I heard you that God makes them grow.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, just like it was when I was a kid with my family, we would plant the seeds in the garden in the ground, and we would we'd pray that they would grow, we would put them in the ground, and then do you think we did, do you think that I had any control of whether they grew or not?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't because God was in charge of that.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: We couldn't do anything else.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you tell your friends something you've learned from the Bible, if you tell your friends about someone about Jesus, or if you tell someone that Jesus died for your sins, you don't have to worry about how people respond to that.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: You are planting seeds, you can't change anyone's hearts.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're planting the seeds of Jesus and the gospel, and God is responsible for them to grow.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that kind of takes the pressure off of me.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: But then I have a question for you that is a really important question that I think I had wrong for a lot of years.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: If we know that we're planting seeds, telling people about Jesus and God is responsible for growing, what is the best way to share our faith?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is the best way to plant the seeds?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one time when I was in sixth grade, I thought I had the answer.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I think this was the wrong answer.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I would stay up real late at night, I did this several times, and I would pray and read my Bible, and I would actually write out a whole sermon.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, I'm gonna go take this sermon that I wrote out, and I'm gonna stand on the playground at recess the next day, and I'm going to preach under the basketball goal and see who would listen.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you think?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that I did that a lot?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, every single time I would put it in my backpack and I would go and I would chicken out.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would be so nervous and I put so much pressure on myself that I would say, Oh no, it's not worth it.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to do it.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't think that we need to have that much pressure on ourselves, and I'm going to share just a few things that we could keep in mind when we're trying to share Jesus with other people that will hopefully help us and not think that we have to write a whole sermon and stand out on the playground and preach it for in front of everyone to hear and see who listens.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing that I would say, if you're trying to share Jesus, if you're trying to share your faith with others, you need to let your actions speak first.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 10 31 says, Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 12, says it even more emphatically.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's it says, live such good lives among the pagans that they that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify your God on the day he visits us.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is our actions actually are the first thing that people notice about us.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And as the Bible just said, as I read there in 1 Peter, that if you live your life trying to abide by the things of the Bible, trying to share your life and try to share your life of Jesus and trying to do those things, naturally people will see your life and notice that something's different.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it says that if you do that, some may even glorify God just because they see you living differently.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So let your actions speak first.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing that we should always keep in mind is that we need to have a reason for a hope that we have inside of ourselves.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: We need to have a reason that we have a hope in Jesus.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody asks you, hey, what is it why does why is this thing about Jesus important?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: You could say, Well, he died for my sins.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they might say, What's a sin?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's the things I've done wrong, and I couldn't save myself, so Jesus is the one that saved me.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's a reason for the hope that you have in Jesus.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And 1 Peter 3.15 says, you must, and this is the new living translation, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes you might be able to spread or plant seeds of Christ or tell people about Jesus without you even knowing that's going to come up.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: It may come up in a conversation, and you need to have a reason for that hope.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You need to be prepared.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the third thing that I want us to keep in mind is that we can have confidence in Christ.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Galatians 2.20 says, I've been crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, but it's Christ that lives in me.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if we've given our lives to Jesus, if we know that Jesus is the sacrifice for our sins, then Jesus is inside of us.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's with us, and as we share our faith, we know that he'll go with us and he'll be there too to help comfort us and help us.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the big thing is when we share our faith, remember that we're planting seeds, and it's God's, uh it's God's uh is the one that is responsible for the results for the harvest.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: We just want to be faithfully sharing Jesus and God will take care of the rest.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that sound good enough?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're gonna learn a little bit more about evangelism now, for our youth pastor Connor is gonna come up here.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, everyone, please give a big round of applause for Pastor Connor.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Jason just took all my points, so you might be wondering why is Connor wearing a big black polo when we were gonna be outside in the heat.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer is that Hannah picked it out for me so that when I sweat, you guys wouldn't be able to see it.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: She was thinking of you, she was thinking of me.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Worked out well.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there are two things that uh tonight that I know are true.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: One is that I am very thankful that it is not that hot outside.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's a huge blessing.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And two, or the second one, is that uh I think there's one word that makes Christians more uncomfortable than tithing, and it's evangelism.