Personal Evangelism — John 3-4

0:00 I appreciate the opportunity to have the extra time. We have notes that we're going to pass out to you. And we've... The elders have asked me to do a series on evangelism and that's what we're going to do but before we do that I would sure like to just show you something and that is this person here, my son and his girlfriend because... And her name is Kelly and last night he asked her to marry thought that...

0:45 Was that a good shot or what? Looks a little goofy on the focus, but anyway, I... We're thrilled. We really are thrilled. Said he made...

1:02 He did the... God provided. God really provided. I don't know how else to express it. So enough of that sappy stuff, and we're gonna move right ahead into our discussion.

1:15 I think to myself about what needs to happen in the church. We talked last time we were here just a short short while ago. It seems that, you know, I think the greatest thing that the church needs today more than ever before is a good dose of passion. Is a really good dose of passion. But we want to have well placed passion.

1:38 We really do. We want to have well placed passion. We want to have... Be able to take that passion we have for the Lord and then move it into sharing our faith. And we want to talk about this a little bit.

1:53 We're going to talk about this through the rest of the year. You know, I'm I'm slated to come not not only be here today, but next month and then the following month. And we want to talk about this because this is going to make a big difference. I was driving down I think it's I-ninety, I think that is near Crocker Bassett, you know, and I'm coming up that way. So I'm passing and I'm all...

2:16 I... Every time I look at your old building, I look at where you used to be on Calhoun, I think it was called, right? And I look at that, and you can see it from the freeway, and I often think about that building, and I think of the times that you had there, the good times that you had at that, and then how the Lord provided this place. And I just... And then the thought came to my mind, this little this little saying that Cory Tenblum used a great deal.

2:47 Bloom where you're planted. And I thought to myself, that's exactly what we need to do. God has placed this assembly here in this place, one of the wealthiest areas in The United States, to bloom where you're planted. And how do we do that? And so we're going to talk about what we're going to talk about today.

3:10 We're going to talk about what is personal evangelism and we're going to share you know we're going to talk about up close and personal and we're going to talk about you know giving our faith away. That little guy is JC and that was a number of years ago because he's not that small anymore, praise God. And that's in Brooklyn, New York. And I think to myself, this is what we want to do. We want to communicate the best message we could ever communicate and that's this message of the gospel.

3:48 I hope you would agree with that. There is nothing better. I mean there is nothing and I pass out literature at this time of the year people think I'm passing out political information and they're relieved to find out that I said when I say to them this has nothing to do with politics and they go, Oh, good. I'm so sick of that.

4:10 So let's talk about this a little bit and I'd like us to look at

4:14 our study today where we will look at a number of issues. We'll look at what is evangelism, what evangelism is not, what is personal evangelism, the imperative of evangelism, the importance of personal evangelism, the costs of soul winning, and rewards of soul winning. So it looks like we've got a lot here, doesn't it? We do. So let's get right into it.

4:41 First of all, I'd like us to look at the issue of what evangelism is. And you've got a number that you have in your notes,

4:49 you see this, so you don't have to look at

4:50 your notes, it's all the same. And so you just have a little copy of it for your convenience. But some people say a dictionary defines that that's the American Heritage Dictionary as a zealous preaching and dissemination of the gospel as through missionary work. Now that we look at this and we say, what's wrong with this definition? What's wrong with this definition and it's too narrow first of all.

5:18 It's too narrow. We say what do you mean it's too narrow? The zealous preaching and dissemination of the gospel as through missionary work. What does that mean? Okay, what does that mean?

5:30 The zealous preaching and dissemination of the gospel. Now we have it in our minds what that means but when we just take it at face value, what really does it mean? So it's too narrow. It's not only through missionary work. It's not only through missionary work.

5:46 How many have ever heard that song Be a Missionary Everyday? Nobody's ever? Oh, oh man. Okay. Here it is.

5:56 Okay. This is too much. Okay. Ready? I'm gonna sing.

5:59 Mal need your help with this brother. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're like a singer type guy.

6:04 Okay. Ready? It goes like this.

6:06 Be a missionary every day. Tell the world that Jesus is the way.

6:13 Be it in the town or country or

6:16 a busy avenue. Africa or Asia or West Lake Ohio too. So be a missionary everyday. Tell the world that Jesus is the way. The Lord is soon returning, there is no time to lose.

6:34 So Be our missionary, God's own emissary, be our missionary today. Hey. Okay. Well you can applaud all you want.

6:46 You can applaud. By applauding, you're not getting out of singing. Okay. Okay. You guys

6:52 ready for this? Be a missionary every day. Tell the world that Jesus is the way.

7:01 Be it in the town or country or

7:04 a busy avenue, Africa or Asia, or Westlake, Ohio, too. So be a missionary every day. Tell the world that Jesus is the way. The Lord is soon returning. There is no time to lose.

7:24 So be a missionary. God's own emissary. Be a missionary today.

