How Will They Hear?

Jesus, if you really read the Gospels, right, you don't walk away, depressed, you walk away, uplifted, happy, why?

Because he was Mr. Positive. He offered up life. He offered up a victory. He came with the Gospels. Good news!

Yeah! With all that victory and good news, Jesus, God in the flesh, spoke twice as much about hell as he did about heaven.

Welcome to the City Light Church Podcast. Thanks for joining us today, as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com, that's citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace, and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

We'll turn to somebody and welcome them to City Light Church, and I want to welcome you joining us online. Glad you're with us.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

Well, I want to let you know that November 1st and just a couple of weeks, we're having baptisms.

And so, if you haven't been baptized as a believer, what do I mean? Why do I say that way?

Because you have to believe to get baptized, and an infant a baby doesn't get to do that.

It's just not in the Bible. You can try to read between the lines, add to the scriptures, stretch them out, but you can't put them in there. They're not in there.

So, everybody who got baptized in the Bible did it as a consenting person of age. Not necessarily as an adult, but they had the intellectual capacity and emotional maturity to say, yes, I'm giving my life to Christ.

And so, infant baptism is in biblical and many people. They were a christened as babies, but I invite you to get baptized the Bible way.

As a person who's saying yes for themselves, not as a person whose parents said yes on their behalf. Amen.

And what must you do to qualify to get baptized? Good question. Someone else in the book of Acts, Acts, Philip, that same question.

What hinders me from getting baptized? And Philip said, well, if you believe with all your heart, you may.

So, that's the answer to you. If you believe with all your heart, you may. Don't put unnecessary roadblocks to baptism that Jesus himself didn't put there.

People do that. Well, I want to just kind of work on myself. That's like saying, I want to lose weight before I go to the gym. I want to get healthy before I check into the hospital. No, just come as you are.

And so, be my pleasure and honor to baptize you. November the 1st, fill out your connection card, email info at citylight nyc.com, grab a nusher, tackle them to the ground and say, me, baptism wants.

And they'll make sure whatever, whatever works for you. But get baptized. Amen. Wow. Those of you online who were afraid of the nor Easter. I bless you. Not better. I love you. Not better.

Thank you, Jesus. It's amazing. You know, we get so freaked out so easily because we have so much access to information like I too for a moment was freaked out because my phone has all these icons.

And I don't just use the regular weather app that came with my iPhone. I pay for that good weather app. It gives me barometric pressure, moon cycles, everything.

It gives me fresh graphics and these nor Easter graphics. Flood warning. You would think the world was coming to an end. You think we were in the apocalyptic stage of the end time events.

But I think we're going to get a little drizzle and that'll that'll be that will all be okay. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, we had a wonderful trip to Poland.

Amazing people over there, hungry people, sincere people. I just particularly was touched by their hunger and their faith and their humility, their earnestness to receive.

I don't know if I shared with you, mom, but unfortunately it's quite a cry from the Balkans. Did I tell you that yet? I told Emily, but and I'm from the Balkans. So we're all former Yugoslavia. We're all considered Easter in European nations, but we got to get our act together in the Balkans. Amen.

You know, like in the Balkans, you got ten men sitting in the back with their feet up, chomping their gum with their mouth open, looking at you like you better impress me. I know you came across the Atlantic, but I walked here 12 minutes for my house.

And let's see what you got. And over there they traveled. One guy flew in from Sweden, was it? Or Norway? And from other parts of Poland, right?

Ministered for three services in one day. What a place. Awesome. And then of course after Poland, since we were right in the neighborhood, I took my wife to Parisabad, which was very, very nice. If you haven't been to Parisabad, you have to visit. You can even see the Eiffel Tower through some of the mosques. It's very, very beautiful there.

I took my wife to Paris, relax everybody. Don't make me make you more uncomfortable. All right, let me explain to you. See, I said Parisabad as a joke because there's a colossal Islamic invasion into Paris.

Okay. Something you should be aware of as we have a mayor whose Muslim trying to become mayor.

Oh, what's wrong with that? Look at the news and pay attention and you'll see I have a Muslim, a good Muslim friend. He says the same thing.

Because he's an American Muslim, you know. He likes capitalism and he's Muslim, but he likes America too. And he's like, who's this clown? Who's this joke? Is it real? You know, you're some of you looking at me because you've been so brainwashed by the media, immediately in the intro response is on the phobia.

You know, they come into Western nations, build tens of thousands of mosques and Britain, they're already trying to enact sure. I don't want to say any of this. By the way, you with your silence drew it out of me. Now, you got to pay the price.

They want Sharia law. Now, what do you think would happen to me? Not if I wanted to start a church in Oman, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen. Not if I wanted to, if I just wanted to preach on the corner, what do you think would happen to me?

Yeah, we got visuals and everything. We got a drama team at CityLight, we're a good pair. Yeah, they may not even use a gun. It might be like drag through the streets on a rope.

