Simon Says, "Do Evangelism!" | Eric Miller

So I know that you are excited for the word of God.

I know we have something special today.

So please help me welcome our speaker, our pitcher for today's

no other than the most handsome guy in the world in the eyes of

Adi, Cassie Kuya, Eric Miller. In the eyes of Adi Cassie,

that's all that matters. Hallelujah.

Do evangelism. Look at your neighbor and say do

evangelism. In fact, Simon Peters says do

evangelism. OK, You know that Peter's name

was also Simon, right? You know that?

OK, good. All right, everybody stand up.

When I say Simon Says, like if I say Simon Says lift up your

right hand, everybody do that. OK.

Yeah. Now if I don't say Simon Says

and I say lift up your hand, don't do it because Simon didn't

say that. OK Are you ready?

OK, Everybody lift up their left hand.

Simon didn't say that. So you could sit down.

If if you lifted up your hand, you could sit down.

Go ahead. Look at that.

See Trial. Trial.

What do you think this is? Windows trial.

Windows operating system here. OK, one more chance.

OK, Because we forgive in church.

OK, Simon Says lift up your right hand.

Simon Says shake it around. Simon Says do a kiss at your

neighbor. Simon Says put your arm down.

Simon Says put your left arm up, now put it back down.

OK, if you put it down, sit down.

OK, good job. Good job.

Wow, we have some determined people.

Look, some of you are looking at me like I am going to win right

now, OK? Simon Says jump up and down.

Simon Says wave at the left hand.

Simon Says stop. He was like.

It was too much going on at once, OK, Simon Says.

Sit down, because Simon Says we don't want to play this game for

the rest of the night, for the rest of the day.

Praise God, Simon Says. So that's the name of this Simon

Says do evangelism, right? Well, Simon Peter, a lot of you

know this already. I'm just going to briefly go

over this. Simon Peter is considered by the

Catholic Church to be the first Pope.

OK? He was the 1st universal leader

on earth for the church. Now I don't believe the Bible

tells us that, and I think they came to that conclusion

according to their own theology. However, let's read what the

scripture says in Matthew 1613 through 20 very famous encounter

Jesus has with Peter, Simon Peter.

When Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his

disciples who do, who do men say that I, the Son of Man AM?

So they said some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others

Jeremiah or one of the prophets. So to be put in that category,

people were thinking of Jesus very highly, right?

That's a if. If somebody were to say to you,

you know, Mark, you remind me of the prophet Elijah, that would

be like, whoa, man, that that's a high standard, right?

So they were not thinking of devaluing Jesus, but they also

didn't realize how valuable Jesus was at the moment.

So he said to them, But who do you say that I am?

See, that's the most important question you could ever ask

yourself. Who do you say that Jesus is?

It's not. Who do you think somebody else

says that Jesus is? It's Who do you say that he is?

Simon Peter had answered. You are the.

Christ. Wow.

What is that? You are the Messiah, the Son of

the living God. So this is way beyond prophet

status. This is way beyond apostle

status or any other status we could think of.

That's that's important in the Kingdom of God.

He is saying. And let's let's think about

Peter for a moment, OK? Simon Peter was a fisherman.

He was not the most educated guy.

OK, there was Luke who was a doctor, and Matthew a tax

collector, and there were people who followed Jesus that had a

real profession. Before they followed Jesus,

whether it was a good profession or not, they they had status in

community, in society at large. And here the the simple

fisherman Simon Peter says you. Are the Messiah.

Now, I don't know that anybody else would have been willing to

say that because that right there could be considered

blasphemy. So Simon Peters saying this is a

big deal, and we all know that he would be the guy who would

speak out first a lot, but yet there was something.

I think he had an urge on the inside of him that he had

revelation. So when Jesus asked the

question, who do you say that I am, It's like you're the Christ,

like he, he just, it was coming. It was on the tip of his tongue

and it was coming from the overflow of the appreciation and

love. That he had for the Lord Jesus

answered and said, Blessed are you Simon Barjona, which means

Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood is not revealed this

to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And I also say to you that you are Peter.

Now in the Greek, that word for Peter is Petros.

And it means a small rock. And on this rock, which is

another Greek word for large rock, like a Cliff.

Now, I want you to pay attention if you don't understand this.

There's a difference between small rock and big rock, OK?

Because Peter is small rock, let's call him a living stone.

And the revelation that he's having is called the big rock,

the Cliff, this mountain, this huge, you know, important and

valuable revelation that he is having at this moment.

You are Peter on this small rock.

I will build my. Church, right?

I, I will build and on this rock, this large rock of

Revelation, I will build my church.