7:42 You've seen those guys on TV and you've seen some, you know, maybe these guys didn't want to tell you

7:48 that the Lord of G...

7:50 I mean, you know, and it gets a little bit... Is that what evangelization is? I just can't get the in. You know, I just can't do that. So I mean, that's that's the dictionary definition.

8:04 And it's not really clear on what the gospel is, is it? Because what are we preaching? What are we talking about? The gospel. So it's not clear on the gospel.

8:16 And then what we wanna do is we wanna look at the etymological. That's a fancy word. I love that word. It makes me look smart. I have no idea what it means.

8:24 Except it's from the root word. From... What what do you... What does the word actually mean? It's from the Greek through the Latin.

8:31 The Latin word is evangelum, actually. The computer changes it on me all the time, which is derived from the Greek u, which means well or good, and an... Angelos, messenger. A messenger or messenger of good news. Simple.

8:50 It's rather simple. A message or messenger of good news. Now, I don't know how many of you talked about Terry Francona becoming manager of the Cleveland Indians. And for some of you, you might say, that's good news. Now, if we can get some hitters and some pitchers, we'll really do well.

9:10 And if we go to the World Series and we really do the job there and we win, you know, win the games and we become the curse... You know, not the curse of the Bambino, but the 1948 will revitalize. We'll go, oh, isn't that fantastic? And we'll erase the curse of the nineteen fifty four World Series when we got swept by San Francisco with Willie Mays and company. You know, you just go, oh wow, yes, that'd be great news, wouldn't it?

9:38 Or elections are coming up and if our particular candidate gets elected, go, man, that's great news. That's fantastic news. What could be better news than forgiveness of sins? What could be better news than a home in heaven? What could be better news than that?

9:57 Nothing. So this is the best news. So it's from the... Means a message or messenger of good news. So when we talk about this and what what evangelism is, when we have our class definitions for ourselves here, according to JC McAuley, evangelism is the activity of the church in telling the gospel to sinners with the intent of bringing them to a saving knowledge of Christ.

10:26 Now you have that there and this is what we wanna do with the intent of bringing them to a saving knowledge of Christ. According to J. I. Packer, he says, such was evangelism according to Paul. Going out in love as Christ's agent in the world to share with sinners the truth of the gospel with the view of converting and saving them.

10:48 Now you catch that? I mean, I like this little part here. This part here, it says right here, with the view of converting and saving them. Let me put it in really really mild terms. We're going for the throat.

11:03 We're go... That's not mild terms. Mild terms would not be going... Anyway, that was supposed to be funny. Anyway, we're really going to lead people to Christ.

11:14 That's what we're doing. We want people to come to Christ. We're confronting them with the gospel. This is my friend Greg Steigelman in Brooklyn preaching the gospel recently. And then also, according to a professor of mine, now doctor Leonard Rascher, he says it this way, it says it's the activity of believers and telling the gospel to a sinner with the intent to lead him or her to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

11:40 It is dealing with this person on an individual one to one basis. This would be personal evangelism. Now I have to say when we look at a look at a message like... And this is University of Michigan last Wednesday and this fellow is our student. He's talking to a student from U of M about the gospel.

12:02 So it's a one to one type of a basis but whether it's in a mass type of situations or a children's meeting or if it's on a one to one basis, it's all personal. It really is. It's all personal. Even if it's on the radio. I talked to Don Cole one time who was a friend of mine.

12:19 He was a former radio pastor of the Moody Bible Institute and he's since gone to be with the Lord. And I think to myself when Don was telling me when he took it over from Robert Little, he said Bob... Bob Little gave me advice, Chris. And I said, What was that? He said, When I'm talking on the microphone in that studio, just act like you're talking to one person across the table.

12:43 And so whether it's in a mass evangelistic outreach, whether it's radio evangelism, whether it's gospel meetings like on the streets of New York or even the streets of Cleveland, we're still talking personally with people. And this is what we really want to do. So these are our definitions, but is the activity of believers in telling the gospel to a sinner with the intent to lead him or her to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's dealing with this person on an individual one to one basis. So what we want to do on this is we want to really go...

13:46 And and three other patriots murdered in Benghazi, Libya. That ambassador represented the president of The United States. That ambassador said exactly what the president of The United States wanted said. If he didn't do that, he would not be an ambassador. One of the things that the Bible teaches us clearly is that we are ambassadors for Christ and we represent Him.

14:16 We need to get the message clearly. We need to communicate clearly exactly what our king and our lord wants us to communicate. And we need to do it well. Maybe jot this down if you have a pen and you can jot this on your paper. You don't have a second chance to make a good first impression.

14:38 And when you talk to people about the Lord Jesus Christ, they are really reading you. And if they can't get past you, they're not going to listen to what you have to say. They're just not going to listen to what you have to say. So what you have to do is you have to make sure you... What you're doing in terms of your...