And it's happening all over Western Europe. And because of your increasing silence, I'm going to get more uncomfortable. And when you look at the stats up to 70% of them, this is the case in Western Europe, they're living off the government.

And they don't have 1.3 kids like the natives. They have 6 to 8 kids. And so, when I first got saved, I was told by one of those radical Islamophodes that they will not rest until there's a crescent moon in star waving over the White House. I thought that was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.

So, you know, back in the 90s, I mean, it was America, baby. You wouldn't even think crescent moon, some of you still don't. But yet it's happening around the world.

And so at least take note, it doesn't nobody any good, least yourselves if you just stick your head in the sand and pretend it isn't happening.

I mean, how many of you have been to Paris recently? I was back in 07, we just went and they had a glass wall all around the Eiffel Tower. And we had to go through security and the metal detector getting near the Eiffel Tower.

It wasn't like that in 07. That happened after 2015, after that was brace yourself, a radical Islamist terrorist attack. And they're attacking mainly Western civilization and monuments that are shining examples of Western civilization.

Hallelujah. But God, or I can get back to my regularly scheduled message, Amen. Just when I joked Paris the bad, it was either a very bad joke or better to just feel the tension in the air.

It was a thank you. Thank you. Praise God. My Barnabas. She is an ecause my personal encourager, my Barnabas. She told me it was a good joke. Nobody laughed.

Hallelujah. Just making sure I've said everything I wanted to say about that. Hallelujah.

I think I have for now. Amen. I do want to talk to you about evangelism though. And the necessity of evangelism sharing your faith.

I'm going to use several synonyms, winning souls to Christ, leading others to the Lord. The stat is that only 2% of the church actively does that, which means that 98% are just consumers.

And this is important one because, well, Jesus said to do it, but two, because if you are not sharing, if there's no current going through you, you are a Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is not called a Dead Sea because nothing lives in it.

I told that when I was a kid. Were you taught that? Nothing lives in the Dead Sea because of the high salt content, right? They have fish in the Dead Sea. They've adopted. Even though seven times the salt content, the Dead Sea is the Dead Sea because it has no outlet. It's dead. It's a dead end. There's no current.

I don't want to be a Dead Sea. I want to be a crystal clear river of the Lord. A flow. And when you're flowing, then there's life. Something that's dead can quickly become a swamp. Amen.

So I want to talk to you about the necessity of evangelism, then we'll hit on some very important practical points. But number one, let's look at Mark 16 verses 15 through 18. Why the need for evangelism? Why do it?

Mark 16:15–18

And as you know, I'm not big. I'm not big on to do stuff. If you've been coming to City of Life for a while, I often proclaim it's not about what you do. It's about Jesus' finished work has done, done, done. Amen.

I know that sometimes to keep people engaged pastures, make every Sunday, you walk out with a to-do list. You've already been clobbered all week, right? Life is hard as it is and you come to church and go, I got to do more. I got to perform more.

And I encourage you to live in the rest of God. There is a rest where you are enjoying the finished work and you're not a gerbil on a wheel.

Spinning, going nowhere, but always trying to get yourself approved onto God. But there is a healthy, a healthy aspect to Christianity where you are not closed up, but you are actually impacting the lives that are around you.

Number one, when it comes to the necessity for evangelism, it's because Jesus said to do it and note that he's speaking to his disciples, but this isn't just for his disciples.

It's amazing how people will read everything he said to his disciples and receive it for themselves, but then when it comes to the great commission, I said, oh, but that was to them, not me. Well, then do that with all his other promises when he was talking to his disciples.

No, this is for all of us. This is for everybody starting at verse 15 and he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Go into the whole world.

Well, good news is, if you're living in Queens, the whole world's come here. 161 nations in Queens. So you don't even need a passport, you can go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Two thirds of God's name is go. So we shouldn't be sitting. We should be going. There should be a movement going in. And by the way, you're actually not responsible for the whole world. That can be a little overwhelming, right? If you think, oh, I got my own stuff that I'm dealing with with the Lord, there's stuff I'm trusting him for, stuff I'm believing him for, and I'm supposed to go into all the world. No.

We're all cumulatively going to reach the whole world, but you're not responsible for the whole world. You're just responsible for your sphere of influence where the Lord has put you and you touch hundreds of lives.

And if you think you're very isolated still, there's a sphere of influence that you touch and there's people in your circle that you're the only Jesus they're ever going to see. You believe that you're the only Jesus they're ever going to hear.

And those are the ones that you're responsible for. Number two, for why we have this fire for evangelism. I'm calling it evangelism, but I used other synonyms. I have to use synonyms so people know what I'm talking about.

Because, you know, it was in the 90s where they decided evangelism. I read this in like one of the Christian magazines, don't use the word evangelism. It's scary for people.

And that's part of the problem. There's been a castration with Christianity just to make everything more palpable, more gentle.

So evangelism, oh, Mufasa, scary. So we're sharing our faith. Call it what you want to call it. I'm glad somebody did it to me. I was born not in a Christian, culturally Christian family, ethnically Christian.