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh as you're thinking of the word evangelism, you've probably got visions running through your head of awkward conversations and weird encounters, and somebody asking you whether you were going to heaven or hell or not.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, to be honest with you, I definitely have some of those things associated with it as well.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Evangelism is kind of this scary topic.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And as the church, we love to talk about evangelism, and from a 30,000-foot level, the church is really good about sharing the gospel with people, and particularly TBC is extremely missional and the things that we do with the resources that we have.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: But tonight, my goal and the little bit of time that I have with you is I want to break down evangelism just a little bit to a little bit more of a granular level and show you that it doesn't have to be awkward, that you can easily make it a part of your life, and that as Christians on on once again on an individual scale, for many of for many of us, there's a chasm that has been created between what God has called us to do in the world and oftentimes the way that we are living our lives as Christians.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: But like I said, part of that reason is because we're scared at the outset.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: I remember when I went to K State and I was a freshman there, I had started to share my faith with somebody, and they let me know point blank that a year or two prior, one of the campus ministries there, somebody had found out the door code to the dorm and had gotten inside and told every single person that they were going to hell.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Which, I don't know, if we're talking about like first impressions, that's probably not my lead foot when we're discussing evangelism, is telling every person that they're going to hell.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And for myself, later on while I was at K-State, there would be people out there who would try and stop me when I was going to class or something like that and say, Do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to accept him today?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: And if I'm being very honest with you, I was like, not today, I don't.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna, I'm just gonna keep going.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because for many of us, right, there is this difficulty that comes about.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Whether we have seen evangelism be done poorly or be it done awkwardly, or just our own innate insecurities that we have about it, there has uh been a divide that has been created.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so be because of all of those things, and most importantly, we have developed an attitude where we're saying that evangelism isn't for us.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's for the pastors, or those who have better connections, or those we say that know more about the Bible, or have done and had more experience doing evangelism.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I my goal for tonight is really two uh items long.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the first one is that we would just briefly walk through some of the excuses, and if we're just being very honest, which I want to be, I think that's how we address this and tear down these obstacles.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: The excuses that we've sort of placed in front of ourselves as stumbling blocks to evangelism, and I think if we address them head on, then we can move forward without fear.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: But the second thing is that I believe there are four levels to evangelism.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want to call it like a ladder or something like that, tonight what I would love is for you to sort of self-assess and figure out where you're at, where you're at in your level of comfort with evangelism, and just take one more step in that tonight.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm not calling anybody to be the Apostle Paul, okay, when we walk out of here, don't worry.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: But if we also said that complacency was something that was okay, then we would be lying too.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: God has certainly called us to a standard that we can all, every single one of us, do better to emulate.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, three misconceptions or three excuses, if you want to call it that, that I think we sort of trot around in Christian circles for why we are not engaged in evangelism.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: The first one is that we say that evangelism is only for those who have that spiritual gift.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've heard that before.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard that before.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Evangelism is a spiritual gift.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of them.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the only one.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And there are definitely people that I have met in my life very clearly who have the gift of evangelism.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: There was a guy that I was working with down in Texas, his name was Arch, and uh we we worked in the same ministry, and he would come into our staff meetings, it seemed like every single week, and had this new, amazing, awe-inspiring story about somebody that he like led to Christ while he was ordering tacos at Torchies or something like that.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, Arch, come on, man.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, maybe set the bar just a little bit lower for the rest of us in the staff meeting as you've led like 15 people to Christ this semester.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it was so amazing to watch him work, and he was the kind of person that would say things like, let's just sit down here and wait to see who passes us.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we're sure that the Lord will bring somebody along that needs to know Jesus.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, man, okay, you lead the way because that is not me.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's not me.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I I don't think, if I'm being honest with you, that I've got the gift of evangelism.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: But the excuse that we often use, though, is that because we don't feel particularly gifted in that way, we don't think we're winsome or whatever it is, that it's not our responsibility at all.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: That we abdicate that and and it goes to other people.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Evangelism is something that every single Christian has been called to do.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can, you can, if you don't like using the word evangelism, we can say we're sharing our faith with people, we're witnessing to them, whatever words you want to use, but none of us are out of that sort of purview or that or that circle that God has created where He has said every single one of you has something that you can tell people.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the first excuse, is frankly that every single one of us has been called to it.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Some are better than others.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: I am not the best by any means.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Some of our students in the student ministry are way better at evangelism than I am.