Leading a Conversation to Christ | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Englewood

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. Well, so those I just want to

thank you all for being here. Live with me.

It's always good to see all of you here.

And, and then I also want to thank those who are listening

online to the podcasts that we're generating out of this.

I also want to just remind everyone that there's some new

podcasts that'll be coming out very, very soon.

We're actually recording a podcast about engaging the

Bible. How do I do that on a personal

level? In other words, how do I have

the very best personal Bible study?

How do I know how to interpret Scripture and apply Scripture in

my life? And then how do I know how to

teach other people? That's going to be coming out in

a podcast soon. In fact, Pastor Jordan and I

recorded one episode today with Danny Akin, and others will be

joining us for that. So you'll all be watching for

that as well as those who are listening to this.

We have folks who are serving. In fact, we appreciate very much

the number that we've had some increase in those who are

serving like an marijuana's program.

And so we, we, we, we thank them, but they're not in here,

they're over there. But we appreciate all the of you

who are serving that way. And I know some people need to

listen to this recording because right now they're in other

places serving around the building.

So, so very thankful for for that.

You know, if I was going to sit there and say, and I tried to

say this Sunday that if I thought there was a session, you

really needed to make sure that you were paying attention to

this is this is one of two of them.

All of them are important. And just to give you an idea of

what's coming, because remember, I'm stair stepping this process

down the road to several of you have asked me these questions

down the road I am going to address how do I share with

people from special backgrounds or special life situations.

For example, how do I share with family?

Sometimes that's hard. How do I share with Co workers,

but also how would I share from somebody from a different

religion? And then also how would I share

with somebody from an alternative lifestyle that is

not necessarily with the one that we're living.

And so I know several people who are working with people who are

in various communities and identities.

And so how do I share the gospel with them as well.

So we're going to be talking about that and more down the

road, but we want to get there. So if you've missed the

episodes, you need to go back and listen because we did a

biblical and theological foundation.

We've also talked about some pre evangelism.

How do I actually develop relationships with lost people?

And I appreciated there were people who came up to me who

were very convicted about that. And it's just we're open and

transparent sharing that I'm not doing that enough.

And then also, how do we pray for our lost friends and family?

So now we're in a place where we're in a conversation or we're

in a relationship with a lost person.

That's the state that we're talking about.

So now what do I do? And one of the biggest hurdles

for a lot of people, not maybe, maybe not you, because we also

talked about the personal barriers last time that we have

concerning fear, apathy, busyness, introspection,

etcetera, and ignorance. How do I overcome some of these

barriers that keep me from sharing my faith?

And so part of what we're talking about now, So now I'm

here in this relationship with a lost person.

I'm primarily talking about people that you see on a regular

basis, although it could be that person X that I hope you're

praying for, that we talked about last time, that person

that you'll meet today, that person you don't know, that

person I that you're praying that God would put into your

path, I hope. But we're also just talking

about your neighbor. We're talking about your Co

worker, we're talking about your family member.

We're talking about somebody you might seem more than once, you

know, so I'm in this relationship.

So how do, how do we do this? So part of what we're talking

about is how do I then lead this conversation to Christ?

So how do we move from praying for the lost?

How do I move from that and talking about the weather or

whatever it is to actually sharing Christ?

And so you just need to recognize, and I'm, I'm going to

take this slowly because you can't rush through this.

That second point on the that you're seeing is incredibly

important. I'm presuming that you're

praying, I'm presuming that you're actually intentionally

trying to build this relationship.

I'm not sure that what I'm about to say to you will work if

you're not doing that. And so you've got to understand

that each step is crucial to this.

I, I can't save people, I can't convict people, I can't make

people want to be saved, right? In fact, if I could do that, it

would be fake. And so God the Holy Spirit has

to do this, which means that the Holy Spirit has to be all over

this situation, which means I better be praying and better be

understanding the biblical and theological foundations under

girding all of this situation. Does that all make sense?

So this relationship, number one drives relationship #2 my

relationship with God and His people drives my relationship

with the world and its people. And that's going to come up here

in just a second in a huge practical way.

And I may trap you in a minute. So get ready because we're,

we're stair stepping our way into this.

So I'm presuming that you're praying hard for whoever this

is, whether that's your buddy, your neighbor, or person X.

You've been praying for them and you're praying that way.

So your heart and your mind, you're ready.

You're, you're, you're in a good spot with God.

And so you're going to be the best conduit of power that you

can possibly be. And that's important.

The conduit needs to be clear. And if God's going to use you,

you need to be usable. So there there's a profound

theological statement. So let me show you a model that

a friend of mine that I've mentioned to you before, Tim

Booker, who also talked to us in the last episode about our

barriers, but he also has an outline.

This isn't my outline, but I just want to give it to you

because you might find this one more helpful than what I'm going

to say. And he talks about exploring,

stimulating, and sharing. So in other words, you explore

the relationship with this person.

You're getting to know them. And these are the everything

about this is true and everything about this is good.

In other words, I actually am in a relationship with this person.

This isn't just a target. This isn't just project #32 this

is a real human being. Jesus didn't treat people like

project #32 neither does Paul. He, he, he's, he's actually

trying to engage with them in a real human relationship.

And so I'm getting to know them. I'm asking them questions, I'm

listening. And that word listen is huge in

this. In fact, if we're going to talk

about evangelism in a pre Christian post postmodern

culture, listening is one of the greatest tools and it's one that

we don't pay enough attention to because we're so monologically

driven. Listen to me, listen to me.

And we're trying to present, we're trying to do content dump

and sometimes we need to be quiet.

I have a big sign in my office. It's down on the floor so it

doesn't offend anybody who walks in there because it's not

directed towards you. It's directed toward me.

It's a big old metal sign on a bottom shelf in my office.

Is never miss a good chance to shut up.

OK, so you're you often need to ask yourself the question, why

am I talking? Why am I not listening?

All right, because that that's an authentic relationship.

And so I need to listen and then I'm going to stimulate.

In other words, I'm trying to raise the interest in spiritual

matters with simple questions and then I'm going to share.

I want to respond to their needs and I want to seek to apply the

gospel where they are, where in where they're living, what based

upon what I'm learning about them.

It's going to help me know how to share with them the truths of

the gospel. Now, I'm going to break this out

in much more detail and it's going to take a long time.

Now, it's going to take a minute to do it.

So what you're going to notice on your listening guide and and

this is no accident that this outline spells out what reach

every outline I use spells out. Guess what?

Yeah, that's because it's easy for me to remember.

OK, there's no trickery. That's just sheer, you know,

limited brain power. So to to help me and remember

these things, I spell this out to where I can kind of remember

this and pray through this. So what I'm about to show you

isn't a isn't necessarily a technique or a method.