We didn't know God. We never heard the gospel. Somebody had to tell me how many of you here you weren't born in the Christian family. Somebody actually told you raise your hand. Participate in the survey. Let me see your hands. Campy, you're lying. Just got to be more hands.

Well, everybody here that mommy minister to them, don't make me point at you. Somebody here hurt. Let me hear it. Let me see your hands. Yeah, somebody witnessed to you.

Okay. See, this is why in surveys, they'll ask the same question three different ways because people may not that.

It's like, how many of you got evangelized? Huh? How many of you someone shared their faith with you? Every hand goes up.

Speaking of castrating Christianity, we've stopped talking about the reality of hell. Why? Because it's unpleasant. I know. It's uncomfortable. Yet it's a Bible truth. In fact, Jesus, Jesus, if you really read the gospels, right, you don't walk away depressed. You walk away uplifted. Happy. Why?

Because he was Mr. positivity. He offered up life. He offered up victory. He came with the gospel. Good news. Yet with all that victory and good news, Jesus, God in the flesh spoke twice as much about hell as he did about heaven.

Paul encourages the ministers in the New Testament says warn everybody, warn them, plead with them. Heaven is real and hell is also. There is a heaven to gain in following Jesus and a hell to shun. It's not a metaphor. It's not just a temporary bad place.

It is eternal separation from God. Jesus used vivid language. It said that their fires never extinguished and the worm in them doesn't even die. It's forever perpetual torment. I don't want to go there. I'm not going there. But what about the others in my life? I don't want them to go there.

We should have a compassion for people. A compassion. Like a yearning, like when we have people in our lives that haven't given their lives over to Jesus.

We should be on our prayer list. We should cover asking the Lord to open their eyes to make them help them realize they need a savior. Please, if you would just put that verse back up, 2 Corinthians 5 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, there is a terror.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mouth, yet hell is a real place. Well, if he's so wonderful, why did he create hell? Ask him when you get to heaven. Amen. I just know this. Hell wasn't created for man. Jesus himself said hell was created for the devil and his angels.

And truthfully, God doesn't send anyone to hell. People, they go to hell by rejecting Jesus. In fact, in the book of Revelation, it talks about not blotting your name out of the book of life. You know what that means? This is why I believe that the book of life in heaven contains everybody's name.

That's how expected God is. I know Calvinists don't like this. But it's only when you refuse the gospel, reject Jesus, turn your back on and trust in yourself your whole life. You reject him and then your name is blotted out out of the book of life. But it was in other words, God's hearts not to send anyone there. The Bible says Jesus is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hallelujah.

And we got to keep that in mind, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. We persuade men, but we are well known to God. And I also trust are well known in your consciences. The point I want you to get here is that Paul is saying his personal motivation is he knows the terror of the Lord.

I preach on the intimacy we have in Jesus all the time. The friendship we have. He is. He's my best friend, but I tell you what, he's not my buddy. He says a little bit of a difference. I know it's semantics. At the same time, the Bible calls him terrible a time. He's the alpha and the Omega.

The first and the last in him we live and move and have our being and him all things consist. He holds this whole universe together. I'm not going to play games with him and I only have one soul.

You know, back in the day, you used to go to the arcade, you get a quarter, you get three lives. You die, put it in again. You don't get that. You just get your one life. Some people act like they're going to get a do over, restart, cheat coat, up down, up down, ABAB. No, none of that works.

You're showing your age if you laughed. Glad to see we have some contra fans in here. I mean, if I saw if I was good and they'll go into my car my driveway and I saw a little pummel of smoke in my neighbor's house.

I thought, what is that? And then I said, oh, there's a little fire. That's really bad. And then I drive off. I come back an hour later. His whole house is burnt to a crisp. Him and his whole family outside and robes six fire trucks outside the house.

I said, oh, they didn't work out for you. Huh, terrible. It was like, you knew? Yeah, I saw that happening, but I didn't want to tell you I thought I might hurt your feelings. I didn't want to offend you, telling you your house was on fire.

We have people in our lives. Their house is on fire. We got to tell them. It's not loving them. It's not being gentle. This only works when you're really liberated from the opinions of men. We got to be bold. Hallelujah.

And the greatest freedom that ever come to you is to be completely liberated from what will people think? What will people say? Hallelujah.

Romans 10, 14. People cannot believe unless they hear. How then shall they call on him and whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? In other words, God uses people, people who, you people, regular people.

The girl who helped lead me to the Lord, I was 16 years old, started when I was in 10th grade that happened in that summer between 10th and 11th grade.

She was saved for one day when she ministered to me. Literally, it happened the night before. She said, I got filled with the Holy Spirit. I said, what's that?

She said, he's like a guardian angel who lives inside of me. That's not theologically accurate.

She was saved less than 24 hours. She didn't have all her teeth dotted in her eyes.

Yeah, we'll just roll with that. Yet the Lord still used her. So quit disqualifying yourself because you say, I don't know enough. I'm not mature enough.