So I will use you to build my church, but you are not the

foundation of the church. You are not the beginning of the

church. The cornerstone.

We know actually who tells us that Jesus is the cornerstone?

Peter. First Peter.

And he reiterates from the Old Testament, from the Old

Covenant, that the Messiah would be the cornerstone and.

So. Peter says that Jesus is the

cornerstone built upon the foundation of the apostles,

prophets and and teachers. And then what?

Happens you and I are like living stones being fit into the

building of the body of Christ the church that are making the

church look like what it should look.

Like. And the gates of Hades will not

prevail against it. Is he saying the gates of Hades

will not prevail against Peter? What he's saying is the gates of

hell will not prevail against the revelation that I've shown

you. And because you are in me, they

will also not prevail against you because you stand on the

solid, the big rock of revelation that I am the

Messiah. I am God in the flesh.

Does anybody believe that? Yeah, that is the key to

understanding who you are in Christ.

Because if you don't understand what foundation that you are

being built off of, then you're going to build something else

other than what the foundation looks like.

If you don't have clear revelation of who Jesus is, look

up here. If you don't have clear

revelation of Jesus is and you want to build the church, you

are going to build something else.

If it's not built off of the right foundation.

Like you can't call yourself a Christian and say I'm going to

build this thing my way. No, no, no, no.

You can't not be a man or a woman of prayer.

You can't not be a man or a woman of the word of God.

You can't not live in the fear of the Lord.

These things are requirements if we're going to build His church.

You can't not be a. Part of a community of

believers. See, This is why it's so hard.

Because I'm praying to God that your revelation of Jesus, my

revelation of Jesus, everybody's revelation of Jesus, helps us to

build off of the right foundation.

Because if we don't, we're going to build something that is

comfortable to us, that is OK for our flesh to deal with, that

doesn't challenge us. You see, if if we read

scriptures, like Jesus said, if any man would come after me, let

him deny himself, take up his cross and come follow me, that

is uncomfortable. I don't really want to do that.

Who wants to die in a cross? No, but if I build off of the

foundation, what is the foundation say is that the one

who laid his life for me is worth for me to lay my life down

for? Him.

Because of this revelation, I will give you the keys of the

Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound

in heaven. He's given you authority.

That's what these keys represent.

And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Look, if if you don't realize you have authority in this life,

then you're always going to think that in this life things

can only happen a certain way. What do I mean?

That if you need a breakthrough for something, you'd healing,

you need finances, you need a miracle, you need relational

tension, you know, healed and restored.

These things are sometimes out of our control.

But see, when we build off of the foundation of Jesus, that

revelation, we have hope outside of our limitations.

There's no limitations. If you're born again, the only

limitation is that you should not sin anymore.

But if you live. Holy.

If you live a life devoted to the Lord, if you believe in the

promises of His Word, if you choose to walk by faith, then

this will reveal the revelation that you have of Jesus, the Son

of God, the Messiah. And then he commanded his

disciples that they should tell no one.

Look at this. This doesn't sound like

evangelism, right? Like, aren't we supposed to tell

everybody about Jesus? Well, it's not that Jesus isn't

saying don't tell people about him at all.

But at that point, he did not want people to just say, oh,

he's the Messiah because Peter said it.

What he wants is for you to know that he's the Messiah because

you have revelation. He doesn't want people to have a

shortcut of coming to God without there being revelation

in your heart. Wow.

Well, what are we talking about here?

You need to listen and TuneIn this morning because some of you

are here and maybe some of you have been sitting in church for

years and you don't have revelation of who Jesus is.

And that lack of revelation is why you can't break free from

the power and bondage of sin. See Pastor Pearl had revelation

of who Jesus is. And because of that, it changed

the way that she lived. It changed the way that she

devoted her life and her time. She gave herself to some of

these young ladies and other young men and women there in

Trento. And now she's in heaven reaping

a reward because she chose to have revelation of who?

Jesus. Is.

Friend, are you with me this morning?

Because we need to emphasize how important this revelation is.

If you get to heaven and there you are standing at the gates of

heaven, God's not going to say, OK, all members of Maranatha

Church come forward. He's not going to say graduates

of Fire School ministry, those who went to the Brownsville

Revival come on through. No, he's going to say, OK, those

of you who have had revelation that Jesus is the Christ and you

made that confession on earth, you stand on the right.

And those of you who did not confess him, you stand on the

left. This is evangelism.

This is if we don't understand this about evangelism, then we

don't know what we're talking about because a lot of people

know methods to evangelism, but without revelation, the method

doesn't matter. Learn all the methods you can.

Learn how other people do it. Share your testimony.

