Sharing the Gospel from Memory | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from His word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. So as we get started tonight, I

just want to welcome all of you who are here.

Again, I know it's cold outside and thank you for for braving

that and coming out. Thanks for those who are

listening online. You can always go back and

listen to these sessions online over and over again.

And I'll be calling attention more and more to that as we move

down the road. Next time we're together here

physically, we're going to have a our winter prayer service next

Wednesday night. So come back.

It's going to be a very important time.

Think of a time to thank God for 2025 and all that He's given us.

And we should do that. We should stop and do that

because He's given us much in 2025 and then we're also going

to be thanking him for what's ahead and what we can give him

in 2026. So it'll be a very, very special

time. Pastor Charles and his office

will be leading out of the pastors be participating.

So you'll be back next Wednesday night.

Then we'll be off for one week because I was at Christmas, and

then when we're back in the new year for our midweek service,

we're going to really be tackling and gauging the Bible.

What I mean by that is we're going to actually be talking

about how do we dive really deeply into Bible study?

How do I know? In fact, I'm recording a podcast

tomorrow to kind of walk you through a personal Bible study

that's kind of like we have done with prayer.

And so that'll be released later this month.

We also have already done the session with Danny Aiken and

Dylan and I are doing another one tomorrow as well.

But but on midweek, we're going to compliment that.

How do, how do I actually take a passage of scripture and know

what to do with it? How do I, how do I interpret it?

How do I, how do I search the meaning for it?

How am I actually going to help other people understand it?

And so it'll be a really, I think, helpful time in our

discipleship conversations to know how to handle the word of

God will. So we'll do that for a few weeks

starting in January. I'll be preaching out of

Nehemiah on Sunday mornings starting in January is a very,

very fascinating book. If you want a background to

Nehemiah, read Ezra and Haggai and Zechariah.

If you were to read Haggai, Zechariah and Ezra before the

beginning of the year, you'd have the whole backdrop to

Nehemiah. And so a very important study

together. So we'll enjoy that.

I hope a lot Tonight. We're finishing out our our

series for now. That doesn't mean we're

finishing the idea, but we're going to finish out the the idea

of living out evangelism with boldness and love.

We need to talk about not only sharing the gospel from memory,

but a few other really important things.

I know that you have handouts that have seemed thick, but

don't worry, I talk quickly. So we'll get through this, but I

want to review before we start. Just remember, especially from

the very, very beginning of this series together, to think about

the stair stepping that I've been talking about all along the

way. I am assuming that you're

recognizing relationship number one and relationship #2 that we

talked about weeks ago if you weren't here or haven't heard

that yet. But we need to be in a very

intentional relationship with God and His people so that we

can be in a very intentional relationship with the world and

its people. But the first one comes first.

And the more intimately I'm walking with God, the more

prepared I'm going to be to be engaging the world in the proper

way as well as to be actually be living out evangelism.

Remember, the goal here is not to teach you how to do

evangelism. It's to become evangelistic in

my 24/7. And so how can I actually live

this life? Well, that's really going to

depend upon my walk with God. So then as I'm developing

relationships with lost people, I'm praying for them.

I'm leading conversations to Christ.

I'm sharing personal testimonies when that's appropriate.

I may use a gospel tool to help me share the gospel, or I may

have something memorized, which we're going to talk more about

tonight, as well as some other tools to help you.

So when we talk about memorized presentations, let me share a

few advantages and disadvantages.

The list could be much, much, much longer.

Obviously, these are not exhaustive, but to think about

just some practical things. The thing about a memorized

presentation is it's always available.

In other words, you've got it up here.

You know, I don't have to have it a book.

I don't have to have a guide. I don't need a multi colored

bracelet. I got it right in my head and I

know what to say and what it is and it tends to strengthen the

witness. And what I mean by that is that

that it actually, if I, if I'm able to share this just from my

heart and my mind, it can actually help the testimony.

And it often is the result of discipleship.

So in other words, a person who's actually walked through

and memorized the gospel presentation has gone through

some kind of study, at least to be able to do that.

And so it's often a sign of that.

There are some disadvantages. We've talked a little bit about

this along the way, I think, but it's kind of a hard beginning

point for a lot of people. You know, this is not

necessarily step one. For some people, it takes a

minute or two to memorize everything you might want to

memorize. And we're going to talk about

what those things might be in a minute.

But so it's a hard beginning point for some folks.

It also obviously requires training.

And so you've got to study enough and know what the things

are that you need to say, and it can be received as canned or

impersonal if it's not shared well.

In other words, if I'm really working through a complex

memorized presentation, like much of our programs in the past

have taught us how to do, sometimes it can be kind of

perceived of I'm on point A, sub point B, illustration 2, and I'm

more worried about memorizing my next step than I am about the

person I'm talking to. And so it can seem a little

impersonal. It's just about how well you are

at doing it. But a lot of what I want to

spend this session on is what's next.

I want to talk about the content of the gospel.

And this is really important for us because we've mentioned this

and other times together, but what are the essentials of the

gospel? What's the minimum that a person

needs to know? And I've I've shared 100 times.

I think that's not my goal. My goal is not to share the the

least amount I can share, but I need to make sure I'm sharing

it. And So what is it that a person

must know in order to be saved? You have a handout that goes

along with your listening guide and it's 2 sided.

On one side you'll see a list or maybe it's even 3 sided.

I don't have any pages that ended up being but look for the

one that has the the table on it, not the list of Bible

stories. So you have a list of Bible

stories. We'll talk about that in a

minute. Look at the one that has the

table memorizing a gospel presentation.

What must stay here? What must we share?

And this is a basically a classic modern approach.

Most of the gospel tracts that we've talked about in a previous

session would follow this kind of outline.

Not all of them, but most of them would.

That doesn't mean it's bad. It's it's how you share it

necessarily what we're sharing. So you'd start off somewhere

along the way with God's purpose or plan for your life, perhaps

God's nature and love. You would then get into the sin

problem, man's problem there and you would have to talk about

God's holiness as well and the issue of sin, God's solution of

grace, of salvation, of what He did, what He does with Jesus on

the cross. Our response in faith and some

invitation including repentance and confession, and then the

follow up. Now, obviously there are some

points to every one of these things to a large degree.

One of the things I would encourage you to do is to think

about what's the major concept that I really am trying to share

here. What scripture could I use with

that to help me? What, what, what major concept?

And you'll see, it's just a repeat.

You'll see there's, there's, there's, there's these three

columns and then a repeat of columns.

In case you don't like this outline and you like some other

outline, it just gives you a worksheet to think about What

are some of the passages of Scripture that I might use to

make this point? Well, keep keep your God-given

bookmark right there and then look on the other side or at

your Bible stories at the other piece of paper.

I'm not sure how it ended up being printed for you.

So these are 90 something Bible stories.

I believe at one point that I think they were 93.

I don't know, don't count them. And one of the exercises that

often do with people, as I would say, as you look through all of

these stories, put a one by the one that you have to include.

It must be included in a gospel presentation.

If I'm sharing the gospel via Bible stories, this is one that

has to be included. You can't not share this.

And so it's mandated. And then often we'll do a #2

here's one that I might include. I wish I could.

If I had time, I'd love to. And then often we'll even have a

number 3 for further follow up discipleship, etcetera.