This is this is actually, these are prayer requests, but this is

also just who you need to become.

Because again, my goal isn't to teach you to do evangelism.

My goal is to teach you how to live it, how to be it, which is

why we talk about the essential of discipleship being living out

of evangelism with with that sense of boldness.

So we want to talk about that boldness and love.

So when we talk about leading a conversation to Christ, let's

just start at the very beginning.

We're not this, this first point I'm going to share with you is

not about spiritual things. So I want us to recognize the

opportunity. And you might think this is

silly, but it's not. I'm telling you, I've shared

this with you before. I've often believed, still

believe that one of the greatest courses I could ever teach is

how to have, how to have sane human conversations with other

human beings. And our culture today that is

almost foreign anymore, right? And so how can we have good

things? So part of what I'm praying,

remember, I'm praying before this, right?

Everybody got that You're not praying.

I don't know if his works you, you understand the Bible is

telling us to do this. We talked about that episode 1.

We're praying. We're, we're, we're asking God

to help us with the fear, the nervousness, the ignorance, the,

the, the introspection, which if you missed that, it just means I

don't think I'm good enough to do this.

I saw a prayer request on our prayer list tonight where

somebody was praying for somebody who didn't think they

were worthy to be saved. That's introspection.

I'm too bad I'm too much of A Sinner for God to use me to do

anything like this, right? So I'm recognizing the

opportunity. I'm asking God to sharpen my

spiritual senses. And this is where if you pray

with that prayer guide I've given you in the past to where I

start my day or I start my focus by praying for lost people by

name. I'm praying for person.

Next I'm going to meet. So when I hit the gas station or

when I hit the restaurant or when I'm at the Walmarts, as we

used to say back home, at back home, you get up of the morning

and you go to the Walmarts. And so, even though there's only

one of them that, you know, goes to where we're from, but there's

like, and, and it was a small one, but anyway, so you go to

Walmart, but wherever I'm going, I want to encounter person X

And, and I don't, I don't want to just treat them like person

XII see them in a different light.

Who, why am I meeting this person?

So, so we're, we're in Nashville the other day and I dropped

Teresa off because she wants to mail her mommy a big box of

encouragement. Her mom has Parkinson's and, and

is not doing great. So we just wanted to mail her a

big box of encouragement. That's what Teresa put together.

And so we go to the post office and of course, you know, I just

want to sit in the truck while she goes in and mails the box

because I figured it's going to take her about 45 minutes.

So I'm sitting in the truck. It was a good sized box and

she's only in there for a few minutes and she comes out, she

goes, you got to come in here. You need to come in here as I

throw my wedding ring on the floor.

You got to come here. It's better than my belt.

So you've been here for that day.

Yeah, it's better than my belt. But anyway, so, so, so she says

you need to come in and meet these folks.

And I'm like, what has she done? You know, and of course I go in

there and she's, you know, Englewood, Englewood, Englewood.

Y'all need to come to Englewood. Everybody needs to come to

Englewood. Everybody, you know, you're

Inglewood. And so I'm like, so you're the

pastor of Englewood. And of course I'm in my ball cap

and T-shirt and like, yeah, I'm the pastor of Englewood.

Come watch Quasimodo preach. But anyway, so, but I mean,

she's just all over it, see. And then we're at one of the

diners, I won't say which one because everybody has their

favorite. And you think Dallas Cowboys got

me in trouble. I should just name a diner.

And so we're at one of those meeting one of the new

waitresses, because we meet all the waitresses and they all know

who I am and they all stop at the table and they're asking us

for, you know, we're checking on prayer requests and their

husbands and, and everybody who's sick and their families

and all this stuff at these places.

So how am I seeing these people? How am I going through life?

Am I going through life so rapidly to where I'm absolutely

missing out on the billions of opportunities that God's

throwing right in my pathway, right.

Because I'm so I'm so wound up with me.

I'm so wound up with my To Do List, Then I'm just, I'm just

missing it. So I want to recognize the

opportunity. So I've got to deal with a

burden. And there's that word you got to

pray because I don't believe. I mean, I wish I could.

I wish I could take burden and just stuff it inside of you.

If I could do that, I would. You wouldn't like it, but I'd do

it. I'd hold you down and I'd stuff

it in there. But it doesn't do any good and

just makes you mad. So the Holy Spirit has to do

that. The Holy Spirit has to make you

care and the Holy Spirit has to have and has to sharpen your

senses. And I believe that you all care.

You wouldn't be here listening to this, right?

So we're all in this boat. So we want to do this.

We, we want to, we want to be proactive.

Now, one of the ways to help you, and this is one of the

reasons why we have entry level outreach type process is like

reach. Reach isn't necessarily

evangelism. Reach is just inviting people to

come to church, just inviting people to join your connect

groups and some of your connect groups don't have enough room

already because of it. We've had a 40 plus percent

increase in our connect group attendance.

And so, so one of the things that we're seeing is we're,

we're trying to figure out schedules in space.

And so, but it's just not reach. It's just, you know, hey, we're

having a good time. Come and join us with our good

time. You need to meet this group of

people. They'll love you, you'll love

them. Let's have a good time together.

So it's just outreach. But by participating in that,

what it does is it shifts our mindset from an inward focus to

an outward focus. That's it.

I'm praying for people, inviting people, encouraging people to be

here. When we will make 1000 contexts,

we're going to figure out that 500 of them probably go to other

churches or, or, or something else.

And that'd be great. We need to know that so that we

won't bother for me, we need to know that, right?

We need to figure this out and in this one time kind of deal.

And so we need everybody on board, but it's just outward

focus, loving people, encouraging people to come.

But it when you do that, it helps the mindset to pray.

It helps the mindset to reach out.

It helps that mindset a little bit.

And and then just remember the abiding connection.

Never forget. And I've worn this verse out

with you a little bit probably. But John 15 five, just don't

forget this abiding connection that we are simply a, a, a part

of the vine, right? He's the vine.

We're just an extension of him. That's all that we, we're just

the branches and whoever abides in, in him and, and, and he

abides in us, then we can bear fruit.

And that really is the key. It's relationship #1 the more

I'm in with him and the more he's in me, the more fruit

that's going to get more going to get born, bared, bared born

going to be there. All right, I'm telling you, I'm

from Oklahoma. So I think we, we borned it or

something. But anyway, so more fruit, you

know, it's going to come and, and, but apart from him, we

can't do anything. And we've got to recognize this

is, this is truth. This isn't just a verse thrown

in there for, for, for the heck of it.

This is the fact, this is a real verse and it's a real truth that

apart from him, we really can't. So this first point is just real

that recognize the fact that what I'm praying for is that

Holy Spirit, you will hit me upside the head and help me to

recognize that this is an opportunity, right?