I would encourage you to do that, but if you don't have

revelation of Jesus, you don't have a testimony.

What's a testimony? It talks about what Jesus saved

you from. Let me ask you a question.

I feel real evangelistic this morning.

Do you know what Jesus saved you from?

Sin. OK, that's a general then

Glacier and Christo would probably tell me that.

And they don't. Believe Jesus is the Son of God.

I had so many Filipinos who tell me, oh sin, but then I say, what

sin did Jesus save you for? Save you from?

See, that's the point, is that if you have a real testimony,

you know what Jesus saved you from.

Now, you might have grown up in a very godly family.

And I know some people who don't necessarily remember when they

got born again because they were always raised in the fear of the

Lord, and their heart has been sustained with God.

And I'm not going to judge their heart if I see fruit coming from

their life. See the goal is not just about

how many times we go to church, how many prayers we we pray and

how many right things we do. The goal is, is there fruit

coming from your life? See, this is what we want to do.

And This is why the parable of the sower is Jesus most

important parable. It's because if we don't discern

our purpose in planting seed and watering seed, then we're going

to try to do God's part to save people, which we cannot do.

And then we make people believe that they have some type of

relationship with God because of what we said instead of having

revelation in their own heart. Is this making sense?

Let's go on. Listen, Peter was important.

We value him as one of the 12 disciples that Jesus called and

and in Revelation 21 verse 14, he's called one of the apostles

Revelation 21:14

of the Lamb. That means he is part of the

foundational group that started the church.

OK, there is a special unique place.

Those guys will never be replaced.

I believe in apostles and prophets, pastors, teachers

today, but I don't believe that that we will ever change the

foundation. OK.

And and we are not allowed to write Scripture now because the

Scripture is already contained. It's already been written and

it's not to be added to. That's what the Book of

Revelation tells us or taken away from.

Our responsibility is to continue to have revelation of

who Jesus is. And through that revelation, we

surrender our will to God, and whatever place in the body you

and I are called to have, we are simply living stones building

the Kingdom of God. Peter, Simon Peter, he was

important, but he was not more important than Jesus, and nor

was he more important than the. Rest of the body.

Listen, in a body there's only one head.

Anything with more than one head, if there's two heads is a

freak, it's a monster. And that's not supposed.

There's too many opinions there. But see, Jesus is the head of

the church. And because he's the head of the

church, we get revelation from him and he helps us function as

a body. Now there's different parts of

the body. There's parts that are seen and

there's parts that are unseen, but as you mature in your

revelation of who the head is, Jesus, he will help you and I be

fitted in to the body of Christ so that we don't make ourselves

more important than anybody. Else but what we do is say it's

all about the head and I'm going to play my role.

Amen. Just as there are many in the

Bible with the name Simon, there are many in the body of Christ

who are just as important as Simon.

The great thing about evangelism and missions is that everyone in

Christ's body is called to do it.

Now here we are in Israel with two young ladies, IDF soldiers,

and Angelita and Sam are with us.

And each of us, we're sharing with these young ladies.

We were praying for them. And you know what, people could.

A lot of times I won't go on evangelism groups unless I'm

training people and trying to encourage people to go out.

But like Nathan and and you guys, when you go out, you don't

need me to be there. And the reason I do that is

because I don't want there to be a difference.

Oh, let let's hear from Sir Eric.

Because what happens is, is that we teach people always that only

certain people can really share about Jesus because they've

studied, because they've been doing this for a long time.

Frank, can I tell you if you've had revelation of Jesus, that's

your qualification to talk about him now, Yes, we mature in our

understanding of the Lord and there should be a a hunger and a

thirst for God in our hearts that as we share, we understand

more of what the word of God says, who we are in the body of

Christ and how we are to function and our unique type of

evangelism. Second Timothy 4 verse 5 says

2 Timothy 4:5

But be watchful. In all things endure

afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your

ministry to me. I believe this gift.

Of evangelism, not just evangelist, because he's not

telling everybody to be an evangelist.

He's saying to do the work of an evangelist.

This gift in the body is a requirement for everybody

because we're all called to go make disciples.

You can't make disciples without doing evangelism right?

You do evangelism because out of the overflow of your

relationship with God, you desire to tell people of your

experience of how Jesus has changed your life, and you want

to testify that his life is genuine and real to you.

And through your personality, your gifts, your talents, your

skills, your abilities, your experiences, all of these things

play into the valuable testimony of what God is trying to release

in and through your life. So if you compare yourself to

other people all the time, or you devalue yourself because you

don't have that, you were a serial killer before and now

you're born again. My point is that no matter how

bad your testimony seems, all were sinners and have fallen

short of the glory of God. So if Jesus Christ has redeemed

you and has forgiven you, then no matter what your place in the

body is, you are called to share the good news of the Gospel to

the uniqueness of your own life. God has created you with a

divine purpose. And you've got to understand

that that purpose is so important.