I'm not perfect enough. I need to get better. No. God delights in using broken things.

Say, I don't know about that. You're looking at proof that God delights in using imperfect broken things. Hallelujah.

Who will go for the Lord? May your prayer be sent me, Lord. I want to be the one. I want to co-labor with you. I want to be someone who plucks people out of the fire.

I want to be someone who draws people from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. And these people, they're all around you.

Some in your life are hard. Some in your life are mocking. You won't know unless you speak.

When I got radically saved at 16, it wasn't like no one had to convince me to share my faith. It's all I could do.

I felt like it would be criminal. Criminal to keep it to myself. In fact, that's a similar word Paul uses. He says,

Whoa on to me if I don't preach the gospel. That word whoa in the Greek means a calamity. Like another whoa.

Like he said, how devastating. What an utter calamity it would be if I didn't preach the gospel.

So I preach the gospel to everybody. And a good chunk of people, like half a dozen in my high school that I ministered to.

They said, oh, yeah, we know this. And they would like finish my sentences for me. They knew. I said, you're Christian like yeah.

I said, bro, I've known you since Queen of Garden. You never told me that we went to elementary together, junior high together, high school together.

Why didn't you ever tell me several of them said the same thing? We never thought you'd believe. Why? Because I was sinning. That's what sinners do.

Sinners like sin. Sinners are mockers. You want him to come to like pre-saved? Like really ready, really right?

Oakley, dokeley. What must I do to be safe? It's not going to happen. But when I got the word it pierced my heart. Hallelujah.

Second Corinthians 15, a five versus 19 through 20. So salvation requires proclamation. Silence from unbelievers means spiritual death for others.

I'll say that again. Silence from believers means spiritual death for others.

Second Corinthians 5, 19, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

So God has given you the word of reconciliation. See the Father? He's forgiven the whole world for Christ's sake.

The whole wrath of God that was to be placed on people, Jesus absorbed it. But if the people don't know and don't receive that, then they don't get the benefit of it.

So our job is to take the unbeliever and say, God, if you will receive it, He's already forgiven you for Christ's sake. Be reconciled back to a loving God.

He's given us the word of reconciliation and every believer is a minister. Can we just agree with that that every believer is a minister?

Because some people just they don't want to do it. So they believe that it's like the pastor's job. It's actually not my job. My job is to equip you to do it, although I have done this my whole life.

You know, city light was started. I preached in the subways. We don't have any people. I didn't start with a team. I wasn't like, you know, like now they train you, have a team of at least 35, 45 people, take a year.

I came back to New York City in February, but March 17th, I was launching a church 26 years old. I'm like, who's going to come? Well, I better go into the subways.

Hallelujah.

That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Next verse, verse 20, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. So you're an ambassador. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ behalf, be reconciled to God.

And that's really what a Christian is doing when they evangelize their yielding to the Holy Spirit within them. When you look at someone who hasn't placed their faith in Jesus, you realize they're going to die in their sins.

They're going to go to hell. I'm going to yield and you sense the compassion of God and he's pleading within you, pleading through you to get to them.

Everybody wants the benefits of being an ambassador and have the full backing of heaven if you want to do the work of an ambassador. You actually do the work of an ambassador.

Romans 116.

Actually, let's begin in Luke 926. Let's just take it back. Because that was a few weeks saved when I came across this and it meant all the world to me.

Because you'll often hear things like, well, if you do start evangelizing, you'll hear things like, well, faith is a private thing. How many of you have heard that?

Faith is a private thing. Jesus didn't die in a cave privately in a secret chamber. It didn't die in a closet. Literally, he died suspended between heaven and hell on the mount. Lift it up on a cross, make it for the whole world to see. There's nothing private about it.

What if my neighbor's house is on fire and I go, you know, your house is a private thing. I didn't want to tell you about the fire. House is, I wasn't invited to tell you.

Jesus said, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him, the son of man will be ashamed. So I've read that 16 years old. I made a decision. I will not be ashamed ever.

You know what's most important to a 16 year old? To be cool. To be popular. To be accepted.

I read that. It's like a broke Bible word of God. Even God said, it's not my word, like a hammer. And the word of God just broke that over my life to where I'm like, who cares what anyone has to say? Who cares what anyone thinks?

I will never be ashamed of Jesus. I will never betray Jesus so that somebody can just nod their head and approve of me. You know, I turned 15 a few months. I've been paying attention to this a little bit more.

That feels funny just saying it. I turned 50. Those of you who've turned 50. Was it that funny for you? Very funny. Because I don't feel 50. I don't.

I'm looking at you. You got the same waist you had when you were in college and you bike 20 miles for fun. So don't you shrug your shoulders at least? I know exactly how turning 50 was for you.

But when it comes to the approval of man, I've been noticing just how when somebody passes, when somebody dies, like the people close to that person will really mourn, right? The first week.

Like the second week, they're ready a little better. The third week, they're posting smiling selfies on social media. The fourth week, it's like it never happened a year later. It's like no one even remembers the person who died.

