"His Intended Way" Evangelism Part 2 Sunday Evening Worship Service

This is our continuation continuation of our study on evangelism.

As I mentioned, last week we looked at the content of evangelism.

Tonight I want to look at the way God instructed us to evangelize.

And I'm calling it His intended way of evangelism.

His intended way of evangelism.

What that title is meant to reflect is that God didn't merely send us into the world as you know ships at sea going wherever the wind blows us, but he has charted a course for us.

He's described for us in the Bible how we're supposed to evangelize.

He's given us the great commission, of course.

This is a mandate that every believer has to go into all the world making disciples of Jesus Christ.

And you make disciples by teaching people to obey the Word of God, to believe, to be baptized, and then to obey all that Jesus has commanded us.

And of course, in the context of Matthew 28, the closest thing Jesus commanded us is evangelism.

But the Bible doesn't end there.

There are uh entire principles.

You think of uh 2 Corinthians 5, for example, is a long chapter where Paul's giving principle after principle for evangelism.

There's the patterns of life in the New Testament that God gives us, and even some that are drawn from the Old Testament.

So I want to kind of pull some of those principles together tonight.

And I think if you write these down, it'll equip you to even think and conduct yourselves like an evangelist.

Before we get into it, just a reminder that the book of Ephesians uh describes evangelism as a gift.

There are those that are gifted as evangelists, just like those that are gifted as pastors and teachers.

Not every Christian is gifted as an evangelist.

That's true.

Uh there is a gift of evangelism, and you probably know people uh that have the gift of evangelism, and not everybody does.

I don't consider myself as having the gift of evangelism necessarily, which is ironic because uh, you know, I was an evangelism pastor for many years before I came before I came here.

And that forced me to become, I think, good at evangelism, but it's not something I would view myself as naturally gifted at.

And to demonstrate that, just a little brief story.

My wife and I once went doing door-to-door evangelism with the neighborhood outreach ministry at the church that I was at.

So we started with a you know going door-to-door.

Just outside of the church, we tried to work our way around to all the houses in the neighborhood of our church.

We had people that did that faithfully every Sunday, and this is one of the ministries that I ever saw.

And so one Sunday, Deezer and I set out together to go do this.

And we went with this guy named Jonathan.

Jonathan is one of those guys that has the gift of evangelism.

Like the guy would evangelize a fire hydrant, and the fire hydrant would somehow get saved, kind of guy.

Uh, and so we started on opposite ends of the street, and this is a street that had maybe 15 houses, cul-de-sac, 15 houses back or so, 30 houses.

And Deidre and I started on one side, and Jonathan started on the other side.

And we had some, I think we had some decent conversations.

We some people would meet at, we met one couple in the yard and we got to talk to them from the yard.

But most of the houses, if we made it to the door and knocked on the door or rang the doorbell, the person would open the door, and you know, my go-to line would be something like, you know, I'm from Grace Community Church, you know the church on the corner there, which the neighbors didn't just necessarily like because of the traffic and the parking and everything.

And, you know, we're just going to the neighborhood, seeing if there's any way we can pray for you, or if you have any questions about our church or anything like that.

And uh the door would often just kind of be like, thanks, and closed.

We went to one house that said had a big sign on it with a picture of a revolver.

Uh and it said, Do you believe in life after death?

Uh knock on this door and find out.

And we were like, we're bold in our evangelism, but we'll go to the next house.

And so, you know, it's a little bit of a frustrating endeavor.

Like I said, we had a couple of good conversations, but we made it all the way up to cul-de-sac and and down the other side.

And Jonathan, meanwhile, is at the second house.

We wrapped around the entire cul-de-sac.

Jonathan's at the second house.

We see Jonathan through the window, and he's sitting down on the couch, and there's this lady like bringing him tea.

Like, what in the world?

Jonathan?

Uh, that's the gift of evangelism.

Not every Christian has the gift of evangelism.

But every Christian is called to evangelize.

Every Christian is called to use their time and their opportunities to take the gospel into the world to make disciples for Jesus Christ.

It doesn't matter if you're good at it or not.

Just like so many of the other spiritual gifts, every Christian is called to be hospitable, even though there is the gift of hospitality.

Every Christian is called to help other people, even though there is a gift of helps.

Every Christian is supposed to be giving faithfully to their church, even though there is the gift of giving.