And I'm not just going to slide by it so fast.

And God, I'm asking you to do that.

In fact, I'm begging you to do that.

I, I want your connect groups to beg God that there will be brand

new people there Sunday, that that's the kind of prayer I want

us to see. I don't care how crowded it is.

I don't care how many years we got to stuff in there.

You're begging more people to come study the word of God.

But in the same way, Lord, help me to recognize, wait a minute,

I'm in this conversation with this person.

I need to do something with this conversation.

This is a moment, this is an opportunity.

The bells ringing off on my soul and my spirit here.

All right, big boy, I've given you this opportunity.

Don't miss this because I'm, I'm telling you in our world today

and, and, and then, and then somebody was telling me the

other day that they were, they were very convicted to the point

of emotionally convicted that they knew they had missed one

and they were talking to me. But I, I should and I knew I

should. And I as soon as it was over, I

realized. And So what we want to do is

just be proactive enough to where we don't miss as many of

them. All right, simple .1.

We're not even, we're not even talking about a cross yet.

We're not even talking about the Bible yet.

We're just recognizing opportunities.

Now. Step 2 then.

So then that means that I want to actually begin to engage in

conversation that this may seem like a dumb moment, but it's not

for our culture today. We, we actually need to talk to

people. And in our world today, that's

often weird. I was in this conversation today

about how in some parts of our culture today, it is weird to

talk to a stranger, period. Now, here in our culture, that's

not as weird. The South is still known for

talking to strangers, but in some parts of our country today

that you don't. And so to actually engage in

conversation. I was in an airport bookstore

one time, my second home and, and a guy was talking to me and,

and I, you know, he was across, you know, you had a kind of a

thing and he was right over there.

But because I'm tall, you know, I'm, I'm here and he's over and

he's talking to me. So I'm carrying on this whole

conversation with this guy. So finally I thought, well, let

me walk around the bookcase to see, you know, to actually meet

this guy. And I realized he has his, his

earbud in and he hadn't been talking to me at all.

In fact, he looks at me and he goes, so I really wasn't in a

conversation. I thought, man, look, you know,

Holy Spirit, here we go. Because he was actually, the

responses in this conversation were actually matching my

anyway. So I can't be afraid and I won't

be as afraid if I have good theology, which is why the

biblical and theological foundations matter.

Because if I believe that God is ahead of me and God is already

working in this person's life, you got to decide how much you

believe in God. I believe in a sovereign.

In fact, I read Psalm 139 in our staff devotion this morning.

And I believe in a sovereign God who knows my days before I was

ever born got them numbered. He's got them figured out.

And so I believe in divine appointments.

I, I don't believe that I'm, I'm meeting Phil, I don't believe

I'm talking to Phil by accident. So if I'm, if I meet person X or

we're engaged in, in a conversation, I'm talking to my

neighbor, that's not an accident, that's an

orchestration. And so I don't want to be afraid

if I'm praying that way, I'm asking for these things.

And I really want, I'm really going to believe that.

And so I, I want God's ahead of me.

I don't need to be afraid. I'm not meeting them by

accident. So then I have to learn how to

be a real human being. That's a struggle for me because

I'm weird. But, but to figure out how to be

natural, but also intentional, right?

And and that's, that's part of that class.

I need to teach sometime how not to be an awkward geek, weird

person, Christian, right? But, but I, I want to be

natural. I, I want to be intentional and

I need to be equipped, which is what you are doing.

And over these next few weeks you're going to have the tools,

you're going to have the whole bat belt ready to go with the

various things you need, various methods, various tools, various

presentation. That's not usually the issue.

What we're getting ready to talk about is usually the issue.

And so I, I want to be equipped. So then I'm actually in a

conversation with a person and I want to ask the right questions.

Now, we're still not talking about spiritual stuff yet.

Don't be thrown by it. We're still not talking about

spiritual stuff, but I want to move from the mundane to the

more important. Now, I'm not talking about the

gospel yet. Don't get ahead of me.

I promise you we're going to get to that.

But this step right here, it's crucial.

I promise you, this is as much my evangelistic methodology as

anything I could ever share with you.

I actually, and my dad beat this into me, bless his heart.

My dad was a small town lawyer for a practice for well over 50

years, worked with blue collar regular folk.

And he knew how to talk to regular folk.

And for all his interesting parts, he was, he was very good

at talking to people and, and, and, but what he really was good

at is listening. And so he would engage people in

conversation. We would travel, we traveled the

world together and he and he beat into me literally one time.

Beat into me how you ought to ask questions and how you'll be

interested in where people are from and get them to tell you

their stories because people love to talk about themselves.

And so how do I build bridges in common areas?

And this, this is where I live. So this is one of my first.

So I want to find out if they're married.

I want to find out if your husband, your father, your

grandfather, you like sports, what's going on?

What do you do for a living? I want to learn all these things

because I'm going to find commonalities between me and

that other person. I don't care what their

background is. They could be a Hindu, they

could be a Buddhist, they could be a Muslim, they could be an

atheist. But if they're a grandpa, I got

a bridge, see? And it's a real one.

That's not a made-up thing. This is who you really are.

One of the things I often say to people is when I get further

into this, we're actually talking about the gospel and

they start getting uncomfortable and they'll say, remember, you

started this, you, you started all this, You know, you answered

the questions. You're the one that told me

this. And, and, and we're in a, we're

in a mini relationship already. See.

And so one of the things that we're going to do is we're going

to talk about building bridges and common experiences, even

hobbies. You play golf or you don't play

golf or whatever you do. You know, this is important for

me. You may not use any of this, but

at least listen to what I'm getting ready to tell you

because I'm going to make the connection now here in a few

minutes because if I can understand something common in

common, you like football, You like college football, man, we

can talk all day like Danny Aiken.

Today we were talking about how to engage the Bible.

Then I got him off on Georgia football and that was it.

We were gone. He'd still be talking.

All right. And then I wanted to try to

remove any stones. So there's a verse that hangs in

my office. It's a verse that God used to

call me out of seminary or out of pastoral life, into seminary

life, and then drove me all around the world and back.

And it's Isaiah 6210. I've shared this verse with you

before. I won't go into all the details

of this verse. They're coming back from the

Babylonian exile. This is about the rebuilding of

Jerusalem. Think of Ezra, Nehemiah, by the

way, I'm going to preach through the book of Nehemiah starting in

January, and then we're going to go to the book of Romans.

That's next year. So Nehemiah and Romans are going

to take up most of 2026 on Sunday morning.

And so, but one of the things that we learned in that story

is, is they had to rebuild. A lot of it was in rubble.