14:59 The way you carry yourself, the way you even look. I always think of that song when I go into the open air or or do one on one. I always try to have somebody look me over. You know, I always say, hey, look me over. I don't even know the rest of the words.

15:13 I just... Look me over. Do I got any weird things that are happening in my, you know, like do I have any eye stuff or, you know, do I have... Am I not seeing something? Do I have today's, you know, lunch on my teeth?

15:26 Hi, how are you? You know, the guy's going, I know what you ate. And do I have any of that? Because that will turn people off. I don't want to do that.

15:35 I don't want to be the the source of of rejection. I mean, they're gonna... If they reject the gospel, that's one thing. I don't want them to reject me, however. I don't want them to reject...

15:48 If they reject the gospel... But if they reject me, they'll never hear that they won't get the gospel. So this is the thing that I want to do. So number one, it is the activity. These are the essentials in our terms of our definition.

16:00 The activity of a believer is God's agents or ambassadors. And then number two, it is... It has to do with the telling or teaching of the gospel. See, a lot of times people think when people come, well, we're get an evangelist to come to Westlake, and we're gonna have them give the gospel out. I understand that.

16:20 I think that's really kind of... That's wonderful and everything else. But the Bible teaches clearly in Ephesians chapter four verse 11 and following that the evangelist is not to do the job. He is to train others in doing the job for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the saints. Right?

16:38 So the body of Christ can do the job. We are commanded to do the work of an evangelist, every one of us. So if I know Jesus is my own personal savior, I have been given by God a command to tell people about Christ. And so the evangelist's responsibility is to not only to give the gospel out, and they'll have a heart to want to do that, etcetera, but to teach others on how to do it and do it effectively. And that's what it is.

17:11 Some people say to me, well, Chris, I don't have the gift of evangelism, so this exempts me. Right? I say, no. I say, fake it. Act like you got it.

17:20 If you if you know you don't have the gift of evangelism, act like you got it. God will forgive you. You know, have tracks in your pocket, look around, you know, just, you know, what do would evangelists do? And then maybe emulate a little bit And look at them. But God wants to use you in this whole endeavor of communicating the gospel to people.

17:42 And do the work of an evangelist. That's a command, by the way. It's not optional. It's not like, well, if you feel good about it today, do the work of an evangelist. That's not in the Greek nor is it in the English.

17:53 It says, do the work of an evangelist. And so this is our task as we who know Jesus as our own personal savior. So it has to do with... And by the way, evangelist and those of us who are... Let's say you say, well, Chris, I have the gift of teaching.

18:08 You know, I really love to look deep into the word of God. I want to tell you something. Go on the street and take that take that to the street. You will be challenged like never before. You will be challenged with people asking you every question you can possibly think of.

18:25 So what you have to do is you find yourself as you are communing... Communicating one on one or in a large group or that kind of thing that you find yourself teaching the gospel rather than just preaching the gospel. It's interesting. In The United States today, I think The United States is the tough... One of the toughest places on the planet to give the gospel out.

18:51 We have just enough Christianity to inoculate us from the real thing. We have people who here, you know, if you take 10 people, you only get one person who might who might give you what the gospel... What the bible says about the gospel. But you're gonna have probably nine people tell you, oh, it's good going to church. It's being a nice person.

19:12 It's... On and on and on. All these different things. And so we have to understand them and then give them the gospel. This is very important for us to do.

19:25 And so that would preclude that we would understand the gospel ourselves and then be able to teach it. So it has to do with the telling or teaching of the gospel. By the way, there is no excuse for us not to know this. Those of us who have received Christ as our personal savior. There is no excuse for us not to know the gospel and not to know the the things of the word of God.

19:53 We've got so many translations, so many... So much software. I mean, books have been written on contradictions in the bible and how to answer, all these different things, apologetics, etcetera. We have all the resources we really need. We really do.

20:12 And the greatest resource we have is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will bring those resources that we have studied and bring them to our minds and show us how to communicate the gospels. And number three, it is also the idea... It it tells you or to whom the gospel is directed. And who would that be?

20:34 That'd be sinners, wouldn't it? There's not a shortage on these people. You know, it's not... They're not a shortage and I'm one, you know, I'm one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. That's it.

20:46 I'm a sinner. I just want to tell you how you can know for sure you can have your sins forgiven and have a home in heaven. You can know this. And then lastly, and some people have a hard time with this, the idea of of this this particular idea is with the intent or with the view of winning them to Christ. With the intent, with the view of winning them to Christ.

21:12 If we were to ask somebody to trust in anything And that is to say if I was a salesman. You know, it's interesting. My father was a salesman and he told me one time he sold life insurance, mutual funds, he sold all the whole gamut. Was a certified financial planner. And so what he told me was this regarding the insurance industry, life insurance.

21:35 He said, Chris, I make 100 cold calls. I have... And from the 100... This is this industry standard. The 100 cold calls, I make 10...