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: But still, we've all been called to it.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: The second thing is that some people say that their life, you might have heard this quote before, their life is the only Bible that some people might ever read.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: That was a quote by a guy named William J.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Toms.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And what they mean when they say that quote is that they really don't want to explicitly share the gospel, but that by living a life of love and generosity and mercy and grace, that they are hoping that people will be magnetically attracted to that Christ-likeness and will want to come and ask them about the gospel and that that is how they are living, going to live missionally.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I do want to be like super duper clear.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: That is a great step that everybody needs to have.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: We should all be living out Christ-like values.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: But there are two problems with that view.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: The first is that we always underestimate the amount of people who come up to us and say, tell me about this hope that you have in Jesus Christ.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Normally doesn't happen.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: The second reason, and more importantly, because it does occasionally happen that somebody will ask us, but the second reason is that the gospel has some particular words in it that are not adequately expressed when we just love people, or when we are just kind or generous or merciful or forgiving.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: That the gospel has some particular language in it, namely about Jesus Christ.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: And as much as we don't always like to admit it, there are a lot of people in this world who can act in a loving way, but don't know Jesus.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're missing the point.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great first step, but we've missed the point if we said that the only thing that I need to do in my life is be a better Christian and do good things because evangelism will naturally come to me.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: We need to be explicit about our words at some point in that journey.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: The third and final excuse that we use, or thing that we think, if you will, it scares us away, is that evangelism, the success of evangelism, is determined by conversion rate or something like that.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: That whether or not somebody has believed in Jesus after we've spoken to them, is whether or not we were successful in our sharing of our faith or witnessing or whatever you want to call it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: It could not be further from the truth.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Certainly, at times it is important to make sure that we get through the whole gospel.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I think there is some merit when we talk about those, if you want to call them like intense methods, uh like the person I talked about at K State, where they say, Hey, there's some truth that you need to know because I don't know if we'll be able to meet again.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: There is certainly a time and a place for that.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: But oftentimes the way the Bible talks about conversion is not something that happens moment in a moment, but rather it's a process.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: The sermon that Alex gave last week, which by the way, if you did not listen to Alex's sermon last Sunday, it was fantastic.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: You need to go and listen to it.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: But he was talking about the division in the church in Corinth.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that they were divided over was sort of who was on Paul's team and who was on Apollos' team.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the way that Paul sort of shot through all of that controversy is he said, Um, I planted the seed, Apollos watered the seed, and God grew the seed.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: See, Paul wasn't concerned about whether or not he had baptized the people who Apollos had baptized, because he knew that he had been involved in their coming to Christ just by his preaching, even though some of them didn't convert at that time.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the third and final thing we need to see about evangelism before going ahead, is that God is not looking at you with a scorecard and it's not a binary option about whether you won or you lost that encounter based upon whether or not they said, you know what, Jesus Christ is going to be my Lord and Savior, I've accepted him, I repent of my sins.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that happens and God moves in amazing ways, and I've seen it happen, but the majority of the time that's not the way that it works.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: So if we Can walk forward with those three things in mind that God has called all of us to share the gospel in some degree or the other, something about witnessing that we can't just live a life with Christian values, but at some point or the other it has to become verbal and explicit.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Explicit, not cursing.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let's I maybe explicit's probably the wrong word to use.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Explicit in the sense of specific words of the gospel.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: And third and finally, that it's not about conversion, but it's about our obedience.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Then we can move on into the next part, which is sort of self-assessing where we're at with evangelism.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where I really want to get to, because I feel like every single one of us is in one of these tiers.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And what I would love tonight is for you to figure out where you are at and just move one step up.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just move one step from where you're at right now.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: God has called us to this amazing thing.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I say four levels, but I'm kind of lying because technically there's a level zero that I want to address.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: And all of these I've sort of framed in the form of a question.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are taking notes or writing things down and you want to write these questions down, let's walk through this together, but then tonight or tomorrow or something, go back through these questions and figure out where you're at.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because the first thing you need to ask yourself is, do I, and it's deceptively simple, do I want other people to know about Jesus?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Do I want other people to know about Jesus?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you do, then like building a house, your foundation is ready for us to discuss other and more important things like how we can sh ultimately share that gospel with people.