You know, it's totally destroyed by the Babylonians.

And that, and this is a prophecy of that imagery.

So Isaiah says you got to go through, go through or another

translation would say pass through, pass through the gates.

The gates were destroyed. They had to go back out.

They had to rebuild so the people could come.

I've told you this before in different settings.

So they go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for

the people, build up, build up the highway.

But they had to clear it of stones.

This would be chunks of the wall that had fallen down.

And we're blocking the gates, blocking the roadways, blocking

the way in. They had to clear all these

obstacles out of the way so that the people who had not returned

yet could get into the city. And that's part of our job.

Part of our job is we can't just sit inside of here.

We got to go back through the gates, we got to build a

highway, we got to build the path for people who haven't come

yet to come. And we got to move the stones

out of the way. And this was tons of rock.

So they couldn't do that. They had to do that together.

They had to work together to do that.

And so we want to remove any stones.

And so in our conversations with people, we may hear why they

don't like church or why they don't like Christianity, all

these different things, or why they don't like you.

But but we got to do everything we can to try to build a bridge

with them in commonality. This isn't about an argument.

I don't try to argue people into Christianity.

I don't. I try to love them and share

honestly with them about my Savior who can save them.

And so one of the things we want to do is build commonality, not

have obstacles. So any obstacle I can get out of

the way. This, the cross is a big enough

stumbling block in and of itself.

Let that be the only one and let anything in my life get out of

the way. So not only am I doing this, but

as I continue to ask the right questions, I'm trying to

determine life needs. So what's going on in your life?

And I'm, I'm learning to listen. I'm telling you, I'm going to

say that word over and over and over again.

It's a key to postmodern evangelism in our culture today.

People are not interested in the sales pitch.

They're interested in you actually being interested in

them and caring about them. And so I want to determine life

needs and I'm trying to earn permission through respectful

relationship to actually have a conversation with him on a

deeper level, which is coming. I promise.

We're getting there. All of this can take 10 minutes

in my in my world, it might take 10 visits too with somebody.

You know, remember I talked about before the different

levels of lostness. Not everybody's the same lost,

you know, You have U ones and U fives.

You have, you have people who are farther away from the gospel

than others. You have some people who are

probably here tonight who aren't saved.

You have people who'll be here on Sunday morning who aren't

saved, but they're coming to church already.

And then you have people who are complete, a complete atheist and

agnostic, hostile people toward anything in terms of the church

or Christianity. That's a very small percentage

of our population, by the way, as I've shared with you before.

And so, so not everybody's the same.

So, so sometimes this is going to take 10 minutes, sometimes

this is going to take 10 visits, right.

And, and one of the great testimonies that one of our dear

sisters shared with us last week was how she prayed for her lost

brother since 2009 to since 2009.

And he was just saved last week. So we don't give up ever, ever,

but we're trying to figure out and, and we want to earn this,

this permission through respectful relationship, but we

also need to remember that God gives us the authority and the

right, and I've talked about that before.

We have the authority to share about Jesus.

We have the right to share about Jesus.

And if anybody asks you who gives you the right to talk

about this, Jesus does. And he has all authority in

heaven and on earth, whether you believe that or not.

But but in First Corinthians Chapter 9, Paul talks about this

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

a little bit. He says, listen, for though I am

free from all, I've made myself a servant to all.

Don't skip over that. In other words, in our culture

today, this is a this is foreign language because part of what

our culture's fighting so hard for is everybody believes they

have the personal right to something.

And it's my right to have that. In fact, every TV commercials

going to tell you, you deserve it.

And so and So what the problem is, is this leaks over into our

psyche as a culture to where somehow you're invading my

right. Well, Paul's saying, listen,

I've given up my rights. I want to serve.

I want to serve all. I'm a servant to all that I

might win more of them. So to the Jews I became as a Jew

in order to win Jews. Now, that didn't work for all of

us. It works for him because that

was his background to those under the law.

I became as one under the law, though not being myself under

the law, that I might win those under the law.

He has a background as a Pharisee to those outside the

law, I became as one outside the law.

He was apostle to the Gentiles, not being outside the law of

God, but under the law of Christ, that I might win those

outside the law. To the weak.

I became weak that I might win the weak.

I have become all things to all people that by all means I might

save some, and I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I

may share with them in its blessings.

And so in missions, we call this contextualization.

In our culture today, we've I call this a fight because so few

are willing to do this. How far are you willing to go to

serve a lost person? You following me?

I'm not talking about compromising your belief.

It's just the opposite of that. It's because of your belief

you're willing to do this. How far are you willing to go to

engage in a conversation and to love somebody who might be

unlovable, who might actually throw the love right back in

your face? How far will we go?

Because here's the here it is right here.

Here's here's the point. We want to connect with

spiritual matters. Now.

Don't start here necessarily. Now, if you're doing with AU one

who's already coming to church, they're already in your connect

group. You can start probably right

here, right? There are certain people in your

life who they're ripe and ready for most people that you're just

now talking to. You need to go all the way back

to the biblical and theological foundations to be praying for

them, overcoming barriers, developing a relationship, and

then leading the conversation to Christ along the way.

And part of the mistake that we've made as a Southern Baptist

denomination, frankly, and as the Church of America, which is

horrible at evangelism, horrible at evangelism statistically, is

that sometimes this is where we think we got to start.

And they're not ready for that. And and we offend more than we

attract because it's listen to me, I've memorized a 32 point

gospel outline with 16 illustrations and 14 sub points.

I'm on sub Point C, illustration B listen to me.

And it's just, it's robotically mechanical and they know that.

Is this real? I mean, are you real?

Is this authentic? See, now I'm not saying that all

gospel presentations that way. We're going to talk about gospel

presentation. I got a whole box of gospel

presentation we're going to talk about.

We're also going to talk about how to analyze, critically

analyze gospel presentations. What are the better ones?

How do I know that? How do I not know that?

What's the best one I can use? We're going to talk about gospel

content. What must a person know to be

saved? It's coming, but right now,

let's share about and invite them to connect, group and

church. Submit their name and

information to reach. This isn't an infomercial, this

is reality. You might need to start by just

inviting them to join you in your spiritual journey.

You would be a well, maybe you wouldn't, but there are people

especially, and this is going to.

I'll mention this again later, not tonight, but other times

when you're talking to somebody from another religious

background, you might be shocked at how willing and excited they

would be to come see what a Christian Church is like that.

That's true of most Muslims. That's true of many Hindus.

It's true of many Buddhists in the United States of America.

They're curious and they'd actually like to know what you

all do inside the hidden temple. And many of them don't know they

can come here without you bringing them.

They don't know they can just be here.