There are so many things that every Christian is supposed to do, but yet certain people are gifted in.

And evangelism is one of those things.

So I would appeal to you not to excuse your lack of evangelism by saying, I'm not gifted at it.

That's for people that are, and you can think of people at the church that are gifted at evangelism.

Don't excuse your lack of evangelism because you know people that have the gifting in it.

Rather take these principles, and I hope the Lord uses them to help you be an effective evangelist.

The first of those, uh the heading here, his intended way of evangelism.

I'm going to give you seven points under this.

Seven points.

And the first of those points is to live a transformed life.

To live a transformed life.

Your life being sanctified is kind of the impetus for evangelism.

The example of your life may very well be the only Christian influence that someone has.

Now, I would say a generation ago that was true internationally.

And you would hear this from Christians in uh you know places like India or China, just their living of a Christian life itself presented evangelistic conversations.

Like people would wonder, why do you live differently?

Why is the why is the husband uh working and the wife raising the kid raising the kids?

Why are they having kids even?

Why do they like their kids?

Those kind of basic questions.

Uh the Christian life stands out in the world.

It does.

It's different than the way people live in the world.

And so, you know, 20, 30 years ago, you heard stories like that from Christians in India and China, that just the fact they led a Christian life, the husband wasn't a drunkard, uh, that itself opens up opportunities for evangelism because it has a compelling magnetism to it.

It stands out from the world.

I think our own culture is getting more and more like that now.

Uh I heard one pastor joke that you can tell the Christians in his city by going to the park, uh, all of the non-Christians have their dogs at the park and the Christians are there with their kids.

You know the people are saved who are bringing their kids to the park on a Saturday in this city.

I think he meant that a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but there, I think there's a very valid principle there that just the the normal Christian life, things that might have been considered unremarkable a generation ago, now stands out like a bright light in a dark place.

Being content, you think of what John told the the uh John the Baptist told the centurion, be content with your wages.

And you think, that's not that big of a deal.

Listen, are you a Christian?

Be content with what God pays you through your employer.

That itself will make you stand out from everybody around you.

John tells the soldier, do justice, like act in justice, don't extort people.

You're a police officer, act righteously, act justly.

You're gonna start to see that you're different life.

And I've heard this from people in law enforcement, and I'm sure it's true in just about every uh category of work.

People say, you know, I stand out in my work.

People say, Oh, so you should put so-and-so on this job because they have integrity, or so-and-so won't take, you know, a bribe, so-and-so won't turn the blind eye to say, Oh, if you want something done right, give it to so-and-so because they have integrity.

So it's not even about having kids.

That was my first illustration, but it's it's just about your life of integrity.

You're single, you can you can live that out in the workplace, you can live that out among your neighbors.

You live a sanctified life, and it, you know, at church, if you're just around Christians all the time, you can lose sight of the fact of how impactful that can be.

But the reality is by leading a transformed life, it will open up evangelistic opportunities.

You have the opportunity to influence people at your home, in your neighborhood, and in your work.

You have a testimony that's there.

And so it's worth asking yourself the question in James 1.22 are you a doer of the word or a hearer only?

Hearing the word doesn't make you a doer of the word, and hearing the word doesn't open up evangelistic opportunities for you in your life.

Very unlikely will be the occasion where somebody says, Oh, you go to church, can you tell me what you heard yesterday?

Unlikely.

More likely is that what you heard yesterday at church, you're living out, and that opens opportunities for evangelism.

The corollary is also true.

The most eloquent and fluent gospel presentation is muted if unbelievers identify you by the patterns of sin in your life, your temper, your gossip, your anger, your lust.

If you become known for those things, that example closes evangelistic opportunities.

God calls us to live distinctly in a dark and decaying word world.

You think of Matthew 5, verse 13 and forward.

Matthew 5:13

I put it on the screen for you.

You're the salt of the earth.

But if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

And of course, salt can lose its saltiness.

We have some table salt at our house right now that when it was first put out, it was in this nice little dish.

It was like so salty, like walking by it, and your eyes would water.

And now it's been out for a few months and the saltiness has declined, and now it's just decorative.

And eventually even that will run its course.

This is what the life is like of the person who's not leading a transformed life.

You're eventually just decorative, and soon that runs its course.