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: But your fuel, if you will, your desire, your passion to share the gospel is contrived internally by the Holy Spirit and your desire for other people to know the saving grace that you have found.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't want other people to know about Jesus, then there is a much more deep and fundamental question you have to ask yourself, which is why that's the case.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you want other people to know about Jesus?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you sincerely believe that there is eternal life, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that you have the key to that, then why are you so reluctant to share that with other people?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Setting aside the fears that we have about whatever method of transmission you want to give and ideas for how it's best accomplished, if that desire is not within you, there is a deeper concern that we need to figure out.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: And though I don't have enough time tonight to walk through all of that, there are plenty of people who would love to help you figure out why you don't have a passion to share the gospel with people and why maybe you need to hear the gospel again for yourself and understand how you have been forgiven eternally and completely by our Savior.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: But if you do have a desire to share the gospel with people, if you do think that that is important and you want to do it, but don't know how, let's break down some things and get to sort of a ground level.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: The first question you need to ask yourself and the first rung of the ladder is Am I living a life that is turning people away from the gospel?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: It stings a little bit on first impact.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Am I living a life that is turning people away from the gospel?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now hear me what I'm saying.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this is not about being sinless, because none of us are sinless.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Not a single one of us.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: We've all fallen short of God's glory.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: But it we have to be clear that if we are trying to share a message that is based upon grace and forgiveness and mercy, and we are not being graceful or forgiving or merciful in the way that we interact with the people around us, at a base level, it is going to be a lot harder for that seed that you're planting to sprout.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: This is, frankly, and in my experiences with evangelism that has, I don't know, gone awry, if we'll call it that, this is where there's been the biggest disconnect.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Is somebody who I know is leading a life where they do not care for Christ, or do not actually want people to know about him, or are just concerned about some sort of number, that they come to me in a way that is not genuine and they try and share the gospel.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really easy to see through.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's frankly transparent.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: So part of it is being genuine, but also part of it is just assessing our life and saying, am I living in a way that makes the sweet words of the gospel easy for somebody to hear and to accept?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you can probably tell the action step that is associated with that.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you are not living in a way that is merciful or forgiving or generous or kind or any of those things, we're not living out the fruits of the Spirit, yet have a desire to share the gospel, know that that is your first mission and your first obstacle to take down.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: The second level that we have, if you feel like your life is something that makes the gospel pleasing to somebody else's ears, and you do love to share the word with people, the second thing we need to look at is where has God placed you individually to share the gospel?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: See, uh, one of the biggest misnomers, I didn't include it in excuse because it's really easy to tackle, but there is not a one size fits all to how we share the gospel.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely not.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Every single one of us, that's why we share testimonies when we go and do baptism, is because we all have different backgrounds and different things that we can use to help other people come to a deeper relationship with the Lord.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a one size fits all.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so the second level is that you consider how has God uniquely crafted you, uniquely, individually made you in his image so that you can best share the gospel with the people around you.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh two summers ago, we took the students to New York City on a trip where our entire mission was just to share the gospel every single day.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I came in, I'm being totally honest, I came in with a little bit of pride because um I had, when I was down in Texas, I had done a decent amount of evangelism, um, and I'm just being very honest here.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that I could go to New York City and be like, follow me, like the Pied Piper, and the students would be able to learn what to do.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: Could not be further from the truth.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Was extremely humbled in our first 15 minutes in New York City when everybody thought I was trying to hawk them like my mixtape in the parks.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was very embarrassing as all the students came back and said, none of what you said works at all.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: But over the next week, what was really cool is that as we went through that process of discovery together and said, okay, um, God has uniquely called all of us.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's not about conversion, but about planting a seed.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: How can we use our specific um gifts and abilities to share the gospel with people?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: The way that God used our students was amazing.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I could share a bunch of their stories, but two uh that are probably the most acute and obvious actually don't involve um our students, but involve my wife and I.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um so my wife, Hannah, loves dogs more than any person that I've ever known in my entire life.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: I would I would argue with anybody who disagreed.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: And her strategy was she would take the girls in our group and she would go up to people in Central Park or elsewhere who had dogs, who had brought dogs to the park, and would start conversations that way.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Worked like a charm.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was genuine.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was at she actually cared about the dogs.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like it wasn't just some sort of segue into asking them about their savior, but it was a way that she could open up and use the things that God and the ways that God had crafted her to start those conversations.