They don't know that, don't think they know that, don't

think that that what we're sitting here, this big old

building and they'll know and they'll just come.

They don't know they can. You got to throw this out of

your head. It's a new normal out there and

many of them wouldn't know if they would even be welcome or

not. I don't know how many times I

have conversations where people would say to me looking like I

look, I can come to your church and I want to be able to say

yes. Sometimes in my history, I've

wondered if I could honestly say yes, would they just be looked

upon? Listen, I've had brand new

Teresa Lat. I've had brand new Christians

who were saved, biker background, biker background,

people who were saved and they had their kids had never been in

church in their entire life. And they ran relay races in the

in the in the balcony during the sermon.

They didn't know what to do. They've never been in church.

What price will we pay? What tolerance will we have for

them versus US, Right? So we, we, we want to submit

their name. We want to ask for prayer

requests and turn those in as well.

Seriously, we want to pray for them.

We want connect groups to reach out to them.

You've got somebody in your life that you want somebody to reach

out to put them in reach. John Rosal, Rosal, Rosal, you

got to say that right way. Rosal, He'll put that into a

connect group and a whole group of other people reach out to

them. Then we want to share.

Honestly, here we go. Here it is right here.

Now, what's the second word? Honestly.

Now here's where the rubber meets the road.

I have no idea what that saying means, but here's here's where

it hits. If you can't do this, honestly,

this isn't going to work and I'm going to share what it is I want

to share honestly how the Lord blesses you and helps you in

those areas of common bridges that you just built.

So in other words, I'm a paw paw.

That's that's in some circles, that's all I am.

So the greatest title, the highest title I could possess to

a couple of the kids here, I'm paw paw.

I'm pastor paw paw. OK, but at home, but at home

with my grandkids, I'm just paw paw.

They have no idea what my name is.

I'm just Paw paw. They could care less what I that

I stand on that plat that they could care less.

I'm just paw paw. And so if I meet somebody else

who's a Paw Paw, or maybe they're AG Paw, or maybe they're

grandpa, or maybe they're Dib Dib, or whatever the weird name

you get from your grandkids, I can honestly say sometimes I'm

scared to death for my grandchildren.

Sometimes I don't know what this world's going to be like for my

grandchildren. It's a scary world.

And I don't know how I could face that fear if it wasn't for

the fact that I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior and

Lord. In fact, just this morning in my

personal quiet time, when I was reading through Psalm 139 before

I shared it with the staff, I was reminded of this God who's

in complete control. And that helps my anxiety.

That's as honest and natural as I can be, right?

I, I, I don't know how I would have ever made it in my marriage

this far because I'm not easy if it wasn't for the fact that I

have the word of God and the Spirit of God living inside of

me. And I just say those things to

people because we've been talking about being married or

we've been talking about being a grandparent.

We can even talk about sports. You know, I, I at one time was

playing fairly high level sports and I blew my knee and it caused

me to spiral into a depression and into a really dark place in

my life. And I don't know how I would

have ever recovered from that except God save me and pulled me

out. I, that's exactly how I talk on

airplanes. That's exactly how I talk in

airports. That's exactly how I talk to to

people I encounter after I have that little relationship with

them, we build a common bridge. I, I don't know how you doing

it. I, I can, I, I, I can remember a

surgeon on a plane. We had this kind of, I don't

know. I don't know how you do deal

with that, how you deal with the pressure.

I, I, how do you deal with that pressure without some strength

in your life like he can provide.

See, I'm not even talking about the gospel yet.

I'm just sharing a testimony sort of all right.

But I want to connect that honestly of how the Lord blesses

me in those common areas. But you got to recognize, and I

mean, I made land here for 30 minutes.

I won't because we can't. But you can't do this unless

relationship number one is strong.

It's not real if God didn't just show you that.

It's not real if God's really not doing that in your life.

So if you're not abiding in him and you're not walking in him, I

don't know how powerful your personal evangelism could ever

be. This has to be real and it's

uncanny. My friends, I'm telling you

where I I can honestly say just this morning in my personal

Bible study, God showed me this. But that means that you actually

have a personal Bible study. Lesson 1 is vital.

Relationship number one has to pour into relationship #2 for

this to be natural, for this to have power.

It doesn't make sense. Listen, the the most natural

blew my mind and I've shared this story with some of you

before. Monroe Hembree I, I, I don't

understand Monroe Hembree. He's dead now and he's with

Jesus and one day I'm going to go to heaven.

I'll understand. Monroe Hembree What?

He wasn't in my church, but he was in our association.

And we were the larger church at times.

And we would do mission trips where we'd have all the churches

of the association work together on a mission trip because these

little bitty churches could never send a team, but they

could send one or two. And then we'd make sure we had a

team. So we had these associational

teams. We went all over the world

together and Monroe Hembry, he's 70 something years old when I

first met him, never been on a trip, wanted to go on a trip.

You always knew brother Monroe was in that room because he was

man. You could always hear him back

there. And I've shared this with some

of you. Monroe Hembry built houses for a

living. And Monroe Hembry was

illiterate. He couldn't read.

He was saved as an adult, almost a senior adult.

And when he was saved, he asked God, and this is because of the

church he went to. He asked God to give him the

ability to read the King James Version Bible when he was saved.

I don't ask me to explain it. Can't don't care if you believe

me or not because I've sit there across I've spent hours and days

with Monroe Hembree and across the table and watch this before

my very eyes. He could open a King James

Version Bible and read, read King James, thou and thy I mean

just all over the place. You put a newspaper in front of

him. He couldn't read a word.

You put the NIV version of the Bible in front of him.

He couldn't read a word, but he could read the King James.

And he asked for the King James because that was the version of

the the Bible that church used that he went to.

He didn't know there was another one.

I took Monroe Hembree 14 hours down the Amazon from Manaus and

to a place called Boa Vista de Hamos, where I don't know that

they'd ever seen anybody with our skin color before.

And we slept in hammocks on a boat for a week and did

evangelism and some construction, all kind of stuff

in this village. Medical, a lot of medical.

And I've never seen a pied piper for the gospel like Monroe

Hembree with a group of people that didn't even speak English.

He'd have a little translator with him and Monroe would walk

around. He'd just talk about Jesus.

I'm telling this just like a crowd, an entourage, following

Monroe all over this little village and just coming to know

Christ, the most natural, authentic, heartfelt believer

you could ever imagine. Because this was real.

And he studied his Bible every morning.

I watched him and he prayed like a warrior.

And so you can't do this unless relationship number one is real

to you. This means you're actually

having this. You are engaging the Bible with

a humble and teachable spirit, which is what our midweek's

going to be about in January. We're going to talk about how

did we get the Bible in the 1st place?