You're not effective for anything.

In contrast, Jesus says, You are the light of the world.

A city set on top of a hill cannot be hidden.

It just can't be hidden.

That's the reality.

Jesus gives a Sermon on the Mount in Galilee.

If you've been there, of course, you know that the mountains above Galilee, towards the Mediterranean seaside of Galilee, there are cities on top of those hills.

And at night their lights are on, and you can see them from all over the place.

Even in Jesus' lifetime, the lights there would have been visible down into the valley.

It can't be hidden.

You can't have a city on the top of the hill that nobody knows about.

So it is with the Christian.

If your life is transformed, it becomes a testimony to those around you.

It cannot be hidden.

When Jesus says this at the end of there, uh at the end of Matthew 5, verse 16, there, he means it axiomatically.

Matthew 5:16

Like if you're leading a transformed life, you don't have to even try to display it.

It's just axiomatic.

A city on the hill can't be hidden.

A Christian who's living out the ethics in the sermon on the mount is not going to be able to be hidden.

Now, this is something the church has in common with Israel in the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 4 describes the function of Israel as being a magnet to the nations.

The nations were supposed to see how Israel was living, be drawn there and attracted to Yahweh.

And this happens, of course, to the Queen of Sheba.

Remember, she comes to Israel to investigate.

She sees that their lives are transformed, that their gold and silver are as common as you know, stones in the ground, their breath is taken away.

She's astonished by the way Israel had been transformed.

She says, Happy are your people.

Happy is your is your God.

You guys are hitting it out of the park.

She has an encounter with Yahweh because of the transformed life of Solomon and his wisdom that trickled down.

This is the example that is picked up in the church.

The church likewise is supposed to lead a transformed life.

We're not an ethnically distinct nation like Israel was, so we don't attract the nations of the world to a geographic center to encounter Yahweh like Israel was supposed to.

And of course, you know the story of Israel.

After Solomon, the door to that closed, Solomon married a thousand women and that form of evangelism over in the Old Testament.

But it comes back with Jesus.

You lead a transformed life, and he scatters you around the world, and you are attractive to people with the gospel.

The consistent example of a changed life is compelling proof of the gospel and opens up evangelistic opportunities.

So first live a transformed life.

Second, pray relentlessly.

Pray relentlessly.

Pray for evangelistic opportunities.

Actually pray for them.

Colossians 3, or Colossians 4, verse 3, Paul says, I'm praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I've been imprisoned.

Colossians 4:3

So Paul, in writing to the Colossians, and Colossians is what's called a circular letter.

The content of it went to other churches as well.

So Paul, as he's sending out his prayer letter, is saying, I'm asking you to be praying for me that an open door for the gospel would present itself.

Now, Paul likely has in mind some kind of pun or at very least irony.

If Paul's in custody here, if he's imprisoned, he's praying for an open door for the gospel.

There's a bit of a pun there, like he's praying for an open door for himself, that this will allow, you know, end in his release.

But also, more than himself, he's not primarily concerned with his own freedom, he's concerned with the opportunity for the gospel to go forward.

So he's asking other people, would you pray for me that I have an open door to present the gospel?

Paul's not praying that he'll be able to kick down doors.

He's praying for an open door.

So what does an open door mean?

And you can just think through this in the metaphor of he's in prison.

An open door is when God opens an opportunity for you to walk through.

What does an open door for the gospel mean?

It means Paul is praying that God would put you in a situation where God superintends the situation to remove obstacles, to present an opportunity for you to explain the gospel to somebody.

That's an open door for the gospel where God puts you in a situation so that you can speak forth the mystery of Christ, Paul says.

An open door for the gospel, when you think of door-to-door evangelism, those things, it's a literal metaphor there.

You knock on a door and an open door, and the person keeps their door open and lets you explain the gospel to them.

A closed door, and you're talking to the ring camera.

Paul prays that God would open opportunities for him to explain the gospel, to speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which he's in prison, he says.

Romans 10, verse 1 is a pretty compelling example of this.

Romans 10:1

Brothers, it's my heart's desire and prayer for Israel that they may be saved.

If you think about Romans 10, it joins with Romans 9.

Romans 9 is a bit of an interlude there, the beginning of Romans 9.

Paul says, you know, I swear this is the truth in Christ.

I am not lying.

God bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit.

He's burdened for the Israelites.

He would trade his salvation for the Jews to be saved.

That's the language of Romans 9, verses 1 through 4.

Romans 9:1–4

Paul says, I would trade my salvation.

I'm so burdened for the Israelites that I would condemn myself to hell if I could give them my salvation.

I know there's parents with kids who aren't following the Lord that you might think that same way towards your kids.

I would rather go to hell so that my kids could be saved.

And of course, that's Paul's argument in Romans 9.

You can't do that.

The salvation's not, you know, a fungible quantity.

It's you can't give it to somebody else.

You can pray and you can evangelize.

And so that's where Paul ends in Romans 10.

I pray for their salvation.

This is what Paul does with his heart's desire, everything in Romans 9 that led to his eloquent uh speech about election and understanding that it is God who wills and God who determines who will be saved.

In light of all that, in light of election, what does Paul do?

He prays for an opportunity to share the gospel with other people.

What a contrast to so many Americans hear about the doctrine of election, and they're like, well, if election is true, why pray?

If election is true, why evangelize?

The most compelling argument in the Bible for election is Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

At the end of it, Paul prays that people would be saved.

He prays relentlessly for them.

And I think you'll find if you're praying for evangelistic opportunities, evangelistic opportunities will present themselves.

And I remember one time I got to share the gospel briefly with somebody and invite them to church at the uh shell station up on Little River Turnpike.

And uh that morning I had prayed for evangelistic opportunities.

I was feeling like I wasn't uh seeing a lot of them in my life, and I prayed for them, and I went to the gas station to put gas in the car, and somebody came up and started a conversation with me about whatever the little dumb thing was.

It was on the little screen there, and it was soccer or something, and they saw soccer balls in the back of my truck and started a conversation, and I got to jump into a gospel presentation and invite them to church.

I don't know whatever happened to them.

And in retrospect, I'm thinking, do I have did I have that conversation because I prayed?

Or was uh was my radar out and I on high alert because I had prayed?

Like, was I more aware of the opportunity because I had prayed for it, or did God cross our path to cross because I prayed?

Who knows?

It's a chicken egg scenario.

I get the chicken came first, by the way, but the idea is that if you pray, you become more aware of opportunities that may be around you all the time anyway.

But Paul prays relentlessly for them.

Third, rely on the Holy Spirit.

Rely on the Holy Spirit.

What that means, that kind of can be a generic Christian platitude, right?

Like rely on the Holy Spirit, let go and let God, brothers.

What does that even mean?

Rely on the Holy Spirit.

What it means is that you put your trust and your confidence in evangelism in the Holy Spirit.

You know that it is the Holy Spirit who saves, not you.

You can't argue somebody into salvation.

If you did, or if you could, somebody smarter than you would come along and argue the person right back out of it the next day.

So praise God that nobody is saved through our persuasive arguments or persuasive speech.

This is why Paul tells the Corinthians, I came to you determined to know nothing except Christ and him crucified.

I'm not going to give you some lofty speech of eloquence and wisdom.

Forget that.

That's for like the Greek philosophers.

They can wax eloquently, they can make a floor speech in Congress, they can convince the crowd.

But you know how effective floor speeches in Congress are, don't you?

I mean, it doesn't, it doesn't even matter.

Somebody gives a great speech and wow, everybody claps, and the next guy gives a speech in the opposite direction, and everybody claps, and they go home.

The gospel isn't presented that way.

You rely on the Holy Spirit, which means you're not trusting your power, you're not trusting your eloquence, you're not trusting your wisdom, you're not trusting your argumentation.

You have an awareness of your own limitations.

Your limitations are what you know, and then you can explain it.

You're limited by what you know, and then you explain the words.

You cannot be responsible for how somebody responds.

I tell soccer players, I coach this all the time, they cannot get wrapped up in the referees, they cannot get wrapped up in their teammates because they don't control their teammates, they don't control the referees.

The ref makes a bad call, you just got to move on with life, my friend, because you are not responsible for their call, you don't control their call, you're not gonna be judged for their call.

Invest zero emotional energy in their call at all.

The same thing is true for Christians with the result of your evangelism.

You're not responsible for how somebody responds to your evangelism, you can't control it, so don't get wrapped up in it.

Instead, be responsible for what you're responsible for.