And you see that happen all the time.

Faster to tell me, give me 10 notable people from the 1300s. You'd have to chat. Give me 10 notable people. We don't know.

We just remember the most famous, most influential people, they come, they go, expire. No one's going to write songs about us immortalize us, make monuments to us.

And so we're going to be with the Lord forever. And so are we going to compromise and do all these things in our life to try to win the approval of people who are going to forget us when we go like that? No way.

One of the greatest freedoms will come when you liberate yourself from that and realize that the reality is that nobody's thinking of you. They're really, really thinking of themselves.

Hallelujah. What will people think? They're not.

Did I read the verse now? I don't even know. It doesn't matter. It's worth reading twice. For whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him, the son of man will be ashamed. Let's just say this in Jesus' name. I will not be ashamed.

When he comes in his own glory and in his fathers and of the holy angels, hallelujah, Paul echo that same sentiment, Romans 116. Hallelujah. You know what it was like planting a church and in the east village.

You're not Mr. Popular. Nobody there said we're so glad to have you. Nobody. The opposite happened. For whoever is ashamed of me, that I feel like I've read that before. Romans 116.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it's the power of God to salvation. For everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Let's just purpose in our hearts. We're going to be a New Testament church.

We're going to be a church full of God's glory. We're going to be a church that releases God's glory and a church that's unashamed and unabashed and bold. Hallelujah. We know that we've been made the righteousness of God in Christ and the Bible say the righteous are as bold as a lion. Hallelujah.

There's nothing they can do to you anyway. I was just I'm preaching this message because I was just I stumbled upon just some readings from these British missionaries, particularly from the 17th and 18th century. And I've learned this stuff years ago.

But it kind of hit different now. You know, as you get older, you realize some things. Sometimes you just read something and you get old and go, wow, that really happened. And then you have a wife and your own kids and you go, how do they do that? You know, they would travel to these unforgiving lands.

Totally pagan. You read some of the accounts of these British missionaries. They said when they would land by ship, they came only to preach the gospel. And they said when they would arrive, they said the smell of rotting flesh was everywhere from the human sacrifices and the cannibalism.

And they would take forever to get there. And in many accounts, the missionary was it was a whole family thing. The wife and the kids would die within the first few months.

The husband never blamed God. He just saw it as this is what happens when you give your all to Jesus. And they would continue. And then that guy would die. And then another wave of them would come until that country was broken through and open up to the gospel of God.

But I just started thinking because of when I think of British people, if you're British, I love you. I'm sorry. But when I think of like, who are the boldest people? I don't see me to think of a brick, you know.

But they were. And I began exploring what happened to the, what did they, what did they encounter? What did they explain? This whole nation. I don't know what they're teaching in schools now.

The real history of this nation is the pilgrims. You know, they were, they were born again, they were born again Christians fleeing the Church of England and Catholicism and the papacy.

They actually said we're coming here to establish a nation for the, this is a quote for the expressed glory of Jesus Christ.

They knew in whom they had believed. They were full of a boldness and a passion, willing to give their lives for it. And then we got it easy, right?

We're going to go to Guatemala in February, take a bunch of selfies, spend a week there, get three meals a day catered, preaching the villages, and then come back and go, we were missionaries.

Now it's my point, I'm saying we got it easy. We got it so much easier. But then if we have to share the gospel with somebody, the Lord starts priding us, what about your friend? What about your friend? And then we lock up.

And some of you you're not witnessing to your friends because you have an exactly behaved Christian around these friends. You're afraid of being called out on that. I got a solution for you. Apologize.

When you witness to them say, hey, look, I was a putts. I didn't exactly behave in a Christ-like way. You know me. Yeah, I know you went to club with me last week. Yeah, shouldn't have done that.

I'm sorry, but still it's very hard for me because you can call me a hippocry. But I love you enough to tell you this. Amen. And then tell them the gospel and love. Oh, glory to God.

So here's some ways we miss it. We pray for them, right? And more many times we pray for people. We tell them we're praying for them. We give them random Bible truths. Like truth is, we think we're witnessing, but we're just giving out random Bible like Christian fortune cookies.

We do these things, but rare is the Christian who can clearly lead someone through the gospel plan of salvation. And that's why I believe so if you are getting saved. In fact, the longer I'm a Christian, the more I think it's an absolute miracle that the Church of Jesus exists.

Like if you actually want evidence to the existence of God, look at the fact that the Church is around because most people aren't doing the work of the ministry. So the very fact that the Church survived for two millennia is evidence to the Lord. Hallelujah.

So let's just redefine some things here. Are you getting why I'm preaching this? Most Christians, remember, I have no other way of doing it than other than relating it to something in the world. In the world, they'll say A, B, C, always be closing when it comes to sales, always be closing.

Christians have no clue how to close the deal. They have no clue. They'll just be like, oh, you know, God will make all things work together for the good. I believe it's like, huh?