Why is our Bible different than say the Catholic Bible?

How did the Bible come to be? We're going to talk about that.

Then we're going to, what do we do with this thing?

How do I actually personally interpret scripture?

How do I actually work through the hermeneutical process as a,

as a, as my personal time? I won't use that big word.

Don't worry. We're going to break it down.

How do I actually understand what the Bible's teaching and

how can I help somebody else understand?

So think about this. Just this morning, God showed

me. Now you'd be amazed how many

times because remember, he's divinely orchestrating these

meetings. You have a conversation tomorrow

afternoon, you watch how God will use the Bible verses you

read tomorrow morning. And heaven forbid you actually

believe this, He might actually use part of a sermon you heard

last Sunday, maybe the travelogue of Paul 40,000 verses

in 20 minutes. Or because the other thing you

can talk about, you might talk about this next.

And this is or, or this is how the Lord answered my prayer

about something just as legitimately man children.

You're right. And I, I remember when some of

our kids were struggling with things and how we pray and we

pray and we're so thankful how the Lord answered that.

Now, I'm going to segue in a minute, but we're just building

commonality and I'm just being honest because here's what I've

learned about lost people in the United States of America.

I've said this to you before. Most of them have never heard a

personal loving presentation of a gospel, never have.

Statistically, you can bet on the fact they've never had that.

Secondly, most of them, this fact, most lost people in

America would testify they don't even know anybody they would

consider an authentic Christian. And so that didn't mean they

don't know Christians, but they know a bunch of quiet, silent

ones maybe. And so for many of them, they,

they will have never heard anybody talk like this and mean

it. But if you don't mean it, don't

fake it. They'll smell that a mile away.

So my entire living out of angelism means you're actually

living out of angelism. This isn't a method.

This isn't something memorized. This isn't some some gizmo or

gadget or gimmick. This is a life, and either

you're walking with God and you're in his word and you're in

prayer and that's overflowing in the most natural way in the

world in all your conversations, or you got to start square one.

The problem with the with evangelism in the United States

of America is not really evangelism, it's just

discipleship. We're just not walking with God

closely enough in many cases. So, you know, not only did I see

this in my personal Bible study this morning, this is also maybe

the Lord answered my prayer about this or the next one.

Maybe there's some lesson that I learned from Doug Ezell's

Connect group last Sunday. I mean, you know, Doug got up

there and he, you know, he did sermon #1 before Brother John

got a what, you know, got got up to bat and Douglas L's teaching

this lesson. Y'all studying something and

that, and that's what stuck with you that day.

And I'm telling you on Monday morning, that lesson that you

studied, that passage that you heard in Connect, it was the,

that's the, I mean amazing. The exact passage that human

being needed that you're talking to, you watch because you're

asking for it, You're begging God for it.

God, make this fit. Make the puzzle fit.

Make what I'm doing in my personal, make this work, make

this conversation go. I'm praying for that every day.

You can't do this without that, you with me.

So just last Sunday, my preacher said.

And all I know is we're supposed to do 100% of something.

But to recognize that that we're we're in the middle of a dynamic

experience that's real and they're spiritual forces at play

and we're supposed to supposed to be obedient and be used in

this incredible chess game that's going on.

And to recognize that God is in control of the board.

Then you can go to H finally and you can help them to understand

how Christ has changed your life now.

Now we just get into a transitional conversation,

right? Would you like to know?

How would you not to know why? Why do I believe the Bible is

actually helpful to me? Why do you believe?

Why do I believe God actually answered my prayer?

Why do I believe that? It's only because of the power

that Christ gives me that I'm able to be a a decent husband or

a grandfather. You want to know how?

Now we've just transitioned into presentation.

Now next session, we're not done yet.

So sit down everybody. I'm kidding.

Those of you online, keep listening.

The next session is about personal testimony.

Now I need to warn you, next session is interactive.

Now it'll be funny to see if half of you show up.

We're going to do a personal testimony workshop.

Now, some of us need to realize it might be the very first time

a person has ever verbally shared any part of their

testimony to another person. This happens in seminary class,

but you don't want to miss. It's so much fun you'll laugh

your head off next session. It's fun.

I want to demonstrate a way for you to teach other people to do

this. I'm going to give you an outline

that's different, and we're going to work on writing out and

creating our personal testimonies, but we're also

going to demonstrate ways to share with other people.

Don't worry, it's not high pressure.

You're not going to get a microphone unless you misbehave,

so you'll be good. But I want to help them to

understand how this makes a difference in my life.

And so one of the things that we need to do this next part, I

need you to go back and to remember some things that I've

taught you before about religion.

We need to focus on the functional aspects of your

faith. Remember, religion has three

parts. This is not original with me.

I give credit to Wayne Cordeland who wrote a good book called

Neighboring Faiths. So there's, that's that

footnote. But religion has three parts.

You have the functional, the substantive and the formal.

You don't have to memorize that at all.

Just listen to what they mean. So the functional is what does

this actually produce in your life?

So Christianity ought to produce something.

And next time when we talk about our personal testimony, you're

going to begin writing. What does, what does trusting a

Christ really mean to me? It's, it's got to be more than I

don't go to hell. I'm going to heaven.

Now that's a part of it. And I'm glad for that.

I'm, I'm very thankful for that part, but that's not all

Christianity is. Where's the idea of hope, of

peace, of assurance, of purpose? See.

And so these are some of the functional aspects of what a

relationship with Jesus Christ ought to produce in your life.

There's actually positive effect in your life.

And So what I want to do is I'm, I'm really focusing on this part

right now because I, I'm telling you, statistically, that lost

person in the United States of America doesn't have that.

They don't have that. Now, they may pretend like they

do they, they can be, they're pretty good facade people, but

they don't in their heart of hearts, this is what's going to

stick with them. I can't, I can't tell you the

number of times I hear this later.

I remember when you told me this and I acted like I was just

fine, but I really wouldn't. And I knew I wouldn't.

And later that night I couldn't sleep because I realized I don't

have any peace. I don't have any hope.

I have no assurance, I have no strength.

I realized I'm trying to do this all on my own and I can't.

It becomes very similar to a cycle of addiction to where

someday, so that I'm going to quit drinking or I'm going to

quit, I'm going to quit doing drugs and I can, I can do this.

I can do this. I know you can't.

Very rarely will you. You need help.

You got to have help. You got to replace that

addiction with another addiction.

You got to have help. And so I, and so I, I want to

focus on what it produces. It gives me this assurance.

It gives me wisdom and not simply the substantive.

The substantive is the teaching. Now I'm going to get to that.

I promise. We're going to share the gospel.

We're going to share a whole gospel presentation.

I get to that. But right now I'm trying to, I'm

trying to help them to understand.