21:45 Get 10 appointments and I make one sale. That's if you're doing good. Right? Well, does that mean to you? I mean, I I don't look malnourished or anything, do I?

22:00 And I was skinny as a kid for sure, but we ate and I ate and my dad probably just thought maybe I could farm this kid out to somebody else because I ate so much and didn't get fat at all. I mean, it was like a... I must have had a worm or something. And I mean, just like, you know, incredible. But my dad made a living at this.

22:20 It's amazing. What better thing could we possibly communicate to people that would just have eternal benefits, but yet, we don't want to take the effort. Two times in my experience as an evangelist of thirty eight years, twice, did I have anybody ever come up to me and ask me how to get saved. And I remember them distinctly. One was that we ran a Christian coffee house called The Salt Company in Willoughby, Ohio.

22:57 Two girls came up to me and said, listen, you're a Christian. I go, yeah. Can you tell me how to get... Can tell us how to get saved? Came up to me and asked me.

23:09 Another time in Times Square in New York, a guy came up to me and said, listen, I I just... You're a Christian, right? We were preaching the gospel with a sketch board. I said, Yeah. And he says, Can you tell me how I can have my sins forgiven?

23:21 I said, Yeah. Twice in thirty eight years. Usually I got to pull out the three rope trick. Usually I got to put the sketch board up. Usually I got to break the ice with a, you know, a conversation starter.

23:34 I got to learn how to do this. I've got to work at this. And this is the greatest thing you could ever do. And there's a lot of there's a lot of things that will try to dis... Dissuade you from doing this.

24:11 Now I just want to say something. I... You know, can you imagine me coming up and I'm a seller of portfolios and I go, wow, this is... You know, how you doing today, man? It's good to...

24:21 Sir, I just... This is the greatest portfolio ever made. It has, you know, good stuff in it, and you can put a lot of junk in it, your wallet and everything else. That's fantastic. Zipper with a little pull on it.

24:33 This is fantastic. You can go like that. Hey, look. Hey, I'm taking a risk there. I know, sir.

24:38 But this is fantastic. You have a good day. What's my problem besides other things? What's my problem? Didn't ask him if he wanted it.

24:52 You gotta finish the sale and they call this in the secular terms they call closing the sale. Well it's a secular foolie on them but they do have a point Ask them if they want it. This is the greatest message we could ever tell anybody, and often times we just say, just give it and walk away. Ask them if they want it with the intent or with the view of leading them to Christ. That's what I want to do.

25:20 Would you like this? Yeah. You're not... I I remember one time at Willow Bible Chapel, a long time ago. They had this guy named Clay.

25:29 We called him Red. He had red hair. And he married an unsaved woman, Gloria. And they fell out of the assembly, you know, gone for years and years and years. His dad went to the assembly.

25:43 But it, you know, and and so they were... For years and years and years, Clay and Gloria never came because I think Clay, who grew up in that assembly, was embarrassed that he married an unsaved woman. And there's no way I'm going to bring her because it's a scourge on my name, etc, and the family's name. So he just stayed away. Somehow, years later, he decided to bring her.

26:04 And they started coming to the assembly. Now we're praying for Gloria. Oh, Lord, please bless Red. Let Gloria come to Christ. Lord, let...

26:11 Please let Red. Let Gloria come to Christ. Please... We're talking a few years praying like this. We'd have the functions and the outings and all this kind of stuff.

26:20 Oh, Lord, please bless Gloria that you might come to Christ and all this stuff. So we went over to stand in Carol Wallace's house one afternoon. And Gloria... They invited Gloria and and Rhett for lunch after chapel. And we're sitting there talking, and I said to Gloria, it just dawned on me, duh.

26:38 I said, Gloria, you've heard a lot about the gospel, haven't you? And she goes, Yeah. I said, Would you like to ask Jesus Christ to be your personal savior? Ask him to forgive you of your sins and have a home? She goes, Just like this.

26:52 Oh, yes. I said, Would you like to do it now? Please. She prayed and received Jesus Christ as her personal savior. She was waiting for somebody to ask her.

27:08 Not like she was, I'm gonna wait for somebody to ask me. No. She was just waiting. And nobody asked her. And then she finally trusted Christ as her personal savior.

27:20 It's with the intent, with the intent of the view of winning them to Christ. That's the four essentials that we have going in that... In our definition. And what evangelism is not? It is not the preaching of reformed.

27:36 Why not? What people need is not reformation, but regeneration. I've talked to a lot of alcoholics and drug addicts and I've talked to a few alcoholics and drug addicts who have stopped being alcoholics and drug addicts because they just said it was over. That's it. That's it.

27:55 I'm done. I'm done being an alcoholic. And the one guy, his family came to him, I think I shared this with you, his family came to him and said, listen, nine kids... Nine adult kids with families and children and everything. He said, dad, if you take another drop of alcohol, you'll never see us nor your grandchildren again.