You know, I saw a video, I think it was maybe this morning.

It liugen he was, he was, he was being thrown.

All around now, I know that if I were to get into the judo ring

with Liugen or this other guy, I would have no idea what I'm

doing and I would be thrown around like a fish out of water,

right? There's there's really no

function for me because I don't know what I'm doing.

So if I were to evangelize guys who do judo, of course I could

share my testimony. But if?

He. Shared his testimony.

Because he understands where these guys are AT and what type

of training and and what they have.

You know, the different belts that talk about their maturing

process in judo. He has such a better opportunity

to share with those people, even though that I'm the director of

Fire School of Ministry. Do you hear what I'm saying?

It's we can't just say, oh, this person's up here and I'm down

here and it's not valuable. No, where you are, who you're

working with, where God has placed you in this life, it's by

divine appointment. And if you don't see that, how

important it is to God, you're going to leave with you're not

going to evangelize people. In fact, you may not even open

up your mouth. And what a lot of us do is we

default and we say, oh, just come to me, with my, to my.

Church, can I encourage you to lead people to Jesus outside the

building? Why?

Because Jesus is no more holy here than he is in your office

or your house or your school or the jeepney or wherever your

college campus. What are we?

Saying is that He's holy if he lives in you and your life is

devoted to Him. You are a temple of the Holy

Spirit and that's what makes you and Jesus so important.

When we come together to worship, we sense the glory of

God. We were here Friday night and we

were worshiping at the Soaking in the Presence gathering.

And the glory of God was there. It was so powerful when we were

worshiping. And you sense just the thickness

of the press. That's the manifested presence

of God is so wonderful. And I think God does that when

his people come together. But you don't need hundreds of

people for God to come together. In fact, he lives in you and he

goes with. You.

And he said where two or three are gathered, there I am in the

midst. But let me take it a little bit

deeper. If Jesus and you were together,

that's 2. So even if you think you're

alone, you're never technically alone.

And if you lift up the name of Jesus with confidence.

Of knowing what God has done in your life, it will matter.

Let's go on out of the fivefold Apostolic servant leadership

gives doing the work of an evangelist a specific

requirement made by Paul for everyone.

The body of Christ. Here are different people named

Simon in the New Testament. Now there's some some people say

there's 8. Some people say 9:00.

I'm going to say there's nine different Simon's, and I won't

get into all why that is right now.

It's just too much to explain. But #1 there's Simon Peter, the

most famous of the 12 apostles, right #2 Simon the Zealot,

another apostle known for his political zeal or fervor #3

Simon, brother of Jesus, mentioned as one of Jesus

brothers #4 Simon of Serene, forced to carry the cross of

Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, right when Jesus was going to be

crucified, Simon the leper, he hosted a dinner where Jesus was

anointed and Mary came and washed her hair, his feet with

her hair, right? And then Simon the Tanner hosted

Peter and Joppa, which is when Cornelius was having Revelation

of, of this sheet coming down from heaven, right?

And, and he, well, Peter was having that revelation.

And then Cornelius and Peter were coming together and, and

Simon and Tanner hosted Peter and which was a very important

historical moment in the church #7 Simon Magus, a sorcerer who

tried to buy the spiritual power, right?

I want this power. You know, what?

Can I pay for it? And he got rebuked harshly #8

Simon, father of Judas Iscariot. He was the father of the

betrayer. Judas is known as the greatest

betrayer in history. Think about if you had to be the

Father and what type of pressure that would bring upon you.

And then lastly, Simon the Pharisee, a woman.

Now there at least are two different scenarios and all four

gospels they talk about a woman, you know, washing Jesus feet and

then the alabaster box, right and all that.

So one was at Simon the Tanners house and then one was at Simon

the Pharisees house. There were two separate

occasions, which is very interesting because Jesus was at

least anointed twice. And they're very similar

stories. You see, sometimes the Bible has

stories like this where in the Old Testament, Abraham and his

wife, right, he doesn't tell. I, I think was it Alimelech

maybe who his wife was? And he, you know, Alimelech saw

him kissing on his wife, you know, and, and he said, well,

you should have told me that your wife, you know, or would

have got in trouble. And he was warned by God to not

do that. And then the same thing happened

in Isaac and in Rebecca's life, a very similar story.

So sometimes there are stories that are told more than once,

but they are also separate stories.

Just as there are different people with the name Simon, so

there are unique parts of the body of Christ who impact others

with their own creative evangelism and discipleship.