And so it's helpful to think through this because it will

help you put the scripture you might want, although you may

want a verse and not a story. I get that for your outline, but

to think about what, what Bible stories in today's everything

we've talked about over all these sessions.

For those who have any idea, you know what, what stories might we

have to share if you were writing your gospel presentation

out And I said you've got to use gospel stories to do your gospel

outline your gospel presentation in your paper to me.

I was grading a paper today at what stories must you use right

now? There are a couple of obvious

ones. And if you don't share those in

your paper, I'm going to mark it really red and I'm going to hand

it back to you and probably give you another chance to not flunk

the class. So what's 1 of the stories that

has to be in a gospel presentation?

Say it. Say it real loudly.

OK, creation maybe that I'm not denying it.

I would include creation even more significant.

OK, say it again. Somebody first sin.

I know you are going in order. Don't do that.

Think of the whole Bible. What's the what?

What better you share What? What?

What must you share The cross. Thank you very much.

You better talk about Jesus dying on a cross and then you

better talk about what? Thank you so much.

The resurrection. You're not wrong in all your

other answers, but but you better make sure that you're

getting to a cross and you're getting to a resurrection.

Now often times you can even start there and then go back and

say, why does that matter? And then I can go back to the

Old Testament even and and support why the cross had to

happen the way it did. You don't have to do it that

way, but that's one way to do it.

Or you can start from the Old Testament moved all the way

through, depending upon the time you have, the relationship you

have and the knowledge that you have of of the Bible.

This is also an interesting exercise to do with people.

This is an actually an exercise to do in a class or small group

or or even with friends, but to think about.

So I know that you said creation, some of you said the

first sin, and I, I get why you would say that.

That makes sense. I, I would want to include that

at some point we have to talk about the fact that man sinned,

you know, because, because the cross didn't make sense unless

we know that. So I get all that.

What's another one that you think would be really important

to scan that sheet for a minute, shout it out.

What do you think would be really important to share the

birth of Jesus. That's interesting.

So that you can identify who he is based on what we've talked

about before. Yeah, it's good.

What else? The Holy Spirit coming?

Yep. The baptism of who?

Jesus. See, this is where we start.

And in class we would have debates.

You know what I'm saying? We'd say, well, I don't know

about that one, you know what I mean?

The second coming being be good. Say it real loudly.

Say it again. Thank you, Lazarus.

I, I, you'd use that as an illustration, wouldn't you?

I get you from raising from the dead.

So it's interesting to see because it's all about

perspective, isn't it? So I, so the reason I look like

I've been in situations to where somebody will sit there and say,

let me find one that seems really, you know, like Balaam.

And I'm like, well, I don't, I don't know that that would have

been in my top 10. But then somebody will share.

Well, here's why I would say that, you know, here's what I

would use that for. It's illustrative.

It becomes the illustration of one of my theological points.

And so you can make those kinds of arguments and that's great.

That's why you personalize it. See, so, so there's not really a

wrong answer. There certainly are necessary

right answers. We've got to talk about certain

things, make sure they understand certain things.

But to think about how can I back up?

I mean, I've had people calm Jesus calming the storm and I'm

like, huh. And then they use that as an

illustration of who he is and his power and these different

things. This is that he is the creator

God with power over. I mean, they're trying it all

the way back to Genesis. And I'm like, oh, OK, I get what

you're doing that. And so there are a lot of angles

to this. And the cool thing about it is,

is that it doesn't necessarily have to be the same every time.

So the more I study the Bible, the more I understand all these

stories. These things can come out very

naturally in the context of the person I'm talking to, and can

be used to actually make a personalized presentation in

that moment based upon their need, based upon our

conversations. But there are some standards.

So when you go back to the other page, recognize that some of

those key theological points probably need to be illustrated

in one way or the other at some point especially, and I'm going

to talk about this again in a minute, key apologetic points,

key points that go all the way back to the core training

sessions that we did this summer.

But to think about, here's something I really do need to

define. We've talked about that in many,

many sessions. Who God is, what sin is, who

Jesus is, how salvation works, those kinds of ideas.

And so to make sure that if I'm sharing a complete gospel

presentation, the whole gospel, that I want to make sure they

understand it all. And then don't forget, don't

forget the end game to where you really are hoping to bring them

to a point of some conclusion and even decision.

You can't make them do that. And you don't want to make them

do that. You don't want to manipulate

them into doing that. Some of the gospel presentations

are, are a little interesting in the way they kind of almost put

people in a corner to where you're either stupid or you

understand this and you're going to get saved.

You know, it's almost like that. And it's like we that's not, we

can't manipulate people into salvation, but at the same time,

we do want to bring them to this point of repentance, this point

of confession to recognize what faith is, what is grace?

What is faith? What does it require for me to

be saved? Is that a sinner's prayer?

Is that me praying by myself? Is that you helping me pray?

Is that me confessing certain things?

Is that what is that and what is repentance?

So each of these points along the way, and you'll have a

harder time with some of that, probably you'll have verses that

you can certainly use to say that this needs to happen, but

the stories are not. You can go to some of the

stories of the New Testament where you see people repenting

and confessing their sins, etcetera.

And then obviously we want to lead them into some of the

discipleship essentials that we'll continue to talk about.

So this kind of exercise is something I strongly encourage

you to do in the sense of, you know, find out how you feel

comfortable sharing the gospel based on what we talked about

last time with gospel tools, based upon the theological

biblical outline and and scriptural support that you need

to use so that you have in your mind a way to do it.

And if you can't figure that out, you don't know what else to

do, then get the story, get the three circles, start there and

let that help you along the way. If you need tools to start you

and you and they'll, they'll, they're, they're going to get

you down the right road. Now, I'm not done with this, but

I'm going to move on for a minute.

OK, So as we move on, I want to talk about how do we share with

people from specific kinds of groups.

Then I'm going to loop back around to this theological

biblical conversation again. But I want to talk about this

for a minute because this can get kind of complicated and a

lot of you are living in this place.

There's an old book. It's it's not an easy book to

read. It's more like an encyclopedia

called the Complete Evangelism Handbook.

Guy named Scott Dawson read it's really nice book, but it's, you

know, you, you read this little chapter and then you read this

little chapter and part of his table of contents would divide

people up into these ways. He has relationship groups like

family, etcetera, age groups, vocation, religion, race, life

situation. These are a few of the things

that that he has. And then you also see gender and

sexual orientation. They're all in the book.

We'll talk about some of these in detail.

So I want to talk about talking and reaching children and youth

just for a moment. Some of your parents.

And there are some unique things and I don't want to be

offensive. If the students were in here,

they might be offended by what I'm about to say, but so I'm

including teenagers in this. And it depends upon your

teenager as to whether they're included or not teenagers and

are not teenagers or not. And they're not all equal,

right? A 13 year old and a 19 year old

are not the same animal. And so some of that is

physiological and biological. The brain increases in size 3

times during adolescence. And so there's probably a

scientific justification to say that teenagers lose their minds.

And so they go from concrete black and white thought to

abstract thought during that development.

So things like sin mean something very different

depending upon where they are in those developmental levels.

And so sometimes you have to treat students like children in

terms of evangelism. And there there's some

principles that are true. And sometimes this is a mistake

that's made in student ministry one time.