28:13 Is that understood? And that was about thirty thirty three years ago. He didn't take one drop. He never went to the twelve step. He never did Al Anon.

28:23 He never went to AA. He never did any of that kind of stuff. He just stopped. But does that make him born again? No.

28:32 He needs to trust in Christ as his personal savior. So it's not reformation. He can... Anybody can reform their lives. It's not reformation but regeneration.

28:43 And it's not a discussion of Christianity as a way of life. Why not? Christianity is a way of life only for those who are born again regenerated Christians. Only for them. And it's also not a denouncing of sins.

28:59 Why not? There's no covering of sins. There's needs to be an atonement for sin. Anybody can denounce sin and not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I see this all the time.

29:11 I've talked to homosexuals who hate being homosexuals and have denounced it but they feel trapped in it. I've talked the same thing with with alcoholics. Oh, this is wicked. This is bad stuff. This is terrible.

29:26 But they're trapped in this and they can denounce it till the cows come home. And we're seeing this in the political realm. We're seeing the action of, you know, denouncing of this and denouncing of that, denouncing of sin. But that doesn't cover sins. You can denounce all the time if you want to.

29:45 But you need to need to give them and believe on the lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior who washes away sin. And that evangelism is not continued, is not the convincing of others about the truth of the gospel so they give intellectual assent. It's not that at all. Oh, it is. We we do look at this.

30:21 We we appeal to the intellect. You know, in in Acts, you have King Agrippa coming and listening to Paul the Apostle preach the gospel. He was masterful at preaching the gospel. And Paul addresses King Agrippa and says, do do you believe this King Agrippa? He says, I know.

30:40 Paul says, I know you believe these things. And he says, you almost make me a Christian. So it's just not intellectual assent. My intellectual assent doesn't give me eternal life. Is it possible for a person to know the gospel called, to understand the gospel, and to even think that it might be true and still reject it?

31:04 Absolutely. So we've got to make a... You've got to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior. We look at the aspect of the intellect. We've got to know it's got to make sense to people.

31:18 And then we want to move this will. And then the emotion. I know my little outline here. We've got it mixed up a little bit, but the thing about it is we want to have... We look and talk and it makes sense.

31:30 And then we want to move the will. It's a decision people make. It's an act of my will. I hope we understand that. That's what happened to you.

31:43 You said yes. You received Christ as your personal savior. I hope you did. And so this is exactly what it is. So it's it's just not to give intellectual sense.

31:54 I've got to tell you today though. There are people today that are teaching that all you have to do is believe that Jesus is real and he is the guaranteer of eternal life. And if you believe that statement, you're saved. True or not true? Not true.

32:14 I tell you why. Because who's Jesus? Is he Jesus who lives on the 3rd Floor above the store that we've been talking to? I mean, is that is that who... Is it Jesus?

32:25 Jesus? Who's Jesus? So we've got to know that he is God in the flesh. Did he die, you know, and we've got to know the mechanics of the gospel. We've got to know exactly what we are asking them to believe in.

32:38 What actually God is asking them to believe in. And this is one of the things. It's just so it's not intellectual assent. And it's not a creation of an emotional impression. Why?

32:50 People aren't saved by strictly making a decision, but by placing their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this combats decisional regeneration of the, you know, the gospel must be preached clearly. I don't get somebody saved if I can... In fact, one guy said... One one preacher said in the Midwest said, you gotta do is get them down the aisle.

33:13 Get them down the aisle and that's it. Means they're born again. Right or wrong? See, what happens with this one is now evangelists and evangelism gets a bad name. Believe anything you wanna believe.

33:27 Not true. What is the gospel? What are they having to trust in, rely upon, adhere to? What do they have to do? And this is the thing that we're gonna discuss that little...

33:40 In a fuller way next time we're together, Lord willing. So when we talk about this issue, and then we're talking about what is... Now we're gonna go into what is personal evangelism. We're gonna go with Len Raschers. Doctor Raschers from...

33:57 He's from the Moody Bible Institute. Said this very thing. It is the activity of believers, every believer in telling the gospel to a sinner with the intent to lead him or her to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is dealing with this person on an individual one to one basis. That's what personal evangelism is.

34:18 And this is important for us to understand. See, when doctor Rascher wrote this, I I remember as a student at Moody Bible Institute, I had a number of individuals I could take the course. Every student at Moody Bible Institute, when they get in, go go there, has to take personal evangelism. I came in as a 25 year old student. I wanted to know...

34:38 I'm a full time Christian worker already at that time. And I wanted to know who was not only teaching it, but who was doing it. I have to tell you about Len Rascher. Len Rascher was a portly guy. He's a small portly guy.

34:54 In fact, he did the greatest imitation when they allowed guys to wear beards at Moody Bible Institute. He looked just like D. L. Moody. So he was kind of a portly guy and he loved the native Americans and he's on a reservation in this very moment teaching the gospel to native Americans in Oklahoma after his retirement from Moody Bible Institute.