So #1 some Simon's. Evangelize has five fold

ministers just like Simon Peter, right?

We we talk about the hand, right, Which to me is a great

example. Somebody showed me this a long

time ago that an apostle's like a thumb because he could touch

all the other gifts. The pointer finger is like a

prophet because he points the way.

The middle finger is like an evangelist because he extends

and reaches out the farthest. The ring finger is like the

pastor because he's married to the church and the pinky is like

a teacher because he gets in your ear.

But an apostle to me can touch those gifts.

But it should be the goal of somebody with an apostle type

anointing to kind of pioneer something.

And then when they see an evangelist rise up, they prefer

the evangelist because they could do it.

But then when you have this person who is specifically

designed to be an evangelist, they equipped the church even

better than you would as an apostle.

So putting that aside, I think a lot of people think that

evangelists should always be like Simon Peter because that's

a 5 fold ministry gift. And again, that's the reason why

I think we all defer other people to do evangelism who are

with who carry those titles. And look, if if someone like a

Daniel calendar walked in here right now, I would probably sit

down and stop talking about evangelism.

Why? Because there's, that's just

what he does, You know, there's, there's people that, that are

very obvious. I, I think Nathan carries a very

strong evangelist. John Paul, right, carries a very

strong evangelistic anointing on their life.

And, and are they an evangelist? I, I mean, I think it's not

important about labeling people about what they are and, or what

we think they are, but just honoring what we see so that we

can and value the creativity coming from their life and be

able to receive the equipping that we need as a local body.

And so I, I, I'm all for that type of an evangelist for

evangelism, but we can't limit ourselves.

Look at here. Some Simon's right, like Simon

the Zealot, evangelize in the political realm.

How many of you have heard of Charlie Kirk?

I wouldn't necessarily say that he was an evangelist.

It maybe he was I, I don't know. But what I do know is that in

the political realm, this guy was able to keep the value for

Jesus. Christ and his church going to

very difficult university campuses, preaching the gospel

and answering questions in the political realm unlike anybody

we've probably ever heard of. And I think that's one of the

reasons why the enemy wanted to take him out.

And, and let me say that even though the enemy took him out, I

believe God allowed him to go right.

Jesus said nobody takes my life from me and you as a child of

God. There are certain things that

God might allow in our lives at times that we don't understand,

but the fact is that if we live for the glory of God, then no

matter how we get there, we make sure that we we get there.

And Jesus is honored Charlie Kirk, a name that is messed up

entire nations. Religions.

The Ayatollah in Iran who's hiding for his life right now.

You know what he knows? The name Charlie Kirk.

I promise you, he's probably seen a reel of Charlie Kirk

saying Islam is not the truth and explaining why that is.

I I I think. That we have to understand that

Charlie Kirk was used by God and that political realm, and some

of you might be called into the political realm to evangelize

people. You know, there's a lot of

politics even in the business world here, right?

And we need godly people. I remember talking to a

businessman once, and he was talking about some different

government authorities. I won't say who, but people they

have to pay money to for their business.

And he was talking about how they took so much money that

wasn't what they were supposed to pay and it was more than what

they were supposed to pay. And and he was struggling with

how. Do I be?

Righteous in the midst of this all, listen, I'm not a

businessman. I'm not in that realm of

politics. And let me encourage you that if

you are involved with that in some level or degree or desire

to do that, friend, you are needed to evangelize there.

Because there are people there who would never come to this

church and hear my preaching, would never come to a conference

I'm speaking at, or or maybe be on the streets in Agdao or

something. What are we saying is that?

There are zip codes that God has placed you in spiritual zip

codes. That he might.

Call you to that is extremely important and and if you feel,

if you feel like you have a desire to be involved with

politics in some way, either you are presently or have a desire

to. I'm not asking you to commit to

anything, nor am I trying to label anything on you.

But if you feel that, raise your hand.

Anybody. Wow.

Nobody. Well, Lord, we pray that in our

community that you would raise up people who feel that burden,

because let me tell you why. Who feels called to go to

Cambodia? We already have somebody there.

That's awesome. This.

Political realm is just like the mission field overseas.

But see, we don't see it like that.

And, and, and can I encourage you and slightly rebuke you is

that when we take the shortcut of inviting people to church to

not personally evangelize them, we are not giving people an

opportunity that they deserve to hear the gospel.

Yes, they can hear the gospel in the church.

But when people experience the power of God outside a church

building or facility, it takes on a whole different

transformation. This is why we have these

discipleship groups. This is why we have these small

groups. Because guys, we have to win

souls, make disciples, and we all have to bear that

responsibility. Especially when some of us are

not called to be in those other sectors.