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was really awesome to watch.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting story on my part was um after I'd gotten over myself and the next couple days, we had been in Central Park, and um I started up a conversation with a guy from Britain who was a landscape architect.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually went to Kansas State when I first went to school there to study landscape architecture.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there are not many people who do that, all right?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: And to even find another landscape architect out in the wild is extremely rare.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: And what was even cooler is if you know anything about that sort of subject, you know that Central Park uh was one of the first project, big large-scale projects in America where it was intentionally designed to bring nature back into the city, which is like the whole thing about landscape architecture.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so going up to this guy, knowing that frankly, no nobody else in our group would have been able to have that type of conversation, connect in that particular way with the man, I was awestruck as we eventually did get into deeper things, but as our conversation flowed so naturally because we shared in this one really common thing.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's obvious.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's about looking at where you're at, your neighborhood, your friends, your family, your hobbies, your interests, and finding like-minded people to start those genuine conversations.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes God surprises you.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you start up conversations with random people from Britain and they have the same interests as you do and can talk about them for a half hour.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God works that way.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes God works that way.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the way in which we do that is varied.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: And for some people, they are more skilled towards rapid-fire conversations, and some people have that slow burn person in their life that they've been working on for 25 years that they know needs to hear the gospel, and that God has probably intentionally placed in their path to be there.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: But whatever it is, we need to look for opportunities to intentionally share the gospel.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you guys, this was huge for youth ministry two years ago when Trevor Lawrence, the quarterback for Clemson, um, shared his faith and said that like at a press conference near the national championship, that he football is not as important to him as his identity in Christ.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, talk about like softball pitch illustration for the student ministry.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: That was primo.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Trevor Lawrence.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: But the awesome thing about that, and the thing that we see when athletes do or actors take their platform and say, you know what, I could sit idly by, or I could use this to intentionally share the truth that I have with other people.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's an awesome witnessing opportunity.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Lawrence is like the new Tim Tebow, sort of.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: Tim Tebow was my generation, Trevor Lawrence is the new one.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: And there have been others before that, and there will be others after that.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: But when we talk about being intentional, maybe we do need for a second to broaden our horizons.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, at my seminary down in Texas, in our evangelism room, there was a room specifically for evangelism where they taught exclusively evangelism classes.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: And listen, I guess if you're a donor that cares enough about it that you want to build a room exclusively for evangelism, you can also decorate it however you want, which was very obvious by the way this room was decorated.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: And right next to the whiteboard in the very front of the room, there were two uh pictures, very, very large pictures.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're familiar with the kind of thing where like as you walk past it, it changes uh the picture that's on you get what I'm saying?
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like you move past it and it shifts.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, they had one of those, they had two of them on either side, and they were of people who had been arrested for meth, and it was like a before and after of their arrest.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: What they didn't think about was that students sit in one stationary spot the entire time that they are learning.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so the in all of my evangelism classes, I sat in the same spot, I saw one person in his arrest record and on a very bad day where he was high on meth.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the reason I bring that up is because it was obvious that for some people, that was the target demographic for who needed to hear about Jesus.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was the poor person, it was the person on drugs, it was the person with really obvious life difficulties, and that was the person that needed to be targeted.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: But what I can tell you from even just a couple years in ministry working with students down in Texas, up here, and beyond that, and what you probably know from life experience is that there are plenty of people, and probably more of them, who have a perfectly wonderful life on the outside, but desperately need to know the gospel and hear Jesus.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: And for some of you, that is your field.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: That is where God has individually placed you.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: And for some of you, God has placed you to speak to the people on the streets and use your experience and past life knowledge to help reach those individuals.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: But don't get in your head that there is one type of person who needs Jesus, because it's every single person who needs Jesus.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: And there are a lot of people who need Jesus that don't outwardly tell you that they need it too.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: So don't assume.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Seek those opportunities.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if you want something very concrete, what we tell our students, what we like to use the phrase, is that we have Jesus conversations because evangelism is kind of a hefty word.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so what we say is that just in the course of a week, maybe it's once, maybe it's twice, you know, we like to just drop the name of Jesus in our conversation with somebody.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't have to be before somebody's going up to bat that you're like, hey, do you know you are a sinner in the hands of an angry God because you're the second coming of Jonathan Edwards or something like that?