Like I'm going to church this Sunday, but the Christian really means is I love you. I love if you come with me because I want you to get saved, but they're like trying to do it in all these roundabout. Nobody's hitting bullseye.

Because we've swallowed these lies like that evangelism is being nice. And I've heard Christians over and over again say, I'm just going to let my light so shine before men.

Right, you've heard that. Maybe you've said that. I heard over that. Well, I'm just going to, you know, what Jesus said, let my light so shine. And that's how people are going to know. Really, how many people have come to you and said, you know, Bob, Bob, I'm here in the office and there's something different about you. I've known you these 23 years. Everybody's a jerk, but you, Bob, your face glows like the noon day sun. It doesn't happen. Been safe for 35 years. I'm a pastor. Nobody has ever stopped me and said, there's

something different about you. You hear these stories. They're baloney. What you've had that happened to you. They just drop at your feet. What must I do to be saved? It doesn't happen. There's this quote attributed to Billy Graham. It's nonsense. The quote goes something like preach the gospel at all times. And sometimes use words or use words when necessary. But there's things preach the gospel at all times. Be nice. Be polite. Be caring. And sometimes use words.

Nobody got saved without words. You need words. So what, that kind of preaching has produced, we're not going to take communion for a while. You guys are making me nervous. What's going on here? They're ready. They want to feed you communion. What that kind of preaching has produced is a whole generation of Christians who just think that evangelism is beautiful.

Being nice. I didn't get saved because Christians were nice. The nice ones kept quiet. I knew them my whole life. Somebody opened their mouth and showed me that I had a need for a savior. You didn't get saved because somebody was nice to you only. You got saved because someone explained the gospel to you. And we should care about those people. I'm reminded of that Seinfeld episode where Lane is dating this born again, Christian God. Of course, they make the born.

They make the born again Christian a dork. And a Lane on Seinfeld, she says, does it ever bother you that I don't believe in God? And her boyfriend says, no, she goes, why not? He goes, well, I'm not the one going to hell. It's a preposterous thing to say. And the world laughs, yet some believers have that attitude. Hey, sucks for you. But glad I'm not you going to hell and all.

And you're glad you came out this Sunday morning. I'm so glad you're here. How about this one? I'm just talking about the ways we miss it. Inviting someone to church. This is a good thing. A lot of what I'm saying is a good thing, but it's not the bulls I think. Inviting someone to church is a good thing. But it's not evangelism.

Jesus said, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon. And you shall be witnesses unto me. You have to proclaim Jesus to somebody.

Now, proclaim a church. You didn't say you'll be witnesses unto a church, unto a movement, unto an organization. Witnesses unto me. Some people will do that. They'll say, hey, I'm bringing my auntie next week, wink, wink.

What they're saying is you better be good and you better do all the work and get her saved. And that's not on me. That's on you.

You got to have coffee with auntie or your roommate or whoever. You get it. And you probably won't do it in one shot. It'll take time. You lead them up through the gradient of faith.

Somebody could be like a negative three unbeliever. You want to try to take them to a 10. You're not going to take them from negative three or two 10 in one night.

I mean, can't happen. I'm just saying typically the reason we think it always happens is because that's the only testimonies we glorify.

You don't hear the testimonies I was working on my roommate, my buddy, my longtime friend for six months. I was praying for them.

Taking them out to coffee, asking them provoking questions, trying to get in their heart. You don't hear those testimonies yet. That's how 9.9 out of 10 people actually gets saved.

Thank you, Lord.

What about just telling someone Jesus loves you? And unbeliever doesn't even know why that's important. Jesus loves you.

Why? What does it mean? That used to be evangelism in the 80s, 90s. Jesus loves you.

It's Jesus loves you so much that he went to the cross in your place. The wrath that you and I deserve. He said, no, I'll take that wrath on myself.

So they could go to God free. And now that's love. I'm trying to get the Mickey Mouse out of our evangelism.

The stuff we do that just kind of people say, oh, well, you know, my job is to I just so seed. If everybody's so in seed, who's watering it and who's actually bringing in the harvest?

Everybody wants to be a seed. So what they really mean is I want to be unintentional and sloppy in my evangelism and just kind of give out random Christian fortune cookies wherever I go.

No, take somebody through the plan. Find somebody's in your life who needs you. Lock your sights on them.

Petition the Lord for their soul. Lift their name up to heaven. Devil, take your hands off them. I commend your eyes to be open.

I feel the anointing right now. Be shaken in Jesus name. You pray that for them. Hallelujah. I know what I'm talking about. My mother didn't want me getting saved, right?

Can you nod so it doesn't feel like I'm threatening you if you don't?

Is it by saying the right thing?

I had to sneak to church to get saved because we were Orthodox. I would be betraying the family.

And then six months later, she's coming out of the water, speaking in tongues, worshiping Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen.

Another thing where we mess up is that we in the castrating of Christianity, we say things like just accept Jesus into your heart.

That's so wrong that it doesn't even make sense to an unbeliever. That's why nobody's getting saved.