That's what I mean to rely on the Holy Spirit.

God has given you his word, internalize it, speak it, and let the Holy Spirit be the one who saves.

John 16, verse 8.

John 16:8

He, speaking of the Holy Spirit, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

That's what the Holy Spirit will do.

He will save people.

This is a new covenant activity of the Spirit.

In the Old Covenant, people would have to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, of course.

Jesus says that's the truth in the old covenant.

And John 3 says, you're a teacher of Israel, you should know this.

But what separates a church from Israel is that every participant in the new covenant, every believer in Jesus Christ is indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

Not true with Israel.

Israel, you entered it by circumcision.

The church is different.

You don't enter it by baptism, you don't enter it because your parents are part of it, you enter the church because the Holy Spirit injured your heart and saved you.

You are not responsible for someone else's salvation.

Salvation requires a miracle.

That's the cool thing about salvation, it requires a miracle.

You hear the baptism testimonies that involve like high-speed police chases and all that.

I was in the clink and I got saved by a chaplain, and I've heard, you know, Christian kids say, Oh my own testimony, I was raised in the church, there's no high-speed police chases.

And you want to tell the kid, you took it took a miracle to save you too.

Like, yeah, but that's just an ordinary miracle.

Say that sentence out loud a few times, and you realize how silly it is.

Salvation is a miracle.

From the lit least to the greatest.

Salvation is a miracle.

It's a work of the Holy Spirit.

So have rely the rely on the Holy Spirit.

Number four, have the right expectation.

Have the right expectation.

What I mean by that, your expectation, what you should have is your expectation is the articulation, the clear articulation of the gospel.

To those that God has given you an open door to present to.

God gives you an open door, your expectation should be to articulate the gospel clearly in that scenario.

Your expectation should not be revival, should not be that everybody who hears your gospel presentation will be saved.

I think it is appropriate to have the expectation that at some point in your life somebody will be saved through your evangelism.

I think that's an appropriate expectation, but I think sometimes that grows in our mind.

So I shared the gospel with three different people, and none of them got saved.

I must be doing something wrong.

Now have the right expectation.

Unsaved man is blinded by their sin, unsaved man is dead in their sins and trespasses.

Those are the analogies that the Bible uses for the unsaved person.

So what can you do?

If somebody is blind, you can help them cross the street, but you can't make them see.

If somebody is dead, you can give them a burial, but you can't bring them back to life.

2 Corinthians 4, verse 3.

2 Corinthians 4:3

Even if our gospel is veiled, Paul says, it's veiled only to those who are perishing.

In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God.

They are blind because of their love for sin.

Paul says it's the God of this world.

They've been turned over to their desires.

The devil is the prince of the power of the air of this world.

The devil is in charge of them.

The language in Romans 1, they've been turned over to their desires.

God has given them over to the deceitfulness of their hearts.

So the gospel in that sense is veiled.

It's not veiled by you, it's veiled by them and their sin.

So have the right expectation.

The unsaved man, their conscience is defiled.

Titus 1, verse 15.

Titus 1:15

Their conscience is defiled.

Their mind is broken.

They can't understand logical reasoning.

And I mean, I'm saying this in church.

I don't even mean that to be offensive to a non-Christian.

I'm just saying it, like the Bible describes it, their mind doesn't work right.

They have a really hard time making logical connections from what is real to the world to what that implies.

The earth is here.

You're standing on it.

Where did the earth come from?

Somebody made it.

Who?

Did that person say they made it?

Did they say what it takes to be in a right relationship with them?

Did they give you some kind of communication about it?

Yes.

Okay, now engage with that.

Their mind taps out way before that.

You know, we don't know where the earth came from.

Maybe it's always been here.

Maybe it's never been here.

Maybe it's your truth is your truth kind of logic.

It just breaks down really, really quickly.

That's because their conscience is seared.

That's 1 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 3.

1 Timothy 4:1–3

Their conscience is seared.

That word for seared is like the iron that burns something closed.

Their conscience is closed off.

Their conscience used to convict them.

There was a point in their past where their conscience said, you know, I think there's a God.

I think he's holy, and I think sin is bad.

Their conscience, every person's conscience used to do that.

You understand that's the point of Romans 1.