Here's the benefit of believing what I believe.

It's not just because I can name all the books of the Bible and I

can tell you what they all say that knowledge is not enough.

And then it also, I also don't want to just focus on the

formal, which means how are we doing this?

It's, it's not just about whether or not I go to a

Southern Baptist church and I go to a church or not.

And, and whether or not I, I, I, I, I go to a, a small group or

not. It's not just about those

structures either. Yet, although be glad for you to

join me. I'd like to show you, but my

main focus. I'm not saying you're excluding

all this. You're not a heretic and you're

not hiding anything. You're honest and if you get

asked questions to answer them. But what I'm trying to show you

is being saved changed me. Being being saved is

transformative. And if you need hope in this

world, because this world will grind you up and spit you out,

and if you want hope and you want strength, there's only one

place you're going to find it. That's how I talk to people

because they don't have that. And and by that point, they're

usually honest with me and say, man, I don't, I don't have that

in my life. I wish I did, but I don't.

And then I'm going to continue to talk to them about how to get

that. So again, I want to next, I want

to bring them to my connect group.

I want to bring them to my worship time.

I want them to see what we do. I want them to meet you.

They need to recognize that not all Christians are crazy people,

that Christians can be normal people who are really living a

life, loving the Lord, doing the best they can, perfect sinners,

messed up, broken. But we can bring it all here and

help one another in the headquarters of encouragement,

right? And then I want to share my

personal testimony with Him as soon as I can.

So I want to share with him my story here.

Here's why this happened to me. See.

And we're going to talk about that in great detail.

That's the whole next time together.

How do I share not only about how did, how did I realize I

needed to be saved and how was I saved?

I mentioned this to some of you before, but also what does that

produce in my life? But also what is Jesus doing for

me today? And that last point will be

invalid if you're not in relationship #1 you have to be

abiding in Christ and Christ has to be abiding in you for you to

live evangelistically. This is not just a program.

This is not just Monday night at 7.

This is not a 16 week memorization test.

This is who we are. Imperfect, broken, hurting,

sometimes wrong, sometimes misled.

We're really trying to do the best we can under the grace and

the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And so I get forgiveness in this

too, you know, because part of what they're going to think I'm

going to throw on them is that I'm holier than you, but somehow

I'm better than you. I'm not better than you.

I'm in a better spot than you're in because I know the best one.

So I want to share with them. I want to bring them with me.

I want to share their testimony. And then obviously I want to get

to the point. This next one, I want to share

the gospel and we're going to talk in big terms about that.

What does that mean? We've got to know what that

means because we've got to share a whole gospel with them.

We can't just share part of the gospel.

We need to get, and you may not get to do that all in one visit,

but in other words, they need to understand certain key doctrinal

points. You wonder why somebody taught

you doctrine all summer. Duh.

All the dots connect. Everything I do for you is

connected. We needed to do theological

triage so we can understand what's most important and we can

share about that. So I want to focus on those

things and I want to share the gospel.

And then I've obviously got a show too.

I mean, Christ needs to be a part of my life.

And so my hypocrisy needs to be minimal.

And when, when it's evident I need to apologize and seek

forgiveness, and I've said this before, depending upon how far

away from the gospel they are, be ready.

They might just need to see you go through crisis.

And so be careful about how hard you reject crisis because

sometimes that might be exactly what God's using to bring

somebody to him. There are people overseas right

now who know Jesus because of crisis.

That doesn't mean we wish it upon anybody.

It doesn't mean we stop praying to get out of it because we

don't know how is to pray. That's the only way we can

honestly pray. But we also recognize what God

can do. First Thessalonians 15 says

this. I love this verse.

The rest of them are no good. This one's good.

It's funny when we talk like that because our gospel came to

you not only in Word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit

and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we

proved to be among you for your sake.

They earned the right through these relational dynamics.

They not only heard them, but they saw them.

There was consistency in their life and they loved them.

So here's a couple of things to remember.

Number one, as we work through this, we too often in today's

culture, you need to expect more multiple encounters and perhaps

less single encounters. That doesn't mean we're not

praying for person X. It doesn't mean we're not

praying for that single encounter.

But statistically anyway, people are going to need to hear

something more than once in our culture today.

Now, Jesus could return at any time.

So the urgency level's high, but it's very often that that person

that you're sharing with may not get saved that first time.

Don't be destroyed by that. Just recognize they're working

through things and you might need to talk to them again.

You might only get so far the first time in that relationship

because who you know, that might be AU4U5 way away from the

gospel. They don't want anything to do

with that. But odds for them to get saved

in a single encounter are small. Doesn't mean it never happens.

God's miraculous, but I don't necessarily expect that.

So I've got to. I've got to bring them.

I've got to bring them closer, right?

I've known people who said they would never and they are right.

We also need to be a good listener.

There's that word again. You thought I said connect

groups enough or 100% enough. Be a good listener.

Be my next one. Be less self-centered.

There's a theological truth there.

And part of the problem is that sometimes we like talking about

ourselves more than we like listening to others.

We need to make sure that our own pride and ego are not part

of it. So we want to be more

dialogical, less monological. This is just part of the

postmodern culture. They, they, they like stories,

they like authenticity. They, we got to be real.

And so that that means we, we can't just be some kind of fake

production. Some, some great sales pitch

isn't going to get it done. They need to see reality.

And so this is going to be a dialogue where we're talking,

we're learning about each other, we're we're listening to one

another. So this is more story, less

presentation. Doesn't mean we're not going to

present the gospel, but the way we present the gospel becomes

important. And so, and this may or may not

make sense, moderns communicate in a certain way versus

postmoderns. This is one reason

generationally some of you don't understand each other and so we

I have to teach students how to write this way in academic

writing too. So story then proposition, not

proposition then story. I really need to switch the way

I preach and be a better preacher because most of the

time what they need. Think about how Jesus taught.

How did Jesus often teach with what stories?

Parables. So he'd share the story, then

he'd share the principles you're supposed to get out of the

story. Too often in evangelism, we're

sharing a principle. God loves you and has a great

plan for your life. And what we really need to do is

start with the story and then hit the principal.

I mean the yeah, so you start with start with the story, not

the proper, the proposition. I can write preposition.

I'm all over the place right now.

Sorry. So that may seem weird.

You may not quite understand that.

We'll talk about that more in the weeks ahead.

We also need to next one. We need to ask good questions

and don't give lots of information that may seem

counterintuitive to you, but in these initial encounters, you

need to learn who they are and they need to, they're going to

respect you for that. You saw me, you hear these words

in our culture. They saw me.

They heard me, right? And, and, and as much as I that

might drive you crazy, that's reality out there.