And I just share the story. And because it's not about here,

but when when our daughter was 12, she's in a student ministry

at church and there's some college young people helping

with the student ministry, wonderful people who were trying

to do a wonderful job. I'm the senior pastor and

they're calling my daughter up directly and they're planning a

whole thing at the mall on Saturday with my 12 year old

daughter. Well, we had a whole family trip

planned for that Saturday. So guess who becomes the bad

guy, right, Dad? Because my 12 year old daughter

wasn't making decisions on her own like that yet.

And so there's developmentally developmental things even in the

ministry side that we're always thinking about.

So it depends upon who they are, where they are.

But anyway, I've made too much of that.

And you all can send those notes to

[email protected]. Those are forward to see Taylor.

So, but one of the things you need to recognize and one of the

things you will have to come to grips with is a little bit of

theology. Children are lost too.

And often we don't think like that.

You have to come to terms with what your doctrine of the age of

accountability is and and the doctrine of the age of

accountability is the question of whether or not a a child who

is too young to know what sin is.

Too young to understand right and wrong.

Are they under the care of God and and and saved when they die

or not? Some of this could also go into

the special needs category depending upon depending upon

that level of, of need. And I, I tell you the best part

that I mean, we could spend a whole maybe why should maybe I

should come back to this someday and do a whole because that's

enough. That's a whole two or three-week

series. Al Mohler, my former boss, has

probably written some of the best material and you can, you

can look up Al Molars website and look for age accountability

and he's probably written some of the best material in that

category. Doctor Aiken would affirm Dr.

Molars material. But one of the things we do know

is that kids can be easily pressured and manipulated.

I was in charge of the counseling team at both children

camp since the world's largest student camp in various years,

the the world's largest at the time are EU s s largest student

camp is called Falls Creek. It's in Oklahoma.

They'll have anywhere between 7 to 9000 students a week and and

so you can have 1000 decisions in one service.

And so you have a whole team of counseling people who are ready

to go. And then we had children's camp

in the hundreds of kids, younger elementary type age and

etcetera. And I've done the counseling for

them and, and you'll see them sometimes to where, and this

will come up again later, but they, they're kind of herd

animals. And so, you know, all of a

sudden it becomes kind of an emotional experience.

And three of their friends come forward and suddenly Susie's

coming forward too. But Susie doesn't really know

why she came forward and she's crying, but she came forward

because her two friends came forward.

And you just got to be really careful.

And so one of the things that we, they can be easily

pressured, they can be easily manipulated.

I could probably take a group of children and get them all to say

they wanted to ask Jesus into their heart if I pressured them

the right way and ask them the right questions in some kind of

presentation. But that's not what we want to

do. We need this to be legitimate.

And so we want to be careful with them.

And so we certainly want to deal with them one-on-one.

So we need to be knowledgeable about these developmental issues

and then also we need to watch our vocabulary.

Some of this is common sense. I'll move through this fairly

quickly because there's some other things we need to spend

some time on. And so you got to think about

age level definitions again, what's sin, What is lordship,

What is obedience to an 8 year old compared to an 18 year old?

One of the issues that we've dealt with many, many times in

ministry is somebody is saved when they're seven or eight

years old, then they're 18 or 19 and they're coming forward and

they're not sure they were saved.

They were baptized when they were 7 or 8.

And now they don't know that they knew what they were doing

at 18 or 19. And we're walking through the

whole issue of do you really need to be baptized or not?

Were you really saved or not? And walking through all that

together, the better job you do at 7 or 8, the easier the job

will be at 18 and 19, which is why we're careful.

And so, and there's, but there's also, again, there's this

understanding of I, I, the, the things I did that were sin when

I were seven or eight are different than the things I do

that are sin when I'm 18 or 19. And so they're struggling

through definitions and they're struggling through ideas of

obedience and lordship and what it means to follow Christ.

So assessing readiness is a big deal deal.

Again, that peer pressure is really there.

And so you want to ask open-ended questions.

You never ask yes or no questions to kids when it comes

to evangelism. Make them explain to you what

you just said. So don't say, do you believe

that Jesus died on the cross for your sins?

Because they're all going to go, yes, you need to ask them what

does it mean that Jesus died on the cross?

And have them explain that back to you.

So essay questions, not true and false, really important for

everybody, but especially for kids when you're talking to

them. Obviously parental participation

can go both ways. I've been in in every number of

situations where the parents were pushing for it and also the

parents never wanted it to happen.

So we've been in all those situations.

So you got to work with family and figure out what that what

that reality is going to be. So for us, before they're ever

going to get up there behind the Saran Wrap, there's heavy follow

up. There's pre baptism on that next

slide, pre baptismal counsel. And then this whole question of

quote UN quote, re baptized. I'm not going to quote, I'm not

going to re baptize anybody. But if no, if somebody hasn't

really been baptized biblically in the 1st place is the question

we're working through, were they really believers or not?

And so we need to talk about what the absolutes of the gospel

are. And So what, what, what must you

believe in order to be saved, right?

And so there's a conversation like this going on right now

with a family here to where am I saved or not?

And where the belief is, is that you have believed in what is

necessary for you to be saved. But there's still a lot of

doubt. There's still a lot of

confusion, there's still a lot of questions.

And so we're working through that and we'll talk more about

those absolutes in just a second.

Let me move on to another category just for a moment

because all these are going to kind of relate.

Let me talk about reaching family and close friends for a

minute because this can be touchy.

I've been into a number of situations like this to where

this was hard because one of the issues you have is what we'll

just call personal credibility. They've seen you, they know you,

and if you have been living in relationship number one in a

great way, then fantastic. If you've been struggling with

relationship number one with God and His people and that

testimony is going to kind of shine through to them, and

that's going to be there too. There's an honesty to it.

I've had to deal with a lot of seminary students in this

categories. You also have broken

relationships with relational credibility issues where there's

been problems in the past and you got to talk about how do you

seek forgiveness or give forgiveness in order to to work

through that the best way you can.

You also have long term silence. I've told you the story before

of the person who goes home, they share the gospel with their

uncle. Their uncle is saved and their

aunt gets really angry with them because they realize that they

knew about this for years and years and years and years and

years and never told them. So I've wasted half of my life

being lost when you knew this the whole time, How come you

didn't tell me, right? And so these issues are

significant. So we've got to live out our

testimony. We've got to live out our

relationship to where and we got to be honest about it.

I, I didn't do a good job of this.

And so when my parents, when I, when I was saved, I basically

condemned my parents, told them they were going to burn in hell.

And that didn't go over real well.

I can't imagine why, but it didn't.

They didn't appreciate that much.

And there were many moments where I had to kind of go back

and seek forgiveness, apologize, work through my own hypocrisy

with them. And then they met Teresa, which

really sealed the deal because she's who she is.

She just hugged them till they came to Jesus.

You know, it's about the truth. But anyway, so you know it can

be sensitive. Co workers are are similar and

so very people who see you everyday, people who you're

with. But you also need to think about

the work ethic and behavior you have in your employment.

You need to be the best employee.

You don't need to be gossiping. You don't be joining in with the

stuff that is not going to help your testimony to Christ will be

the opposite of that. Have the greatest work ethic, be

the best employee, be the encourager, but a lot of those

same things aware but also in Co workers.

In that next one, we got to be aware of context.