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's not necessarily the way it needs to go.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: But oftentimes it's somebody's going through a difficult time and you have the opportunity to say, you know, I find my hope in Jesus, and when things are really difficult, that's where I can turn, and it helps me out.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any sort of way or thing that you look to for hope when you're struggling?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's a Jesus conversation, and that's also evangelism.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Fourth and finally, our last rung, if you will, our last step.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: If you are intentional about looking for these opportunities, then invariably God will bless you with people who do come to Christ, who want to engage in deeper conversations, who want to know more about the gospel.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: And your job, my friends, is to continue to perpetuate the process of evangelism and to disciple that person.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: See, we talk about evangelism, but evangelism is simply a means to an end.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: A glorious end, but a means to an end.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: God's vision in Matthew 28 is not just that we would go up to people and say, Hey, do you know about Jesus?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: But he says that you will disciple them, baptizing them, and that you will help them to follow the law in obedience.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: Those are not things that we can do in the span of 20 minutes.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so we need to cultivate, if you are ready for that final step, if you love to share the gospel, if you know your talents and your skills and you're seeking those opportunities, then know that your ultimate goal is to help create the next person who is going to share the gospel with somebody else while you're also doing it.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_01: And as we become co-laborers in Christ and as we work together, it is an exponential growth that God has created.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: His business plan is irrefutable.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: As we continue to make people who know the gospel and want to share the gospel, because we are living lives that are attractive because we are living out the gospel, then as we're doing that, the people who come to us will also want to emulate that.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then we will help them learn the steps that it takes to disciple the next person and the next person and the next person.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: And our really our encouragement, because it is difficult, our encouragement is that I think when God calls us home or when Jesus returns, I think he's going to show us the impact that we've made, the butterfly effect, if you will, that our words have had on the lives of other people.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because oftentimes the process of discipleship is difficult.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: People sin a lot.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes the best people sin a lot.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes that process, as we forge on ahead, can become difficult.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: But if you are ready for that step, ultimately what God has called us to, I just want to encourage you.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: Romans 10, 14 says, How will they know if nobody goes to tell them?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: And we are in the process of creating people in our individual circles of life that can go out and tell others.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: So in conclusion, I want you to understand that ultimately what God has called us to is a grand thing.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Being a part of his kingdom design and the advancement of the gospel, the Bible says, is being a part of an unstoppable force and army.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we've been conscripted into that army, but some of us don't really want to play our part.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so knowing that complacency isn't a place where we can stay, I want to call you to one step higher.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: That you ask yourself those questions, that you share the gospel with people, that they might know that they are sinners, that the wages of sin is death, that the free gift of God, or the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, and that the only way to the Father is through Jesus.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that there is life and there is life everlasting through that path.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: As we hold the key, let's share it with other people.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Would you all pray with me?
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we come before you today and we thank you for Jesus Christ.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: We thank you that He died on that cross for us, that He lived the perfect life and took the sin that we have committed, paid the penalty for it, Lord, so that we might live in freedom with you forever.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: God, please give us the desire and grow within our hearts this passion to share your good news with the world around us.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, there are so many people who are hurting and don't know Jesus.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we ask that you would help us to step out of this, our fear of whatever might come, and God, to share your gospel with the world.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that for every one of us who is excited to take that step, that you would bring opportunities and that in those moments you would give us boldness to share our faith with people so that they might know you and know you fully and deeply.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: Father, finally, I ask that whatever ideas of awkwardness or um evangelism poorly done that we have in our heads, that we would look towards you and the ultimate example of sharing the gospel with grace and truth through genuine relationships, seeing that you have made us individually to share your gospel in an impactful way.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: Father, we love you, and it is in your holy name that we pray.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, thank you for coming tonight to be a part of Church on the Lawn.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: This is awesome to see everybody here.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: Our early numbers are that this is more people that we've had since COVID, basically.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's great to have everybody, as you guys, many of you trans.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um two quick things I want to share with you.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: As many of you are getting up and getting ready to go to Gary's Berry's and be a part of the church there.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, know that there are still some tickets for sale.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: Teresa is back there in the corner.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: She's waving her hand if you would still like to buy some tickets.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: Second of all, if you aren't going to Gary's Barry's tonight and just have five minutes to help us pick up some tables and things like that, that'd really be appreciated.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: Hope you guys have a great night.