You will never find and it's so often repeated. You look at Christian television. Oh, just what you just say this.

What you just say the simple prayer and invite Jesus into your heart. Just one problem that's nowhere in the Bible.

That's not the gospel. The gospel is repent and trust in Jesus fully give your life to him like he gave his life for you.

That's the gospel. That's so terrifying as somebody. No, I was a storage center. What did nothing to do with God?

But the word works. When you present somebody with the word, it'll get to work on them.

On the way to get saved, they were like, you know, you tell a 16 year old unsaved man that says, you know, you can't have sex before marriage now.

I was like, what?

You don't really have my counting the cost now because I was going to give my life to Jesus. I wanted to give my life to Jesus.

And they started actually telling me the cost and I was like, how, how will I ever, how will I, why would I ever want this?

What else do I need to know before I sign on the dotted line?

And how could I ever expect to fulfill these? And this is what they said to me. They said, you know, what's impossible with man is not impossible with God.

And I said, he who loses his life will find it. And that was enough for me. Why? Because the word works.

That was enough for me to go because when they spoke that and quoted scripture, I actually felt like life and empowerment come inside him.

And I thought, yeah, the word is going to work. Hallelujah.

I think some of the problem is is that people aren't using the word enough. They're trying to go about it in emotional ways.

I had, I thought I was sophisticated at 16 and an intellectual I was ready to debate. And some people, you should see the church I got saved.

It was 1992 in bedside Brooklyn. It had the neon sign outside that said Jesus saves.

I had no business in bedside Brooklyn. That's the bedside the rappers rap about.

Not today's bedside where they got the matcha latte and the poodles and they got the yoga and their seasonal mayonnaise store.

They had the tattered. And yes, I was the only white person there. The only white person ever there.

It's like a great assault and a pepper shaker.

And they came out with the old tattered Bible and the red John 14 with me. And as they read that, something about the word.

It was the first time anyone took the time to read the Bible to me. And my head is spinning.

Where that upper room I always called it up because we're on the second floor.

Bula Church of God, 956 Marcy Avenue. Jesus. And the Bishop Jones, he's 84, he's still preaching there.

Amazing man. Open up the bed. And when I saw the word, it changed me. It's suffering me. The word works. Hallelujah.

All right. So we talked about why we need to evangelize how we get it wrong. I want to just lead you into how to get it right.

A simple method that if you will just apply, you'll get better and better. You know what we all have in common?

We're all at terrible at things we never ever do. Nobody was ever good at something they tried only once.

But as they do it, they get better and God will put his soup over your natural.

I'm here because of a bunch of teenagers who witness to me. Now in retrospect, they got so many things wrong.

But God will use whatever you give him to use. We see that in the multiplication of the fish and the loaves.

A little becomes much in the master's hand. So if you want to have this in greater detail in a conversational, what I'm about to teach now.

Email the main church email info at citylight and yc.com. And we will email that to you. But every Christian who considers themselves a Christian needs to know how to lead somebody to Jesus.

And the sad reality is most Christians never have for some in everyone across their mind that they could.

That's how you're operating. You're Christianity is no fun man. It only gets really good when you're flowing, when you're giving.

That's really when all the blessings come too. If you're just a consumer, like a lot of Christians, they're just, you remember that?

They don't even know what true Christianity is. But when you're feeding others, and by the way, adults don't get fed, babies get fed.

And adults feed themselves. When there's a flow in your life, then the blessings start coming up. Yeah, because you're actually expanding God's kingdom. Now he's rewarding and giving you the tools in order to do that. Hallelujah.

Some Christians, they read Paul saying, I buffed my body daily and thought, Amen, I buffed my body daily. So feed me.

Romans 3.23. You're going to take them down the Romans road. Number one, everybody needs to know why they need a savior. You need a savior because you have sin and that sin will cause you to go to hell.

So that's not so rough. Their spirit will know it's true. I've seen staunch unbelievers. They may they may want to kill you, but their spirit knows it's true.

Just like your spirit knew it's true. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one measures up to God's perfect standard. Every human is guilty before holy God. That's why Paul said the law, God's holy standard was our tutor to teach us, to lead us to Christ.

So you actually cannot see a real genuine salvation without somebody understanding that they've sinned. Yet you see preachers close out alter calls and just say, just invite Jesus into your heart. Say this prayer with me in 10 seconds. The person doesn't even know that they need to repent.

Romans 3.23. Next one we're going down the Romans road from 3.23. Couple of chapters later. You're in Romans 6.23. Now that they understand that they've sinned and look by the way, this really works when you're just a well adjusted normal person.

Like you can tell someone for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, especially you.

Or you can say, hey, I've sinned. You've sinned. Wouldn't you agree that you've sinned? Me too. And so we can agree that we both sin. And you get what I'm saying. You don't have to care about the evangelistic index finger at someone.

And now there is a payment for sin. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So two things you let them know. The wages of sin is death, not physical death, spiritual death, eternal separation from God.