If you're going to try to share the gospel at work, you got to

remember where you are. Be sensitive enough to think

about breaks and lunch and and then think about the

relationship that would be appropriate for you to have

beyond work. You know, and some of those

relationships are a little touchy, but to think about what

that relationship ought to be beyond work to where you could

actually share with them. I'm generally not the guy who

tries to hold the waiter at my table so that I can share my 16

point gospel outline with them while they're taking my order.

We do pray for them and we share with them who we are, but a lot

of that's going to have to happen later.

All right, bulk of our time. What about people from

completely different belief systems?

This is going to be significant, and it's going to touch on some

of this gender and sexual orientation as well, believe it

or not. So people come from different

religions, different belief systems.

They could also be atheists, agnostic, whatever.

What are we going to do with them?

So the first thing that we've got to do is build

relationships. So we're going to go back in a

sense, you're going to see the stair stepping that we've talked

about on that next slide, where we're actually going to build

these intentional relationships and find common bridges.

And so we're we're going to hopefully get to know them in a

very intentional way. And then we're also going to be

praying evangelistically for them and, and helping people to

know that. But before we get to that, let's

talk about religion in general. So one of the things that we

recognize is that, and I've shared a lot of this before.

And so I just just just review real quickly that religion is

made-up of three components. Never.

And this really I, I, I've harped on this so much with you

because I need, I really do want you to key in on this because

this is a significant evangelistic factor for me,

regardless of who that person is, to be honest with you.

So there's a functional and kind of a, you know, religion

functions and functional, emotional, social and

intellectual. But these three components on

the next one, you have the substantive that goes along with

the functional. So the functional that first one

is what is this thing produce in your life?

What does the religion do? That's again emotional, social,

etcetera. Then you got substantive, which

is what is the actual content of the religions religious

teachings. And then you've got the the the

formal, which would be the forms itself.

So in other words, am I going to church?

Am I going to a temple? They're building 150 foot tall

Hindu statue on the other side of Apex right now, for example.

And so if you go to Morrisville, NC over by the Kerry Apex area,

it is majority South Asian and many of them are are Hindu.

You can go not far from our old house in Roseville to a church.

I was the inner pasture for a couple years.

Just down the street is a huge Vietnamese Buddhist temple.

And so throughout the whole area, the Triangle, you'll find

every type of worship center that is probably represented

from every major world religion. And all of that is moving here

and is already here in individual form.

And as that population grows in the Rocky Mount area, you'll

find that you'll actually have these formal expressions

becoming more prevalent. To have a Buddhist temple in

Rocky Mount would not be unheard of.

If it doesn't already exist, then there probably will be 1

soon. They'll be a, they won't call it

a mosque. They'll call it a Community

Center, Islamic Community Center.

You will also probably have a Hindu temple.

And so you just got to recognize that this is normative in North

Carolina, big cities and in growing areas.

So the world is coming here. So you might think, well, I

don't know anybody like that right now.

We'll just give it a minute. And a, you probably do, you just

don't know their belief system. They probably live down the

street. So to recognize, but even if

it's less formal, it's not necessarily one of the great

world religions. They can have their own

syncretic syncretic belief or they've, they've formed their

own version of Christianity, right?

Or they could be, they could be Mormon, they could be 7 day,

they could be Jehovah's Witness. They could be all kinds of

different variations out there, some more Christian than others,

some not at all. So we need to build these

evangelistic bridges by examining the similarities

between belief systems and not just the differences.

So what I do is I think about the functional.

I've shared this with you before.

This is review, but in other words, I'm I'm not going to

argue at the very beginning about the content.

I'm not arguing about the fact that you go to a temple and I go

to a church. I'm going to talk to you about

what Jesus Christ produces in my life and the fact that I have

hope, I have peace, I have assurance, I have purpose.

I know what exactly what's going to happen to me when I die.

That assurance issue is a major thing.

We are the only ones who have that.

Everybody else is a fatalistic hope.

So yeah, I'm going to work my way to maybe.

And I'm in this karma good, bad balance.

And so we're, you know, grace is not known outside of biblical

Christianity. So I want to talk about grace.

I want to talk about forgiveness.

I want to talk about strength for dealing with life.

That's where I'm starting. Normally in these conversations.

I'm not talking about how come you study that and I study this

even though I need to know about it and we'll talk about it a

minute. I really want to talk about

functional. And then some forms, for

example, I can use form as a bridge because every world

religion has some version of prayer.

Now that doesn't mean they're biblically praying, but every

world, major world religion has a form prayer of prayer form of

some kind. And so I can talk about let's

talk about how you pray, because if I'm talking to a Muslim,

they're they're praying all day long.

So it's like, how do you pray? And I talk about how I pray and

we can begin there. I that can be a part of a

conversation. And one of the things that's

interesting, if you actually identify them as being a fairly

faithful member of a different world religion, they're going to

probably be wide open to talk about spiritual things far more

than your quote UN quote Christian neighbor who thinks

it's a personal thing and shouldn't be discussed.

That's a very American Christian concept.

And Western European Muslims are wide open.

They're they're living right on the edge of spirituality all the

time. They have no companies who would

tell you just start asking them. He told you when he preached

here. The third question ought to be

what, what religion do you belong to?

And they're wide open to talk about that.

They'd be glad they they would enjoy talking to a Christian

about Christianity. Many of them, a Buddhist would

be the same way, a Hindu would be the same way here in the

United States. And so just recognize that most

of these people are far more spiritual than than most of the

Baptist, you know. And so this isn't a hidden

secret thing we don't dare talk about.

Now, if you're talking to an atheist or an agnostic or, or

somebody who's anti something, then you're in a different

ballpark, obviously. So how do I build a

relationship? How do I find these common

bridges? How do I pray evangelistically

for them? And then I do want to know my

faith in theirs. And I'm going to come back to

this. In other words, if I know, like

in in Louisville, we had next door neighbor who is a, a pseudo

Buddhist Chinese Communist humanist.

That's who he really was. But he had a Buddhist heritage.

And so to honor his his dead relatives, he practiced a

certain level of Buddhism, but he was really Chinese Communist

humanist in his worldview. And so this was a cultural thing

that he did, but it wasn't a guiding force in his life.

And so to to just know. So if I know I have a Buddhist

who lives next door, I should study Buddhism some I should

know that I should read up. And there are a couple of good

books that we can share with you again.

One of them is called Neighboring Faiths.

It's a good book on world religions.

It's a big book, not cheap necessarily, but it's a good

book on the world religions. If I know that I work with

somebody who's a Muslim, I should know a little bit about

Islam so that we can have educated conversations.

But mainly I need to know my faith.

So I need to know what I believe and why.

But I need to know as much as possible about what they believe

and why if I can. So I want to do my research

because it is on us to become all things to all men.

It's on us to go and share the gospel.

It's on us to build the bridge. We don't sit back and hope they

build a bridge to us. We've got to build a bridge to

them. And so we need to do our, our

fair share of an intentionally preparing for and pursuing

opportunities, which means I might have to do a little

reading sometime. I know that's, but that's right.

In today's world, you'd watch a, you can watch a video online.

You probably, you really can't, so that's OK Google it.

It'll be there. There'll be a 3 minute video

give you the basics of oral religion.

At least you got that. So there you go.

But then I'm, I'm also not going to attack.

You're going to hear that over and over again tonight.

That might be counterintuitive to some of you who want to do

that, who just want to argue. I appreciate you.