Let me go on number 3. Some Simon's evangelize as a

family to the lonely, like Jesus, brother, brother of Jesus

right here. Family.

How many of you have a family? Do you know one of Casey and

mine's favorite scripture? I think it's Psalm 68.

I think it's 68. It says God sets the.

Lonely into a family? Who are the loneliest people in

the world? People who don't have Jesus?

Your family should be so strong. That God, when he brings lonely

people to you, your family should be able to love on them

and should be able to now I'm not saying you got a house and

feed everybody but think about this.

Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these you also do

unto me. Nobody's asking you to open up a

boarding house. What I'm saying is, is that.

It's hard. I understand financially that it

costs a lot of money to do ministry.

Believe me, I understand that. And I understand if you don't

have a big house and an extra room and all that, OK, you do

what you have grace to do. But if you devalue what you can

do all the time as a family, then you.

Won't ever feel a responsibility to share your bread with the

hungry. Why?

Why are we talking about sharing your bread?

Why are we talking about housing somebody?

Why are we talking about clothing somebody?

Because guys, when we do that, it plants it.

It prepares the soil to plant the seed of the gospel.

If I come up to you and come up to judge and I tell him you need

to repent so that Jesus come in your life and he can forgive you

or sin, is that true? Absolutely it's true.

But if I take him. And I say judge, man, it's so

good to see you, bro, you know? I'm so proud of you, man.

Hey, why don't we go get lunch sometime and we sit down and we

talk or we play basketball and I let him win.

And we and we, you know. We communicate that way.

You know what's going to happen. Eventually, he's going to want

to hear why I am the way that I am, Why I.

Care the way that I care. Is this making sense?

You see, you have something in your hand that God's given you

to evangelize the lost. You just have to be willing to

do something with it and as a family.

Listen, maybe one of your goals is to get married and to have

children. Can I encourage you that when

you reach those goals, to think about people who don't have

families, think about people who don't have loved ones nearby?

We have a lot of our our sisters from India.

They, they've been away from their families for some years

now and they go back every now and then if they can.

It's expensive. And we've had some come to our

house. I know the Valdez have had many

times these folks come to their home and embrace them and love

on them. And I think that's part of the

reason why they're here in the. Church and and, and maybe they

were already born again, but the point is if if we show love to

them, maybe they're going to want to show love to some other

students in their school. You see, this thing multiplies

when we're willing to step out and do our purposeful obedience.

And not just wait on somebody else or the church to do

everything for us. Some Simon's number 5 evangelize

with their testimony, right? Simon the Leper.

What a testimony. He got healed from leprosy and

now Jesus is hanging out at his house.

This guy has something that is so unique.

How many of you got healed from leprosy?

That's what I'm talking about. And there's people that we hear

their testimonies who got saved out of a, a lifestyle of this or

that. And you know, they were, you

know. In prison, how many?

You know Nash's testimony, right?

Look at that testimony. Amazing.

Here's a guy who was in prison in gangs.

All kinds of trouble causing trouble.

And now he gets born again and he comes to church.

I'll never forget it. When we had the church in

Victoria Plaza in the cinema, we had a big open space and when

these guys would be singing and worshipping and everybody be all

excited like we were today, Nash would fall on the ground and

start break dancing and doing a backspin.

If you want to see a real backspin, go ask Nash.

What did I know? Well, one time I had my eyes

closed and worshipping and I felt wind.

And I'm like, where's that wind coming?

And he was doing a windmill on the floor.

His legs are out. He would go on the stage and he

would jump into the crowd and stuff.

I'm like, this is cool. I like this.

It's a different church, right? You know, I'm not recommending

that. OK.

We don't have a very big high stage, OK?

No crowd surfing. OK.

But I mean. What a testimony.

And now look at his life. He married, He's married.

He's got three children. They're pastoring a church now,

they're teaching at FIRE school. They're going on missions trips.

They're making an impact. Look, not all of us have a

testimony that I was in prison and some of you might think,

well I don't, my testimony is not really that good.

No, your testimony really is good.

In fact, God's designed your testimony to reach some specific

people that Nash will not reach, that Eric would not reach,

right, that pastor aren't different ones would not reach.

Listen, your testimony is extremely valuable.

And let me say, if you don't know theologically all the right

things to say in evangelism, just talk about how Jesus saved

you and brought you out of darkness into his marvelous

light. The more you do that, the more

you read the word of God, the better you're going to become at

sharing what God's done in your life.

Let's go on here some Simon's evangelized through hospitality.

Hospitality. Look at this Simon the Tanner,

right? He hosted Simon Peter in his

house to meet Cornelius. Why was that important?