That's what awaits somebody who dies in their sin. But God loved you so much he doesn't want to be eternally separated from you. He wants you in heaven with him. So the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hallelujah.

Next, you take him to Romans 5.8. You just just reverse. You put that thing in reverse. Go back one chapter to 5.8. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. And you let him know that Jesus loved you before you were even born while you were still a sinner. Jesus went to the cross for you.

And the punishment for sin which we agreed we've all sined the punishment for sin that you deserve Jesus took that punishment on your behalf.

Oh, the word works. You let him know this. Their spirit will start shaking. Start coming alive. And then Romans 10, 9.

You let him know how to activate the solution. You presented the problem where sinners, the solution is Jesus on the cross. But in their mind, they're still thinking, well, that just means I need to work real hard to be a good person, right? And undo my sins. No.

You have to give your life to Jesus. Give him your old confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. And you will be saved.

And then Romans 10, 13 because some people believe they're too far gone. I've noticed when it comes to people and their own sin, they either believe that their sin is not so bad.

Or, and this happens more often than you might think, they believe their sin is too bad. Especially I feel like men, when I minister to men, they feel like their sin is too bad, too great.

Like as though their sin is so big and bad that it can nullify the cross of Jesus Christ. But in their mind, that's what they're convinced of.

Oh, if you knew what I did. So you let him know, whoever are you, whoever? Yes, you are. Whoever, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's for everyone, including you.

And you know your sin is not an exception, no matter how heinous it may be.

And then Romans 5, 1, the assurance of peace and justification, Romans 5, 1, therefore having been justified, explaining them justification is the judge putting the hammer to the gavel saying not guilty through faith, through your belief in what Jesus did for you.

You are justified, you're declared by God and all of heaven, not guilty. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know if you love somebody, you can start this via text.

Start it.

Listen, you gotta pursue some people in your life. Sometimes you gotta know when to back off some, let them cook for a little bit, let them marinate and what you've given them.

But there's others in that the Lord will open up. We have some people in our lives right now, friends of Emily actually, precious people. The Lord has opened them up. They're ready.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

How many of you learned something today? You feel like you've been strengthened to be a better, a better evangelist.

How many of you would say, I'm gonna consecrate my life to the Lord, I'm gonna yield more, I'm gonna yield and I receive my holy responsibility to share the gospel. Amen.

Let's receive communion and that's exactly what we're gonna tell the Lord. Worship team, come on up.

We're gonna receive communion.

Just hang on to the communion elements and we'll all partake of the body and blood of Christ together.

Hallelujah.

How did you come to City like flow?

Have I been saying your name wrong this whole time? Okay. I would have been weird. How did you tell her?

Can I share this? Because I'm having a great conversation with you in here, but it's not good for you.

Okay, and then where can I hear? Where can I hear more of that? So we're like, okay, let's go to life group. We have services and she said, yeah.

So no Romans road. Amazing that the Lord could work outside of the Romans road.

When I gave you a good skeleton to use, something to keep you, because you know, people get real funny with the event.

They want to talk about end times events, save that for later. When it comes to end times events, that should be the caboose of the train.

The engine is the gospel. You had in Christianity people want to make that.

You, there's people who grew up in Christianity. Everything revolves around the rapture and end times events. God doesn't never intended for you to live that way.

That's a terrible torturous way to live. And a lot of those people that all they did was think about that, talk about that, write about that. They're in their graves.

Amen.

Ready? Say this with me. Lord Jesus, you died on the cross for me. You purchased victory for me with your own blood. I partake of that victory.

I am forgiven Jesus because you're broken body and your shed blood. And by your Holy Spirit, I am empowered to win others to you.

I will open my mouth and declare your Holy Word. Help me, Lord. We'll win them together in Jesus' name. Go ahead and partake of the body and the blood of Jesus.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord.

Church, I love you. I'm so blessed by you. They said to Norristers, come and look how many of you still came out.

Thank you. Thank you for being you. It's nice to pass your church you like, you know. A lot of pastors can't say that. I get to say that.

Because you know how true that is. Thank you, Lord. Well, shall we worship the Lord with our tithes and offerings? The giving information is on the screens to my side.

Give with a glad heart, give in faith, give knowing that you cannot out give God that what we sow financially, we reap financially and do it with joy.

The giving information is there. And then a ministry team will be in that blue light section. And if you want prayer for anything,

when someone will lay hands on you, you're going through something, you want someone to agree in faith with you or minister the anointing to you,

just go ahead over to that blue section when the worship starts. If you're wondering, should I, that's definitely a cue that you should.

Be very nice and gentle with you. Well, most of them. Amen. I was just looking at Chris Power. He's a very full contact, kind of.

Fair warrior. I'm just teasing. All right, let's all stand. If you need to go, go with blessing.

May the same protective anointing that was on Noah, be upon you this afternoon. Because of the nor Easter. All right. Be blessed everybody. See you next Sunday.

Be blessed.