I'm not going to advise that. I'm going to advise that you

don't attack, that you seek to find common ground, that you

don't burn the bridge and that you lead the conversation to

Christ whenever it's possible. You're going to see these stair

stepping, then I'm going to share my testimony.

Then I'm going to need to live my testimony probably in front

of these people. They're going to need to see it.

You know, once I self identify as a Christian, they're going to

need me to prove it to them probably and to show them what

does that mean? Because I know this may seem odd

to you in Nash County, but many of the people around you will

have not ever seen anybody who actually claims to be 1 and who

actually claims to live out Christianity.

And that's not a guess. That's a statistical truth.

Most of these people have never heard the gospel from a loving

personal testimony before. And then they have somebody who

actually professes this. They're, they want to watch you

and see how you behave, how they might even try to push your

buttons. And so I need to show my

personal testimony. I need it to be real.

The more real I am, the more authentic I am, the more people

will listen to me. But then I do want to explain

the gospel and I'm going to come back and repeat this about 10

times. But, and I want to specifically

deal with works righteousness versus grace.

And I also want to focus on assurance and certainty because

whatever system they're coming from, even if it's not a system,

it's a system. Atheism is still a system.

Humanism is still a system. And so whatever that system is,

they're working on some kind of wholly balanced 90 plus percent

of the time of good versus bad. I'm a good person.

I don't need this or I'm better than you are, so I don't need

that. And so they're working on these

definitions of good and bad. And so to to deal with works

righteousness versus grace is a huge part of a gospel

presentation in today's culture. Never forget that.

So when you're working back with your gospel stories, you're

working back on your outline, make sure that you're dealing

and defining works righteousness versus grace.

And then this idea of assurance that I said before and

certainty, it freaks people out when I stare them in the eyes

and I say. I know beyond any shadow of a

doubt that if I were to drop dead right now that I will be in

heaven forever. And because of that I have 0

fear of death. Now I get accused of being

arrogant, I get accused of being crazy or whatever.

But a lot of times I'm also like I'm not kidding yet they'll say

to me I don't have that. I don't have that or I don't

know how you can know that this coming fall, working through

Nehemiah and and starting in January, we're going to work

through the book of Romans, which should take about 10

years, but I'm going to try to do it in a few weeks and not a

few weeks, but several weeks. It'll take a few months.

Then in the fall of 26, we'll be in first John and and the, the

title of the book is actually called the question to know or

not to know. And we're going to hit this even

harder. Then I'm going to be reinforcing

everything we're talking about. Everything connects and we'll be

reinforcing all of these pieces all along the way to help you

from different angles. But to recognize that assurance

is certainly. Then again, don't burn the

bridge and invite them to join you.

Invite them to come to your small group and connect group.

It's called a connect group here. 100% of you are in connect

groups. By the way, real testimony.

We had a bunch of visitors last week.

Most of them were because connect groups reached out to

them and invited them to come. So thank you very much for doing

that during age week. It worked.

We have several who are interested in learning more.

So invite them to join you here. Invite them to join you in that

Christian experience along the way.

Now, a specific group that some of you are dealing with, and

maybe even in this room you're you're dealing with this a

little bit, are related to alternative lifestyles and

gender beliefs. Now recognize that everything I

just said applies, OK, alternative lifestyles, gay,

homosexual, whatever the various letters are going to be tomorrow

because they'll be some more tomorrow.

Whatever the self identification issues are and the confusion

over gender are. This is coming from a completely

different worldview and belief system, and you've got to

recognize it. And so it's easy to attack the

sin. That's what they expect.

I've shared with you about my conversation with the German

doctor on the plane before. They're expecting me to attack

them for what I would call a horrible sin, right.

And we and, and Christians like to rank sin and they and, and

evangelical Christians think some sins are worse than other

sins. And, and that's not true.

So we, we think that way sometimes.

So, so certain sins really bother us more than other sins.

If I feel like, but the bottom line is, is, is I need to, I

need to think better than this. I'm, I certainly am not going to

condone their lifestyle. I'm not going to condone their

sin and I'm going to be honest about that with them, but I need

to be able to tell them why because they're coming from a

different truth place and that's part of the problem.

They're real. They're real Problem goes all

the way back to August when I talked about our hill of

authority and the word of God. Because they're not interpreting

the word of God at all or they're not interpreting the

word of God the same way that we would.

And so you, you have churches that are endorsing anything and

everything that call themselves Christians.

And so you have Christian churches that endorse

homosexuality. You have Christian churches who

have homosexual leadership. You have churches that have

everything under the sun. And so it's easy to justify I'm,

I'm a Christian even and believe this, right?

But you've got to recognize they're coming from such a

different perspective of truth, of whether the Bible's inerrant,

whether the Bible is really true or not, the way it appears.

Because it's easy to sit there and say that Romans 1 doesn't

really say what we would interpret Romans 1 to say.

And Romans one's very clear. If you ever wonder, and I've

said this to you before, you'll see sometimes clips of

politicians who'll say what is what did Jesus say about

homosexuality? And then they'll sit there for

this moment of silence. And I, I, I just wish that if

politicians are going to be theology theologians, they'd be

good ones. Because if you, if you ask the

question, what does the Bible say about homosexuality, there

are tons of passages. Romans 1 is an easy one to go to

in the New Testament. And so, but it's also easy for

somebody to simply say, well, that was just cultural that

didn't apply anymore. So it's a different belief

system. It's a different perspective of

Scripture, it's a different interpretive, it's a different

hermeneutic. And so we need to know how to

handle the word of God well. So everything I just said about

somebody from a different religion can often apply to

people who are in alternative gender and lifestyle issues as

well. You've got to almost treat them

like it's a whole different religion system.

They're coming from a whole different worldview.

They're coming from a whole different belief system.

And you can sit there and say, because for some of you, it's

your child. And I know some people in this

church, this is an issue you're dealing with.

And you can say, well, they were raised and they know better.

Well, no, they don't. So I'm sorry, but right now they

don't. They might have at one point,

but right now they don't. They've they've switched that

word that out for a different belief system and they're

justifying that belief system. Even if it's some point they

knew something else, they're not justifying something else.

OK. And so you can either scream and

argue and point to the sin, or you can deal with the Sinner in

the same way you would almost anybody from any religious

background. And and so you can be careful

you burn the bridge. It's easy to do.

They're, they're assuming the bridge is on fire most of the

time when they meet you anyway, if they hear, I'm a Southern

Baptist pastor, the bridge is on fire before we ever have a

conversation. And it's really frustrating to

me because once I get him into a conversation to learn that it's

not. And I've had many intelligent

conversations with people who are self identifying as

everything. And so just recognize that.

And so we'll talk a little more about that in a second too, but

just recognize that, that that there's some common theological

objections that I really want you to nail down.

And so this is a bit summary, but this is also a short list.

And so if you can't remember anything else out of any of

these sessions from the theology or anything else, make sure you

understand your view of authority.

Go back back, I think it's August 6th or something like

that to our core training primary, the hill of authority.

It'll be online. Look for the hill of authority.

And I talk about the Bible. Do you know what your authority

is and why you, you need to know what you believe about the

Bible? Because if I'm going to show the

gospel, at some point, I'm going to share some story or verse out

of the Bible and it needs to matter.