And we've got to understand that.

We've got to listen and get and ask good questions.

So this is consideration, not argumentation.

This is soft, not loud. This is guided tours, not ticket

sales. They want you to invite them to

join you in an authentic life journey.

Walk alongside of me, see what I'm experiencing.

Join me in this journey. In fact, Chuck Kelly, who was

the president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary for

many years, I believe this was actually his doctoral

dissertation years ago. But he there's a great quote out

of a book that Doctor Kelly wrote and he basically says

Southern Baptists are a harvest oriented denomination living

oriented in an unseeded generation.

Some of us are so used to even the two week long revival, the

week long revival, the three day revival, the weekend revival,

the Holy Ghost tent revival, whatever it was where you would

see all these people come forward at once.

And that's what we grew up on. That's what we're used to.

Some of you in church life, how many of those do you see

anymore? And it's not because the

methodology is good or bad part of us because the culture has

changed and you can buy that or not, but I promise you it's

true. And that what we're going to see

is, is that this generation out there, they they need to

understand a lot of things we talked about all summer long in

our doctrinal, in our theology one O 1 theological triage

series, Who is God? What's the Bible?

Why should I believe in Jesus? And so these conversations and

definitions are going to be part of the conversation that often

have to take place rather than simply assuming that I can start

with the Romans road and that you're going to understand that

we're all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.

What's a Sinner and who's God? And these people out there don't

all get it. And you might say, well that's

too hard and that's not worth it.

Well, that's decision you got to make.

But I can't neglect the calling that says that I have to go.

And so I've got to figure out how I can become all things to

all men without compromising the truth.

So I've got to figure out the best way to package this gospel.

So you we need to think in terms of interpersonal relationships.

How am I interacting with this person one-on-one?

How am I engaging in this person, this person?

Because one of the things that we've got to be careful about

here in Englewood is Englewood in the past has been known for

some really big events. But I'll also tell you what

Englewood's been known for is 0 to lousy follow up on those

really big events. And some of you know that's

true. So we can have thousands of

people come to something, but if we don't do anything with those

thousands of people, it doesn't amount to much.

So what we're going to do is we're going to make 1001 on one

personal contacts. We're going to go back almost

apologetically, not really been almost and say, I'm sorry that

it's taken us two years to do this.

But we're going to come back and make contact with these people

who've come to see us at some of these large events.

Now here's here's my question, the same question I asked the

staff because I get, I get eyes that roll at me.

Underestimate God. That'll be fun.

What if this is successful? You're going to get in your

letter about the budget this week that our worship attendance

is over 30% higher. Our connect group's over 40%

higher, 200 and something people want to go on mission trips.

We have hundreds of people showing up to this.

Now you know where this was a year ago and I'm not driven by

these numbers at all, but you realize that if you maintain a

30 something percent annual growth rate, I've done that in

churches, that this church will be doubled in size in 3 1/2

years. What are you going to do with

them? Where are they going to meet?

See, what if this is successful? Now some of you may sit there.

Well, I hope not. I'll miss my parking spot.

Somebody going to have to learn how to park in the back.

By the way, some of you need to start doing that now.

I heard Sunday morning that out front was bad at one point.

So who we going to be? It's missions month.

So, you know, I'm not going to let up.

I'm going to keep beating the horse.

It may be lying dead in the dish, but I'm going to keep

beating it. Listen, I love you and I

appreciate so much. It's always funny because you

are the ones that are here. So thank you very much for being

here and for listening to this. And and I'm telling you, you

don't want to miss next time. It'll be so much fun.

You will learn something. And I'm not going to force

anybody to participate in some way they don't want to.

So you come next week, it will be more participatory

potentially if you want it to be.

But we're going to actually talk about how do I take this

personal testimony and make it into this, this ability to

present it. And I'm going to show you how to

do that in in less than 4 minutes.

But then I'm also going to show you how to have a longer

version. If you have time, you don't have

to try to do it. I actually have a 2 minute

version. But then after that, we're going

to actually talk about how do we continue to stair step?

So how do I actually share a gospel?

What does that mean? We're going to walk through that

together. What does it mean?

How do I, how do I use Scripture to share the gospel?

What all needs to be in the gospel presentation and then

we're going to talk about these special groups that we need to

deal with. How do I share the gospel with a

child? How do I share the gospel with

that family member, right? Or these people from other

backgrounds. You know, I've, I've mentioned

this to some of you before, but one of the things that I found

with some of my students in school was, was that I'd had,

you know, we had these weekly evangelism reports that I've

mentioned to you before. And, and they'd go home and

they'd share with relatives. And I've mentioned one of them

before, but others would come back and their relatives were

really upset with them, not because they shared the gospel

because, but because it had taken so long.

And the fact that they realized you knew all this and you didn't

tell me part of that study that I mentioned to you last time, A2

year study of of contacting unchurched people in every

single state and in Canada for two years for a research

project. Not only did we talk to people

who talked about their next door neighbor going to church.

I mentioned that I think last time, but for example, 11 real

conversation was I work with Christians.

I know they're Christians. They got their cubicle all

decorated with Christian stuff and they have Christian music

playing down there. And I'm going through a horrible

divorce. How come not one time, not one

time did you Christians come two cubicles down and tell me you

were praying for me and trying to help me.

Why not? They know I'm going through the

worst time of my life. There's a burden that we must

have an awareness that we must have.

And, and, and those Christians over there, probably they're,

they're not intentionally trying to be mean to him.

I know that they're just not thinking about it.

They're just not aware. They're not.

They haven't sharpened their spiritual senses to be sensitive

enough to what's going on around them.

Let me tell you, friends, if a church like this doesn't do

this, nobody's going to do it. And one day, I'm afraid what

we're, what we're going to learn and the opportunities we missed

and the people who should have been there with us.

So let's take as many as we can. Let's take them away from Satan

and let's take them with us. Father, thank you for that

privilege. Thank you for that opportunity.

Thank you, Father, for so much for these people.

All these many people who've come on a dark, cold night to

hear this in here. Thank you for those that are

listening online right now. Some are driving, some are

walking, some are sitting at home.

And I pray, Father, even right now, you, just, you just blitz

our brains and our spirits with the face and the name of a lost

person. And the Father, you won't let it

go. The Father.

We won't be able to shake that face.

We won't be able to shake that name until we've started at

least some kind of relationship, some kind of prayer life, some

kind of awareness, some type of conversation with that person.

Give us the opportunity and make us aware of it.

And Father, I thank you for that.

And Lord, I look forward to the harvest that I totally and

firmly believe is coming our way.

And thank you for allowing us to be a part of it in Christ's

name, Amen. God bless you all.

Thank you all so much. 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.