Every human being looked at the stars, looked at the sun, looked at the earth, and at some point in their life put the pieces together, knew there is a creator, and he is holy, and I'm not him.

Sin is bad.

I shouldn't do it.

I should seek a way to be right with God.

Everybody's conscience does that.

But through pursuing sin, their conscience becomes seared and they're no longer able to process that.

Jeremiah 17 describes the unsaved person as desperately wicked.

Jeremiah 17, verse 9, they're desperately wicked.

Jeremiah 17:9

The word desperately there, it implies they're like seeking with strength and energy and fervor after sin.

Ephesians 2, verse 1 describes people as dead in their sins and trespasses.

Ephesians 2:1

Dead.

So that's gonna frame your expectations.

The unsaved person doesn't have life, spiritual life in and of themselves.

They can't hear spiritual truth.

So you're sharing the gospel to them, and they don't have the ears to hear.

They don't have the ears to hear.

They can't understand.

I think through my own life, you know, I got saved when I was 18 through a teammate of mine in soccer who shared the gospel with me, and I felt like he was the first person who ever shared the gospel with me.

But as I look back on my life, I don't know if that's true.

I had somewhat of a charismatic, my stepmom had a kind of a charismatic Pentecostal uh grandfather, her stepdad was part of a church and a wana leader.

I'm sure at some point one of them shared the gospel with me.

I don't remember it.

I don't think so, but maybe they did, and I just didn't have ears to hear.

Like I'm sure they said stuff to me and it just bounced right off of my closed ears.

I don't know.

To this day, I don't know.

And that's the truth about the unsaved person.

You can share the gospel with them over and over and over again.

Maybe one day, 20 years from now, they'll get saved and go, why didn't nobody ever share the gospel with me?

And you're like, ah.

It's because they don't have ears to hear.

Their conscience is cleared, seared, they're dead in their sins, they're desperately wicked.

So have the right expectations.

Have the right expectations.

Number five.

Start the conversation.

So far you've been taxiing from the gate down the tarmac.

Now you're at the runway.

Now you have to start the conversation.

Don't expect the non-believer to initiate a gospel conversation.

When I said look for an open door, you're looking for an opportunity that you can leverage to speak the gospel to somebody.

You're probably not going to find somebody who comes up to you and says, What must I do to be saved?

Oh, my fellow man, you lead such a righteous life and you have such a Christian smile, and I've seen the Jesus fish in the back of your car.

Can you tell me what I must do to escape the wrath to come?

It's probably not going to be a conversation you'll have.

And I'm speaking a little bit in hyperbole.

You can even tone that down.

Somebody's probably not going to come up to you and say, Tell me what it takes to be a Christian.

It may happen, but it's unlikely.

So what is the right way to start the conversation?

Well, I would say you first aim to build a relationship with the person.

My own experience is that the most effective evangelism is with friends and family and neighbors and teammates and classmates and co-workers.

It's people that you know.

And through the time of you developing relationships with them, you're looking for evangelistic opportunities.

This isn't true with everybody.

I know I'm looking out here, I know many of your testimonies.

I know many of you got saved through cold evangelism, or from somebody coming up to you and just starting a gospel conversation, or uh through a Gideon's Bible, or through somebody knocking on your door, or a Billy Graham crusade you saw on TV.

I know there's those testimonies all over this room.

But I think the most common testimony, especially what I hear in the waters of baptism as well, is from people having the gospel given to them by somebody that developed a relationship with them, either a family member or a neighbor, a teammate, or classmate, or coworker, or whatnot.

So you're developing a relationship with the person.

By developing a relationship, I mean you're getting to know them.

You're asking them open-ended questions.

You're asking questions that reveal their thoughts and impressions about life.

You're developing a rel with your neighbors.

You know their names, you pray for them, and you're looking for an opportunity to have a conversation with them to develop their thoughts about life.

Somebody tells you, I'm taking a new job, a good open-ended question would be like, what made you take that job?

What are you prioritizing to take that job?

You know, why are you thinking through it that way?

What's important to you that's driving that decision?

What's behind that decision?

Those kind of questions.

What motivated you to make that decision?

Somebody's saying, you know, complaining about something in the world or with government or politics, a very classic conversation that happens in our neighborhood, complaining about everything.

You know, a good open-ended question would be that sound that sounds like something very important to you.

Why is that important to you?