35:15 I remember him walking through the hall one day. And he was walking down the hall and he's got this black fellow with him in a green leisure suit with chains of gold around his neck. The guy... I don't know how the guy was standing up. And then rings on every finger, and when he smiled, he had a grill.

35:35 I mean, we're talking gold grill. How you doing, man? Good thing I was wearing shades. This guy comes walking up, he's a little taller than Len Rascher, and he comes walking up and Len puts out his hand and he says, Hi Chris, how you doing? And he puts his hands in he looks really kind of frumpy.

35:50 You know? And I said, Hey Doctor. Rascher. He goes, I want you to meet my friend Willie. And Willie, I mean, aggressively puts his hand down and goes, How you doing, man?

36:02 You know? And I said, I'm doing well. He said, Willie, why don't you tell him what happened? He said, I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. I said, well, praise God for that, bro.

36:15 Willie was a pimp. Willie had a whole bunch of prostitutes underneath working for him. He was a pimp. Len Rascher went after him and led him to Christ. I want to learn it from Len Rascher.

36:34 I want to see who's doing it, not just give me the theory. I want to see who's actually doing it. Len Rascher says, it is the activity of believers, every believer in telling the gospel to a sinner with the intent of leading him or her to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is dealing with this person on an individual one to one basis. And so let's look at this.

37:13 I hope it does. But it's really planned because I'm ready to go at all times. Got the gospel literature in my pocket. Got the three ropes ready to go, if you know the three rope trick. I'm ready to go at any moment, so it is really planned.

37:26 But unplanned in the sense that I'm not going out from seven to 09:30 and doing evangelism. You know? That would be a planned approach. But I'm running all the time. Aldridge...

37:40 Doctor Aldridge wrote a book one time. He taught at Moody... Mount Noma School of Bible. I don't know what they call it today. But that was up in the Northwest Part of The United States.

37:49 And he wrote a book called Lifestyle Evangelism. Now I started reading that book and I'm not really a a real good book dude. But the thing that I looked at this is and I thought to myself, isn't that the way it really is all the time? Evangelism is not an action, it is a lifestyle. It's my whole life.

38:09 I am ready at the drop of a hat. I'm always, if they want to put it this way, always on. I'm always looking. I'm always... I want to do that.

38:19 It's a lifestyle. It's not just I'm gonna go and practice and then come back and then I'm done for the for the month or the two months or whatever. It's always on. The planned, the unplanned as the occasion arises, and the planned. A systematic approach.

38:35 And I'm thinking to myself, you guys here at Westlake couldn't be in a better position. You just can't be in a better position than this neighborhood. You can't be in a better position. People over here, behind and over here, down the road, and then you've got them all over the... I mean, it's target rich environment.

38:57 Okay. What do we do? I was down in an assembly down in in Hollywood, Florida. And Boulevard Bible Chapel. They have on their wall, in the back, they have a big map of...

39:10 And pins of all the places in the streets they've been to. And the second time around. And they've been going... They go out all the time and do that. They they rent a soccer stadium and then they have soccer.

39:24 And then at the halftime, they have three different levels of soccer. They rent this beautiful stadium. At great cost, they rent the thing, divide the the field up into three sections, and then they have all these Cubans and all these guys come. And then they come at halftime and have it in Spanish and in English preaching the gospel and those guys want to be there because they're not finished playing the game yet. Lies as serpents and harmless as doves.

39:48 Right in the middle of that, they come and listen to the gospel. Many people have come to Christ. And it is fantastic. So that's a planned approach, a systematic approach. And then you have aspects of it.

40:00 The aspects of our personal evangelism is witnessing for Christ and we have two methods... Two things... Two methods on this. Our lips and our lives. I was reading a book on personal evangelism recently.

40:15 And the book said we have styles of evangelism and I I can understand what they're saying. But one style was the non verbal style. I was a... I was an eight... 17 year old high school student not saved.

40:34 And my English teacher... I read her actions. I said, This woman, I mean, I didn't even know. I wasn't born again. This woman must be a solid, fantastic Christian.

40:49 This is what I thought. Because of her ethics. The way she carried herself. Fantastic. I thought, this is great.

40:59 And I went up and talked to her about it, the way she lived and all that. Come to find out that she was an atheist. You can't have a silent witness, folks. You can let your life be a witness, but you must speak it. You must speak it with our lives and our lips.

41:20 Talk it up. What's on your heart? That which you will speak about what's on your heart. If it's NASCAR, if it's the Browns, if it's the Indians or or whatever, you're going to you're going to talk about what it is. I've, you know, I've left this place and gone down to the Cleveland Browns Stadium because my friend used to have season tickets to the Cleveland Browns.