Because now the Holy Spirit is about to be poured out on the

Gentiles. Nobody knows Simon the Tan.

Or, or what do you know about Simon the tan?

He didn't just sit on a beach and get a tan, OK?

No, he wasn't on the beach of Tel Aviv like, oh, this is

great. I love to live here, you know?

But my point is, is that Simon the Tanner, he, he would take

skins, animal skins, and he would make them into products

that people would use. And that's why he's called a

Tanner. And so Peter Simon Peter stayed

at his house and he hosted one of the greatest events.

In church history, in fact, everybody in this room should

appreciate that Simon the Tanner gave a place for Peter the

Apostle to sleep because the Holy Spirit was poured out even

in the Gentiles. And 2000 years later, all of us

Gentiles in this room are very grateful.

Look, Simon the Tanner didn't do all that Simon Peter did.

Simon the Tanner didn't have the, the, you know, the, the

testimony of a leper. But Simon Tanner had one event

in his life where he showed up when he was supposed to show up,

and that changed world history. See, if we compare ourselves to

other people all the time, we'll devalue the moment or the

opportunity that God can use us because we're always thinking,

well, I'm never going to be like somebody else.

Who else can I be like? Be yourself, be who God ordained

you to be, created you to be Some Simon's evangelize

apologetically in the Word and Spirit.

Just like where is it? Simon the the sorcerer, so he

was dealt with because he was involved with witchcraft and he

was rebuked. But I think, I wonder if Simon

the sorcerer just had a real desire for understanding what

truth was. But then he thought that he

could buy it, and he got rebuked, not because they hated

him, but because he needed a rebuke in order for his heart to

open up. Who knows, maybe this guy

started preaching the gospel after and realized that you

can't buy Jesus, but you have. To labor in His Word, you have

to labor in His presence. The Bible doesn't tell us what

happened to Him afterwards, but I I have in my own experience

seen people who think they know everything or have a desire for

the supernatural and they get weird and then they get rebuked.

And if they get rebuked in love and not rebuked to hate them,

what happens? They begin to see God, they

begin to see differently. They begin to want to teach and

preach and spend time in the Word of God.

Listen, some of you here are called to apologetics.

Some of you are here are called to really study the Word.

Maybe some of you would study the Greek, the Hebrew, the

Aramaic. Maybe you would be able to one

day go to Israel and have a debate with some Jewish rabbi.

Wow, why not what you have? You may not understand how that

might happen, but what am I saying?

As you give yourself over to the desires that are in your heart,

God will fulfill them and put you among people that you never

thought you would influence only because you were willing to go.

And allow Jesus to change your life.

Some Simon's evangelize as fathers of prodigal sons, the

father of Judas Iscariot. We know nothing about him.

Could you imagine what society was saying about his son?

What he heard in the temple? Did you hear about what happened

to Simon's son, Judas Iscariot? How awkward did he feel to be

around the other apostles? I'm sure that he was at times

because his boy used to be on the team.

And now he no longer is. So how do you deal with that?

Again, the Bible doesn't tell us what he actually did, but I

would like to believe. That if he humbled himself

before God and say God, I don't understand why my son did what

he did. But I remember a story that

Jesus preached one time called the prodigal son.

And I want to be that father. I want to be that type of an

event. Do that type of evangelism that

when a young man needs me to speak into his life.

I want to redeem what I've lost. Look again, we don't know.

That's what the Bible says. I'm simply saying that when

people change and they see that, they don't allow their hurtful

situation. To define them for the rest of

their life, look up here. You do not need to be a victim

the rest of your life. The point is this, if we see

ourselves as a victim all the time, we're never going to do

anything for God and we're always going to be intimidated

by people who do do something for God.

Friend, we want you to have confidence in who you are in the

Lord. We don't want you to beat

yourself up in condemnation, shame or guilt.

It's not. Don't let the enemy and your

life because you don't understand why your life has

been so hard and difficult. Get healed, get restored, have

revelation of who Jesus is. He has a purpose and plan for

your life. Amen.

And last one, some Simon's evangelize by ministering to the

poor. Simon the Pharisee had a a house

that was open where he hosted Jesus.

But what he wasn't expecting was that woman, a woman was going to

come in in the middle of Jesus sitting there and wash his feet

with her hair. You know, I'm not saying that

Simon was in a state of evangelism, Simon the Pharisee,

but I will say this, that we are called to minister to the poor

and it's often the poor that are very willing to accept the

gospel. If not poor, financially poor in

spirit, broken hearted people, people that have needs and don't

know what to do in this life. You should look at people like

that and go to them. We should share the gospel with

anybody. But here's the point is that if

you want to see people come to the Lord sometimes, if you're

always sowing seed on hard ground and there's this one

person over there who has some soft ground, go plant the seed

there. Do what you can.