What would you have done if you were in that situation?

If you could make the law, what kind of law would you make?

Why would you make that kind of law?

You're asking actual open-ended questions.

And the point of asking those kind of questions, by the way, is not, you're not trying to judge their answers, you're not trying to argue with them.

You know, the guy says, I would make a law that both Israel and Palestine would get along forever, starting right now.

You know, you're not trying to argue with them, like, well, you know, actually.

You're trying to understand what's important to them.

Like, why is that important?

Why don't you think that works?

You're digging for what their value system is.

Examples like, what would you have done differently?

Can you give me an example of what you're talking about?

That opens up conversations.

What is troubling you?

Now, these kind of conversations are helpful because what you're listening for is where is their point?

What's their worldview?

And where does their worldview deviate from the biblical worldview?

That's what you're trying to seek through.

So you're answering questions, you're asking questions that aren't yes or no kind of conversation questions, and then you're actually listening to their answer to draw out what you want them to do is vocalize their theology.

You're looking for them to say something that reveals that they think man is basically good.

Or that God loves people so much he would never condemn anyone to hell, or that Christ is a good man.

I'm glad church works for you and your family, and sounds like it's got good moral teachings.

You're looking for those kind of lines.

And when you hear them, don't be in a hurry to supply answers or to talk over them.

Rather than talking about yourself and your point of view, you're listening and you're going to make the transition to the gospel with the next step.

But first of all, the person you're developing a relationship with has to, you have to know what they actually believe and think about the world and about God in order for you to, I think, effectively share the gospel with them.

Which leads to number five.

To start the conversation.

To start the conversation.

Maybe that would be number six.

Start the conversation.

And this is where you start the conversation is you're trying to get them through the nature of relationships.

Boom.

There we are.

Number six, proclaim the gospel with wisdom and innocence.

Proclaim the gospel with wisdom and innocence.

After you're listening to them and they vocalize their theology, you're trying to get them to proclaim to open the door where you can now transition to the gospel.

And I think the easiest way to do that is just by asking a question.

I'm not a big fan of like the drip, drip, drip approach, approach to evangelism.

What I mean by that is like the here's a little bit of the gospel here, and then next week a little bit over here, and the next week a little bit over there, and next week a little bit over here.

You're trying to get like one sentence in in 20 different conversations.

My own experience has been that that's not really effective.

I think it's better, more effective, to have a time, a targeted time where you have 20 minutes or whatever, and you can ask the question, you know, I've heard you say this.

Do you mind if I tell you what the Bible says about that?

And you're going for one conversation where you clearly explain the gospel.

And you say proclaim it with wisdom and innocence.

That's how Jesus uh commanded us to explain it, to present the gospel.

That's how Paul prayed.

He'd be able to explain the mysteries of Christ in this way.

Wisdom and innocence, you don't have any agenda in this.

You've been thinking about the right way to explain it.

You don't have any agenda, you're not trying to manipulate them, you have no selfish agenda in this at all.

You're innocent, but you've been wise, you've thought about this.

You know, I've heard you say so many times that that you think people are basically good, they just go their own way.

Do you know the Bible says something different than that?

Do you mind if I tell you what the Bible says about that?

I've heard you say so many times that you think God knows your heart and that he'll be okay with how you've lived your life because he knows you try hard.

The Bible actually says something different than that.

The Bible says that God's standard is different than our standard.

Can I explain to you what I mean by that?

You know, you've obviously thought through your answer about why this is so important to you, but it is different than what the Bible says.

Can I show you what the Bible says about the priority of the family?

Because it's different than what the world says.

You know, what you told me about God yesterday is interesting, but God describes himself differently than that in the Bible.

Can I tell you what the Bible says about God in his word?

You know, you make it sound like you're a pretty good person, but the Bible says you're missing something very important.

Can I tell you what it is?

And I have found that with that kind of question, and maybe if it's because I'm a pastor and I have the pastor card, sometimes people are more accepting to that, but I have found with that kind of question, the door is often opened for evangelism.

Because what are they gonna say?

You've listened to them, you've thought about what they is important to them, and if you're right, if you listen to them well and you understand what is actually driving them and motivating them, you've thought about it and you're appealing to them at a place that is important to them, I think they're more likely than not gonna be willing to listen at least to what you have to say.