41:44 And he said, I'll meet you there. And he gave me the ticket and I'd go there and I'd walk out after preaching, you know, it'd be like 01:00 and the place outside the sidewalk would be thundering all the time. And I walk in and I see guys with footballs on their heads. And orange paint and brown paint and I'm going, this is this crazy. And some of those guys were accountants and doctors.

42:13 And I'm thinking to my... They got the rubber mask and the dog... You know, dog pound and all this kind of stuff. For a football game. And they call me a Jesus freak?

42:25 Are you kidding me? I love when somebody says, you're a Jesus freak. I said, wait a minute. Let's get something straight Jesus doesn't make freaks out of people. He makes people out of freaks.

42:40 And this is exactly what it is. And our God is a great God. So we we do it. And also by our love and our motives, our love and our loyalty. Who do you love?

42:52 And to whom are you loyal? And then also we have our winning people to Christ. So this definition carries the types and also aspects. What we also want to look at is... In this is the imperatives of it.

43:25 Talks about the imperatives of it. We are we are... Do you think... Let me ask you a question. Do you think that God really wants you to tell others about him?

43:38 Yes. Yes. My son called me last night and Kelly is on there doing the speakerphone thing. Hey, dad. Got some news for you.

43:49 I said, What's that, JC? He said, The Cardinals lost yesterday. I said, So? Now I knew what he was... He was leading up.

44:02 He was trying to be funny. He was trying to be funny about the whole thing. You know, this kid is romantic. JC is very romantic. So you guys who are romantic guys, type of guys, start taking notes because JC did this job.

44:16 It's Kelly's birthday yesterday. He takes her to the takes her, you know, to Bob Evans for a brunch type of thing, and then he takes her to a bookstore. They like to go book booking, storing thingy. And they like to do that. And then he takes her he takes her to Stoney Creek, and they walk...

44:34 They have like a path that's a mile long, and you can walk this little path, and it's very tree ish and very... You know, the colors are turning. And then they sit on the bench, and then what does he do? He kneels down, takes out the ring, and says, Kelly Marie Kneble, something to this, if that was her name, would you marry me? And what does Kelly do?

44:56 She starts crying. It's just so sweet and sappy. No, it's very sweet, very wonderful. We're asking people to be engaged and trust in the greatest lover of men's souls. Would you trust in Jesus?

45:23 Would you believe on him? And you get different reactions. Some people will cry, but Christ commands it. Love and duty demands it. Evangelism is neither optional nor obligatory.

45:39 It is inevitable. We will give out what is on our hearts. We will talk about what is really most important to us. And it is the most important thing ever to give the gospel out and to minister the gospel to people. And that is the most important thing for us to do, I think.

46:01 What could be more important than that? I I like to know. What could be more important than that? So let's talk about the importance. It's important because all men are lost and need to be saved.

46:13 And we must be convinced of that. You and I must be convinced. Somebody asked one time... They were asking T. Grady Wilson, who is the best friends with Billy Graham.

46:24 They both got saved together behind the... Under the preaching of Mordecai Ham. And they tried to hide behind the lady's hat. And only two got saved that night and it was Billy Graham and T Grady Wilson. Isn't that amazing?

46:40 And they asked they asked... Years later, after Billy Graham, one of the most revered evangelists in the world, they asked him, What was the secret to Billy Graham? What was the secret of Billy Graham? I mean, why is he so... What is the secret?

46:55 He gave these two things. He said, Billy Graham's quiet time. And he actually believes what he's preaching. Isn't that amazing? It's not very hard.

47:10 Very simple. Very simple indeed. Very simple indeed. They actually believe it. So we must be convinced that people need a savior, that they're lost and must be saved.

47:22 We must be convinced of that. And also because God has entrusted to us the responsibility of evangelizing the lost. There is no higher honor than that. And someone once said, I will not stoop to be a king and give up soul winning. Being a king is too small.

47:41 The job is too small. This is the greatest privilege. What could you do that would be any greater than lead another person to heaven that they will spend eternity in heaven forever and ever and ever? That's what eternity means. Right?

47:58 What could you give them that would be better than that? Also, because of the example of Christ. He was a personal evangelist. We can see that in John three. We can see that in John four.

48:11 There's so much to talk about. And also because of the joy and wisdom of witnessing. You know, sometimes we say, well, I'm not too good at it. Well, doing it. You'll get better.

48:22 You'll learn from your mistakes. You'll get better at this. No questions about it. You'll really start to enjoy it too. Little techniques and all this kind of stuff, but the techniques don't save anybody.

48:32 It's giving the gospel and then interacting with that gospel and then believing on the lord Jesus Christ that gets them saved. The importance of personal evangelism, there are advantages for this. And one of the first advantages, all can do it. So if you're sitting here going, Ah, that's just for Chris. No, that's just for the person with the, you know, the strong personality.