Go to the poor. Read the scriptures about how

God loves the poor and how God wants to see them raised up from

the ash heap. And become a great testimony of

the grace of God upon someone's life and how he takes somebody

from very difficult circumstances and he elevates

them in His Kingdom. The main point of this message

is while there are specific leadership roles in the body of

Christ, there is only one head in the body and Simon is not his

name. The reason many in the church do

not feel responsibility to do evangelism emissions is because

the church put so much emphasis on leaders, known leaders, and

places little value upon the unknown parts of the body who

impact the world on a smaller scale or stage.

God has not only called evangelist to evangelize the

world, God has not called only fivefold leaders to evangelize

the world. Doing the work of an evangelist

is the only fivefold gift of all the body that all the body is

called to do. Just as with many parts of the

body, there are different ways to evangelize the world.

And God wants to use you the way that He designed you.

Now I'm going to close with this Jude Sullivan Peters.

This is the grandson of Keith and Darla Collins, and that's

this is Sully and Hannah, Jude's parents.

Some of you know Jude. I'm just going to read this

short excerpt from the very beginning.

Jude was a fighter. Jude just passed away.

He was 11 years old, but he was only about this big Jude.

From the very beginning, Jude was a fighter.

At his birth, he made his presence known with a strong

warrior's cry of many moments that would define the way that

he lived. Brave, determine, and full of

light. Jude was diagnosed as an infant

with Rhizomelec, Chondral Diplasia punctata.

I believe that's it. Or RCDP, a rare and life

limiting genetic condition. Yet Jude wrote his own story

known by many as Super Jude, lovingly called Joyful Jude and

brave little warrior. He became a living testimony to

faith, perseverance and beauty of life, of a life deeply loved.

Do you know that on Facebook Jude has 115,000 followers?

That's just Facebook in the Charlotte media.

They would the news would often do stories on Jude and his

family and what a testimony that he carried and for many people

to be encouraged by his life. I shared something called Jude

the Evangelist that I didn't know his father would share at

the funeral. This is Sully Peters, Jude's

father. He said.

When I was 15 years old, I receive a prophetic word from my

pastor at the time. He told me that he felt the Lord

was telling him that my name would be known throughout the

whole world, that even heaven and hell would know my name.

At the time I really did not think much about it, but a few

years ago that it dawned on me that the prophetic word wasn't

for me, it was for my son Jude Sullivan Peters because the

impact he had on the world was far reaching, way beyond what

his father could do. From pregnant moms telling us

that they had decided to keep their babies.

That means they would not abort their baby because they saw we

had value for Jude's life. Do you know that Carrie Jobe

would call almost weekly Hannah because she was inspired by

Jude's message. She would call up Hannah and

just encourage her and and. Jude, I don't think Jude's

parents ever bought him clothes because so many people would

send him, send him brand new clothes all the time.

And, and they weren't like promoting it, asking for it.

They're simply taking care of son.

But God used this little boy's testimony to inspire millions of

people. He goes on to say they decide to

keep their babies after seeing our stories.

The pastors and strangers telling us they were ready to

walk away from the faith until they found Jude's testimony.

It was a testimony of countless trials, but even more miracles.

His strength and bravery through those trials sparked the joy of

the Lord into so many lives. As my good friend Eric Miller

said, Jude is one of the great evangelists of our day and.

Even in his weakness, he has impacted more lives than most

people ever will. I believe His reward in heaven

is much larger than we can comprehend, and the glory of God

is surrounding him and flowing through His heavenly body in

ways that we've only had a small taste of.

You see this picture, I don't know who made it or where they

got it from, but it's a picture of Jude running.

I believe the Bible says that when we're absent from the body,

we're present with the Lord. As soon as Jude died, He ran

soon as Jude died. And I.

I guarantee you that the angels and the hosts of heaven, we're

cheering because they watched this little boy suffer.

And we may not understand or have all our questions answered

sometimes, but my friend, if we think that God can't do

something with our lives, we are sorely devaluing the power and

the authority of the gospel. God use a boy with a form of

dwarfism that couldn't speak, that relied upon his parents for

food, for changing his diaper, all of these things, bathing.

He never once walked. He never rode a bike.

He was never able to get married.

But here's the fact of the matter.

He preached the gospel because his parents said your life is

valuable and you have something to share even though you've.

Never said one word, friend. Look at me.

There's no excuse for you and I to not evangelize.

There's no excuse for you and I to not preach the gospel.