Now, I I give you that long lead into this because I do think it's important that evangelism be person-specific, that it's not general.

I don't have like a one, you know, a one-stop approach to every evangelist conversation.

I do have a long MacArthur quote about this I want to read to you.

MacArthur says the form of every message, uh the form of every gospel presentation will vary in each situation.

The content will always drive home the reality of God's holiness and the sinner's helpless condition.

It points sinners to Christ, but you want to stay away from a one-size, fits-all, shrink-wrapped approach to evangelism.

I can hear MacArthur's voice when I read that.

Martin Lloyd Jones says this you must recognize the different types of persons, and we must learn to discriminate between them.

There's nothing so pathetic or unscriptural as a mechanical way of evangelizing to others.

Ouch.

The good doctor just called it pathetic and unscriptural.

There are Christians who are guilty of that.

They witness and testify, but they do it in a thoroughly mechanical way.

They never really consider the person with whom they are dealing.

They never try to assess the person or to discover exactly what his position is.

They fail completely to implement this exhortation.

They present the truth in exactly the same way to every single and sundry person.

Quite apart from the fact that their testifying is generally quite useless.

And that the only thing they achieve is a great feeling of self-righteousness, it is also utterly unscriptural.

Ouch.

Lord Jesus says, Matthew 10, 16, I send you out a sheep in the midst of wolves, be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves.

And there's more generic questions that work for people.

If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?

What are God's requirements since you're heaven?

Those kind of questions you might ask in doing street evangelism.

And if you're doing street evangelism or door-to-door evangelism, obviously you can't take the time to get to know everybody you're evangelizing.

But I'm talking about, for the majority of Christians, I think cultivating these relationships, aiming for these conversations is most effective.

Which leads to number seven.

Measure success by the clarity of the message given.

Measure success by the clarity of the message given.

The question is always: will this clearly communicate God's message?

A thorough understanding of the Bible, coupled with flexibility and sensitivity to the need of the moment, is key for effective evangelism.

You're going for substance over fluff.

When you have the opportunity now, the person said, yes, you can explain how God is different in the Bible from what I said yesterday or whatever.

That's your opportunity.

And you're going for delivering to them the content of what we talked about last Sunday night.

If you're called last Sunday night, I encourage you to have like a one-minute, a five-minute, and a 20-minute, and even a 20-year gospel presentation.

Have something crafted out in your mind.

How much time do you have?

And you're going to communicate the substance of the gospel.

You're drawing from scripture.

Scripture alone is authoritative.

Don't squander that kind of opportunity with, you know, stories from your own life.

I would go for what the scripture says.

Speak God's message, not your experience, not your opinions, not your preferences, not your politics.

No gimmicks or fancy recipes are going to move people to success.

Rather, Hebrews 4, verse 12.

Hebrews 4:12

The word of God is living and active and sharper than the two-edged sword.

You got like a living and active sword in your hands, use that.

Amen.

This is because only Scripture can save, and the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to save over personal anecdotes.

You have the opportunity to evangelize someone, deliver the content of the gospel to them, and then measure how successful you were by how much of the gospel you got to explain.

Not by how they respond.

You're not in control of how they respond.

Now, if they have objections, we'll deal with this next week, we'll talk about objections.

If they interrupt you and say, how do you know the Bible's the word of God?

Or how could all the animals fit on the ark or whatever?

You just say, you know, hold on real quick.

Let me get back to that, and you work yourself with the gospel presentation.

And at the end of it, if they have objections at the end of it, then you deal with those, and we'll talk about that next week.

I'll put all seven of these in the screen.

Make sure your list lines up with mine.

Live a transformed life, pray for evangelistic opportunities, rely on the Holy Spirit to open the door, and by open the door, I mean bringing you in the opportunities where you can leverage conversations and relationships for the gospel, have the right expectation of those things, start the conversation.

That's the hardest part for most people.

Proclaim the gospel with wisdom and innocence, and then measure success by the clarity given.

God, we're grateful that you have made us evangelists and that you've demonstrated all these principles from your word.

We pray that you would give us opportunities to share the gospel even this week.

Lord, we know that the world is short, lives are short, situations always change.

So, God, I pray that we'd maximize the opportunities you've given us this week to point people towards you.

Give us the grace and the wisdom to do that.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to iBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.