49:14 Can be done almost anywhere at any time. Now we're gonna talk about this next time. We're gonna talk about how to lead a person to Christ. You know, and if you're a scrub nurse in a a Cleveland Clinic in the surgical wards, you know, and the person's about to go into surgery, you don't want to say to them, Hi, how are you? And the guy's got the mask and the tubes and everything.

49:34 And they're, you know, they're about to go under and you go, Hi. I just want to ask you a question. If you were to die tonight, where would you go? Wrong timing. Wrong...

49:51 But if God leads you to do that, then do it. I mean, you know, it can be done almost anywhere. Reaches all classes of people. There's no respecter of persons. I am not a guy and neither should you be a guy or a gal that says, I only talk to the up and uppers or the down and outers.

50:10 I talk to anybody that's breathing. We have the Ezekiel Project Incorporated. Right? We should probably change the name. Anybody that's breathing ministries.

50:22 Because that's who we want to reach. They breathing, we're after them. Okey doke. And that's when it's... You know, God is no respecter of persons.

50:30 And it focuses on the individual in terms of importance of personal evangelism. And then also, it produces results. No lows to the loafer. I just don't understand, Mildred. Well, okay, Tom.

50:45 I just don't understand why more people aren't coming to Christ. Why is that? Well, maybe we're not telling people about Christ. Doesn't that make... Kind of make sense?

50:59 It kind of like makes sense. I think that makes sense. If we... The more we talk about it... You know what I love about Urban Meyer?

51:06 Head coach of the Ohio State... Did you see that game last night? Unbelievable. You know what his philosophy is? I don't want to have a huddle because if I have a huddle, that cuts down on the number of plays we run.

51:18 And if I do more plays, there's more chances of scoring. I'm thinking, that's brilliant. He's brilliant. The more people I talk to, the more people might come to Christ. The less people I talk to, the less people will come to Christ.

51:37 Doesn't that make sense? It just seems... I'm a simple guy, but it seems like it makes sense to me. It really does. Cost of it, soul winning?

51:51 It takes time. And by the way, we need to make time. We make time for a lot of things, don't we? How about this one? Also the idea, it takes work.

52:05 We need to fish for men as an occupation, not a sport. We're fishers of men. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. It takes prayer. Prayer for God's leading to the right people.

52:20 Anybody that's fair game? For the for the right words, not the might words. That would be good but the computer blew it. The courage to do this as well. We need prayer for souls.

52:31 We need to pray for souls individually. So who's you got a prayer list for people who need to come to Christ? How about neighbors? How about loved ones? And pray for them.

52:42 Pray for your neighbors. It's amazing how God will all of a sudden open up doors for you. It's just amazing how these things will go, wow, that's amazing. Chris was right. And then also the whole idea of some rewards on this one, developed character.

53:00 You get better at this. This is Times Square this summer. Reward of developed gifts and or talents. You will not believe. So, I have a friend of mine who was in a championship marching band.

53:11 He played the trumpet in a championship marching band on the San Diego. That's what he did. It's just amazing. Right? So what does he do?

53:24 He takes his trumpet. We go in the open air. I got the board he plays. When the saints come marching in with a little bit of jazz, you should have seen the crowd we got. Boom.

53:34 A talent, a musical talent. A good one. He did a good job. Couldn't sing worth a lick but he could play that piano or that piano that... How come they don't have marching band with pianos?

53:46 I don't know. Okay. So then unexcelled joy. There is nothing better. You lead somebody to Christ, you wanna go...

53:54 Well, you don't wanna go crazy. You just rejoice. You rejoice. I I had this one lady and I... She was just so excited.

54:00 We were in Hollyweird Boulevard in Los Angeles. And her and I led this guy to Christ. And and I... She went... She was like, I mean, it was ear piercing.

54:11 Her name was Janie. She... I'm thinking, oh my word. This could, you know, Memorex, forget it. Shatter your eardrums.

54:19 Contacts are gone. She was just so excited. I said, what's so exciting? She said, Chris, I was raised a Christian. I got saved at the age of five.

54:27 I went to Christian school, high school. I graduated and went to a Christian college. I got a master's from a Christian university in Spanish and in English. I got... And I can teach English and I'm bilingual and all this kind of stuff and I've got it all down.

54:39 I've got all this down. This is the first person I've ever led to Christ. And she was in her mid thirties at the time. She was so excited. Well, it's so great to know the joy a little earlier than thirties.

54:55 You can do this. And also the reward of lasting friendships. And then also reward of bestowed approval by our Lord who says, well done. This is it. This is what we want to do, the rewards of soul winning.

55:14 And so when I when I think about this and I think, wow, praise God, we have been saved. We want to pass it on. You remember that old song in the seventies? It only takes a spark to get a fire going. Right?

55:29 Remember that? And soon all those around will warm up to its glowing. That's how it is with God's love. Once we experience it the sing it's fresh like spring we want to acid on Amen. Amen.

56:22 What a wonderful thing that is forever. Help us today, we pray, this very moment in doing this. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.