And that other person may have zero respect or concern about

what the Bible says. So I'm going to have to

articulate to them. Here's why this is so important

to me because this is the authority of my life.

And you have to let the Holy Spirit work hard, right?

Which is always the case. I also really need again, to

emphasize words, righteousness, and then also along with that,

the idea of grace. What do I mean by that?

What is that? What is that?

How does that work? How does grace work compared to

works righteousness? Because I'm 90 plus percent of

the time, I can just guarantee that they're dealing even even

even Christians, even members of Inglewood Baptist Church are

still some of you on works righteousness because we've had

those conversations. Some of you are still, I was in

a conversation the other day with somebody in their home and

I, I, I hope I'm doing enough things.

I hope I'm being good enough. I hope I'm earning it.

Or I'm afraid I've, I've, I've lost it or I afraid I'm not

doing enough. And that kind of language you

got to understand. It's just not where the Bible

has us. And so you can also go back on a

Sunday morning when I in the series of Come Be the Church's

Bride, where I actually talk about why do we need salvation

And I talk about how salvation works and how assurance works on

a Sunday morning. You can look at that and listen

to that as well, because that's not how salvation works.

But to recognize what that is, exclusivism, very important.

Exclusivism will alienate you and isolate you from 90 plus

percent of the world's population.

Probably. Even though Christianity is, is

still billions of people, not all of them are exclusivists.

Exclusivism says that Jesus Christ is the only way to

salvation. He's the only way you can be

saved. And there are many people who

identify as Christians who are pluralists and universalists

and, and inclusivists and all kinds of isms.

And so to, to articulate that you, you, you hold to

exclusivism is important. Then we're back to that

assurance and certainty issue as well.

To just recognize that because of the way salvation works,

because of who Jesus Christ is, my certainty of salvation isn't

up to me. See, I, I can't not be saved at

this point. That's not possible.

It doesn't work that way. I've been saved already.

I've been exigorazoed, I've been completely bought up.

I've been completely redeemed and I'm in the palm of the

Father's hand, in the palm of the Son's hand, sealed by the

Holy Spirit. And I'm not more powerful than

the Triune God to break out of that.

It's not my grip on salvation. It's God's grip on me.

That is the deal. And that's so different.

But, but I'm telling you, if you can get that point across, that

will hit a heart that hits a heart because I want to be

careful why you say this because that because this is always the

case. But but some of these people are

really working hard on judgement of themselves and they're

working hard on anger issues and they're working hard on

frustration and pain in their life.

And to really think about the fact that that any God they ever

knew was not that God, any God they ever knew was a punitive,

wrathful being that was out to get them.

Almost all the world religions work that way.

Buddhism is different because Buddhism is different but but

almost all the world religions work on a wrathful God.

Allah and Yahweh are nowhere near the same and Hindu gods are

nothing like Jehovah. These are fatalistic theologies

that are fear based and hopefully I can appease them and

escape the lightning bolts that would destroy me and somehow eek

my way into a better existence. Right while we were yet sinners.

Grace, nobody has that. That'll that'll hit hearts.

Now, it may not happen in that moment.

They may sit there and say, oh, that's wonderful, I like that a

lot. But I guarantee it is to you.

You just watch. Can't tell you the number of

times. Yeah.

No, I remember when I said that. Yeah, I'll be glad to talk

again. Can tell you the number of times

because it hits. You mean somebody really loves

me? I mean, even people who are in

all kinds of alternative everything's, there's a, there's

a lot of lot of confusion, a lot of hurt in some of their lives.

A lot of nobody loved me in their life.

And a lot of these, I'm not saying that's always the case,

but in some of these cases, it's just, and that's not a guess.

That's because of conversations. And so to think that somebody

actually loves me unconditionally, that's amazing

for some people. And because of that, I have

peace. Because of that, I have hope.

Because of that, I have assurance.

You can't do anything to me. You know, what am I afraid of?

I'm afraid of failing him. That's it.

I don't want to fail him. I don't want to disobey.

What can me or man do to me? Nothing.

Nothing. See, man, it makes life

different when you feel that way.

Means that makes today different.

What do I have to fear about today?

My own stupid disobedience. That's what I fear, just being

stupid. And for me it's a spiritual

gift. So it's kind of regular, but you

know what I'm saying? All right, so then a couple

other specific hang ups you got to think of.

And it's going to be based on their faith system, Who is God,

these definitions. What does judgment mean?

The virgin births a big deal with some people, depending upon

who you're talking to. The incarnation would be a big

deal. The Trinity's a huge deal to

Muslims. You, you start off talking about

the Trinity to a Muslim and you're a, you're a polytheistic

Pagan. They think you believe in three

gods because they have no concept of Trinity in Islam.

And so, you know, you just have an awareness as much as you can

about who you're talking to and when you have no clue

whatsoever, just trust in the Lord and still share about him

and let him take it and run with it.

Just remember first Peter 315 say it says, but sanctify Christ

as Lord in your hearts. That's the key relationship

number one, always but always being ready to make a defense to

anyone who asked you to give an account for the for the hope

that that is in you. Yet with a with a sense of

gentleness and reverence. I'm not very good at beating

people over the head with the Bible.

If you wanted me to be better at that, I'm sorry.

I'm not very good at it. I could I used to do it in my

past, but not with the Bible. But but I'm just, I would rather

love people and talk to them about my God who loved this

thing, who doesn't deserve it. And so I, I, I try to approach

things fairly humbly, I hope when it comes to this.

So let let's talk about a couple of things.

What about some objections? How do I deal with objections?

What am I going to do? And so as we move forward to

think about how do I deal with some of the some of the

arguments and objections that people are going to have my way.

And so first of all, the excuse or the issue often hides a real

problem that that sometimes these are just smoke screens.

And so the presented problem is not always the real problem.

What I find entertaining and, and it doesn't work often.

And with me, once they find out kind of who and what I am and

who I've been in my life, it stops a lot, you know, because

because they know I know better. You know, I know what they know,

I've studied, they know, I've researched.

They know that if we need to, we can go to the Hebrew or the

Greek or whatever we got to go to and we can go straight from

it and talk about things. You know that that won't

necessarily be all of you, but because of my education and

background experience. But but so sometimes I can smell

the smokescreen and like that, you know, tell me what's really

going on. I mean, and I often say that to

people. I that's fine, that's fine, but

tell me what's really going on. But remember, my purpose is to

win the person to Christ, not to win a debate.

My goal is not to win the argument.

Yes, I won the argument. Congratulations.

You probably just alienated people from every coming to

Christ. Maybe you know, that's not what

I'm after. I'm not after to win the debate.

I'm, I'm trying to win them to Jesus.

And so the same excuse doesn't mean the same thing to every

person either. So every person is unique.

Don't just don't just think of canned responses and canned

approaches. You've got to treat people like

people, right? And then I need to answer

excuses with the right spirit. I don't want to ignore them.

I don't want to be argumentative and I don't want to ridicule.

At the same time, I want to get back to being on track.

And so I'll I'll tell them that, you know, that's, that's an

interesting question. It's a good question.

We can talk about it more later, but right now I'd like to share

this with you first. I'm just going to say that or I

need to make sure I'm maintaining this positive hat.

I need it and and show real love for somebody.

You know, I mean, you know, the old bumper sticker.

They're not going to they're not going to hear what you they're

not going to care about what you want to share until they know

what is that the one they know that you care.

You know how that goes. You know how that one is,

whatever that was, it's an incredible, brilliant statement.

So I'm depending upon the Holy Spirit, obviously the whole time

and, and I want to use Scripture to answer as much as I can.

And, and I also want to again, acknowledge the issues at hand,

but I really do want to try to complete the gospel presentation

and, and hopefully what I've done is I've LED them to a place

to where I have permission to do that.

Do you want to know why I feel the way I do?

If they're my testimony after my leading a conversation to

Christ, after I've been praying for them, after I've been

building this relationship with them, that they're at a place to

where I can share with them the real story, My prayers is that

they're hungry for it, that they want it.

I can't always make that happen. It's not up to me, but I want

to. I want to be there.

There's a several reasons why they might object and you got to

recognize some of these are legitimate.

The fact that some of them are going to feel discomfort because

of the Holy Spirit conviction is not always pleasant.

And so when they start hearing truth, it can be like a burning

iron up against their skin in their heart.

It can hurt and they're legitimately, I'm not enjoying

this. I don't want to hear anymore.

A lot of people carry guilt. A lot of people are carrying a

lot of emotional luggage and they're just going to feel like

you're you're loading up on them.

And so for some of them, this discomfort can actually come

from true conviction as well. Some of them had bad past

experiences. A lot of reason I don't, I don't

know, in this area I should, but I don't.

But the statistic of the unchurched in a lot of parts of

North Carolina, the majority of them are previously churched.

And so not all these people are lost.

They're unchurched, but many of them are previously churched and

so they had a bad experience in church.

Now I, you know, some of those are probably legitimately bad

experiences and some of those are, are hypersensitivity and

excuses for not being in church. So they arrange that whole

continuum of of reality. So, so talking through that is

sometimes helpful. Some people legitimately need

time to process. This is a big deal and they

might have a legitimate question.

I mean, you got, again, I've said this to you before, but you

think about somebody from a different world religion

background. So my whole life we've been

Muslim. Everybody I know is Muslim.

Everybody in my family is Muslim.

Grandma was Muslim, grandpa was Muslim, great, great grandpa was

Muslim. Mommy and daddy are Muslim,

uncle and and are all Muslim. Brother and sister all,

everybody's Muslim. And you're telling me

everybody's wrong and they're all going to hell and I'm there

and you're the only one that's right.

And I've known you for 10 minutes.

It's a pretty big deal. That's amazing anybody like that

ever gets saved in it. That's why God has to do it.

So all I can do is share. But I can also be sympathetic.

I know this is a lot. I do.

For some people, there's real confusion and lack of

understanding. They don't get it.

And sometimes there's a disconnect between the message

and the messenger. This goes back to they know you.

Who are you to be telling me this?

I remember when me and you used to, or I remember when you used

to, and I used to catch you stealing my apples from the

apple tree. Probably not that.

And sometimes there's just sin, isn't it?

They're living in sin. Some people like to live in sin.

The pigpen is a happy place until it's not.

And so some of them think they're having a good time in

their sin for now and hadn't quite caught up to them yet.

And there'll be all kinds of others there.

So how do I deal with this? Well, I, I need to not be afraid

to state and quote the source of my authority.

I got to go back to that. But I also need to assume that

they don't necessarily share that belief.

So I need to really understand my belief.

I this, I can't drive that home enough that no matter what they

think, I have the truth, see? And so I'm going to listen.

I'm going to listen with my eyes.

I'm going to listen with my ears.

I'm going to notice that twitch. I'm going to notice that

response that struck home with you, didn't it?

Now, that one's bouncing off your heads when we need to

repeat that one. But every now and then you'll

see that response. Sometimes you'll see that tear

down their cheek when something's happening.

So don't become defensive. You have the truth whether they

believe it or not. You don't have to defend God.

God's a roaring lion. He can defend himself.

He's the lion of Judah. But at the same time, I'm going

to make sure they understand why you believe what it is.

So one of the first lessons we're going to have in January

is how did we get the Bible and the way we have it today?

Why is this thing, this book we have called the Bible the way it

is? Why are those books in it?

Well, I hear about the Da Vinci Code or I hear about the Gospel

of Thomas and I hear about and it's like they just found it.

It's really stupid. It's so people are so funny.

It's like they just found this mysterious ancient document

that's been around since the 2nd century and they knew about it

since the 2nd century and all of a sudden Mary Magdalene is

Jesus's wife or something. That's there's nothing new about

that at all that's been around since the beginning, those kinds

of those kinds of myths. And they disproved those books

long time ago. But it's just funny.

They circulate every now and then.

They'll be at the airport bookstores every now and then,

You know, they'll be ATV show at Christmas and Easter.

One of the great television stations will have the

documentary of who the real Jesus is.

And they'll paint all these pictures based on things they

think are brand new that have been around for centuries.

It's amazing. So we want to show respect, but

we also want to show confidence. We need to seek to find, I want

to find that common ground with them.

What can I do to find common ground with you so I can be in a

relationship, a human relationship with you and we can

talk about life. So I don't want to become

defensive with them, but but listen, we may not be able to

tell. We may not be able to tell

people all they want to know, but you can tell them what they

need to know. See, and so I may not be able to

do everything, but I can tell them what they need to know,

which is why I better know what my gospel presentation is.

I better understand what I believe that minimum amount is

and, and how I'm going to present it.

I need to recognize the obstacles or the objections, but

I got to stay focused. I got to trust in God for this

because again, many, many of these objections are never even

going to occur. I don't need to be afraid of

these things because most of the many of these things are never

even going to occur. If I have the right attitude.

If I come in with the right attitude, many of these aren't

even going to happen. And again, remember that most

people, and this is I said this, I don't know how many times, but

it's just statistical truth, in the United States of America,

most of the population of unchurched or lost people have

never, ever, ever in their life been confronted with the truth

of a whole gospel presentation and a personal encounter with

somebody who cares about them. And so don't assume they know

all this. They don't know all this.

They may think they do. I mean, they may know something

about Jesus dying on a cross. They saw that in a cartoon

somewhere. Or they may they know that he

supposedly rose from the grave. But they don't know why.

They don't know who he is. They don't know why he is.

They don't know why that matters.

Why does it matter that some old rabbi died on a cross?

They don't have a clue who he is.

So remember that. Assume they don't.

And again, many of these objections are just smoke

screens. They're not real issues.

So dealing with questions we can't answer, and one of the

things I really try to tell people, especially leaders

around the world who says we have to, I don't have all the

answers. I'm not going to send the sin of

omnicompetence. I don't know.

That's a great question. I don't know, that's a good

question. I've struggled with that one

myself. I'm just going to be honest with

him, explain the Trinity to me. Well, I don't know if I can do

that. You know, liquid vapor and ice.

No, that's not good enough. Father, son, husband.

No, that didn't do it. It's a mystery.

Paul calls it a mystery. The Bible calls it a mystery.

That's about like, that's about like declaring when the second

coming is going to come, when Jesus says nobody's going to

know when the second coming is going to come.

Paul says this is a mystery. See.

Yeah, We try. And again, avoid emotional

confrontations, exercise gentleness, check your

motivation. What's the ultimate mission?

The ultimate mission here is to get them to where they hear the

gospel and they can understand the gospel and they can

understand the true gospel. My my goal in the end is that

they'd be safe. I can't control that part.

All I can control is what I'm sharing with them.

So I want to try to share with them.

My goal is that I share with them everything I can, whether

they get saved or not. God has to do that.

I'm going to pray for that, beg for that, plead for that, but I

can't manipulate that. I've got to share with them

every single thing. I can do it in a way to where

they understand grace and, and again, we focus on that

assurance. And then what I want to do is I

want to close the communication loop.

And this may seem like it's weird to you, but this is the

way communication actually works, which is why settings

like this aren't really communication.

Real communication requires an understanding.

The goal of communication is not that I dumped a bunch of

information on you. The goal is that you understood

what I said. There's a big difference between

those two things. And so I need to constantly be

asking the questions of what do you think I just said and what

did that just mean? Just like I'm dealing with a

child. What does Jesus die on the cross

mean to you, which is one of the cool things.

Last time I showed you some of those tools, I showed you the

perspective cards where you kind of create a hand of worldview.

How do you view Jesus? How do you view man, etcetera.

So you get this idea of their belief system.

It's a campers crusade tool for those who weren't a part of

that. But but to think about that,

that's really helpful. So I can really kind of know.

So this is who you think he is and this is because otherwise

I've got to ask him who do you think Jesus is rather than me

just tell you this is who Jesus is.

I also want to know what you think about Him 'cause that's

going to tell me where you are. And again, I don't want to burn

the bridge. The relationship is the bridge.

This may not be the day of harvest.

So all I can do is intentionally prepare for and pursue

opportunities to share the gospel with those who don't know

Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and the results up

to Him. And so I'm going to take the

initiative. I'm going to share and recognize

God's at work, and then again, I'm going to invite them to join

us. They need to be invited to come.

They need to be invited to come to church and to fellowship, to

experience it and recognize that I I may not be the only person

in their life who's trying to share with them.

Part of my prayer for a lot of lost people is that I'm not the

only Christian in their life. That was a prayer I had to pray

for my mom and dad. A wise pastor sat me down one

day and chewed me out for being stupid and which wasn't a hard

thing to do. And he told me.

He said, Johnny, you're probably, and you may not be the

one who can lead your parents to Jesus.

I said they need other people in their life.

You're too close and you've done some dumb things.

And so I appreciate the fact that we're all in a network and

I don't always know. I don't always know what God's

doing, you know, and who else is a part of it, but I want to be a

part of it. And, and inviting them to your

connect group, inviting them to the church experience is going

to be important. And so for them to come and to

see what it looks like, to see that you're not the only crazy

person in the world who believes in Jesus anymore.

I mean, I'm not kidding you. There are people who don't

understand that churches have people in them because every

other church they've seen is empty or the bar that they go to

their favorite bars in an old church building because the

number one use of an old church building is a bar or restaurant.

And so they, they don't even they don't understand that there

aren't, there's that you, there are actually people in church

who aren't old, old men and old women filling up a couple of

pews because that's a lot of times what their experience has

been at a funeral or a wedding or whatever.

So for them to actually understand that the church can

be loving and dynamic and an important part of their life.

So now go back to your worksheet and you see your outline table.

You see your gospel stories, you've seen and heard some of

the things that I would make sure you emphasize.

So you would want to complete your own table with more things

than I probably have right there.

And you want to begin working on how would you define sin?

How would you define grace? How would you define faith?

How would you define God? How would you define Jesus and

these lists of things, how would you share that with somebody?

This is what the Bible says about sin.

This is what the Bible says about grace.

This is why I believe the Bible is what it is.

And so for you to work out these these sentences that that that's

going to be the natural gospel presentation from you rather

than reciting what some booklet says, rather than reciting what

somebody else wrote for you to say, no, no, this is this is the

by the biblical definition, this is how I would describe sin.

It becomes natural and you already have it.

So we're talking about memorizing something.

See, it's already in here. It's yours.

It's already yours. I don't I don't have to work on.

OK. So then it's, you know, it's for

you know, it's there. Make it natural, make it real,

make it authentic. Live this.

So you need to live by those definitions too.

I really do believe that this is what sin is.

That applies to me too. I really do believe that that's

this is what the Bible is and that applies to me too.

It's not just something I'm trying to download on somebody

else. This is what guides my life.

And so as I encounter lost people and I think about how the

Holy Spirit may be orchestrating opportunities for me to actually

share with them, I need to be aware of the fact that I think

lost people are pretty capable of smelling fake 1,000,000 miles

away. Real, authentic, loving

conversations. And so that's how we have to

engage. And in closing, I just want to

challenge you. Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid. I was sharing with the staff the

other day and I was sharing with Jonathan Taylor about this

yesterday. Don't don't ever take for

granted what you're seeing around you right now.

It may not seem like much yet. I think we're just getting

started. But when you think about the

number of people that were worshipping here a year ago and

the fact that we had over 1000 worshipping here last Sunday and

I'm I'm not here about those numbers.

I'm here about what God's doing. Don't take it for granted.

Don't take that for granted. That is disturbing to us that

the baptistry Saran wrap this Sunday and that we're more than

doubling the number of people who were baptized last year and

that our giving is up for the first time in three years.

And that just, and again, this, I'm using quantitative

expressions to express a qualitative recognition that

God's doing something. So if God's doing something

here, I think God wants to use you to do something out there.

Don't be afraid. He's, he's way ahead of you.

He's already got people he wants to draw to Englewood.

He's already got people he wants to save.

He's already got people that are because this church is ready to

be a spiritual nursery for new babies.

And he's already got people who need to come here to be

discipled. So don't be afraid.

You're going in the power of the Holy Spirit and he's at work

here. His hand is on us.

So let's not blow it. Let's cherish it.

Let's praise him for it and rejoice in it, right?

Because I think we're just getting started.

So we're going to celebrate his birth this coming Sunday.

Just get ready now, parents, don't worry.

I'm not going to defy your traditions.

But the message is called myths, materialism, and the Messiah.

We're going to talk about all kinds of things about Christmas

this Sunday morning. And so it'll be a lot of fun.

Bring your friends. They're going to learn something

that didn't ever know about Christmas, probably.

So we'll do that. Father, thank you.

Thank you that we could just spend a few moments together to

talk about talking about you. Father, I just, I just believe

there are are not just a few. I think there are thousands,

thousands of people that you're ready to harvest right here, not

somewhere else, but right here, right in this area.

And so, Father, I pray that we will be submissive enough and

obedient enough to be used. So Father, help us to be aware

of those encounters, help us to pursue them, help us to develop

relationships. But Father, more than anything,

help us to be an intentional relationship with you, walking

with you, abiding in you, so that when we encounter people,

it's the most natural overflowing experience we could

ever have. We're just going to share with

them what we're going through. Just share with them what you're

doing in us. That's what we want to tell

them. Real authentic Christianity,

true discipleship. Walking with you and Father,

you're going to draw them. That is going to be so

attractive. That's going to be so enticing.

That's going to be, that's going to be like water to a thirsty

person, food to someone starving to death.

And Father, you're going to draw them in.

So Lord, we just want to be careful that we recognize that

you are the one who was doing this, and we give you all the

praise and the glory. Help us to celebrate you well

this season in Christ's name, Amen.

God bless you all. Thank you so much for listening

today. And I also hope that you'll go

to [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.