Practical Insights on Evangelism — Proverbs 11

0:03 Good morning. It is so good to be here today. I appreciate the opportunity, really do. I was, I have a, I guess a questionstatement that I'd like to put up here to have you consider, if you would. And that's this, it's a quote.

0:42 What could be more important than leading a lost soul bound for hell to the only one who can save them? Just like to ask you that question. What could be more important than that? A friend of mine didn't put it in these words, he put it in a little bit similar but different. What could be more important than this, than to introduce somebody to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?

1:13 The elders have asked me last month, this month, and then also in December to talk on this issue of evangelism. And this is what we're gonna do and you're getting notes in your hand. Last last time we talked about what is personal evangelism. We talked about what is personal evangelism. We talked about the the reasoning or the rationale for evangelism.

1:40 Today, we're gonna get into the nitty gritty. And that's if you're like say nitty gritty, what in the world's that? The how to's to do evangelism. But hopefully we're going to have a passion for it because look at, I want to tell you right now, this is worthless for us to know any kind of techniques, to talk about anything of how to do it if we don't have a heart for it. If we don't have a heart for the lost, what is the point of knowing how to do it?

2:17 I mean, really, what is the point? I think of all, you know, I'm I just turned I turned 60 in July. And it's just amazing to me how fast time is going. How fast time is going and how things change. Things change.

2:34 The only constant that you can count on is that things will change. And accept the Lord Jesus, He's the same yesterday, today and forever for sure. But I want to ask you a question. I really do. And all the things that we could discuss today, all the things that we could have in our minds and in our hearts, You know, the Browns play the Steelers today.

2:56 The Cleveland Indians got one of the best managers in baseball, Terry Francona. I mean, isn't this fantastic? The NHL is on strike. It's a lockout. I mean, I'm thinking to myself, the Ohio State Buckeyes went 12 and oh.

3:11 They won their game yesterday. And it's just incredible. I mean, why isn't that fantastic? Is that what life is all about? And I think of that old song and it's definitely old.

3:21 And it was sung, I don't know who sang it, but it was a popular song. What's it all about? Alfie, is it love or memories we live? What's it all about if we sort it out, Alfie? And I ask myself the question, I don't think that's in the black book, number one.

3:43 Number two, I don't even think it's in the red book, but it's a good question. What is it all about? And those people, and as one person put it, you know, we just look out here, we look at these people, we don't see them because they're in their houses or they're driving or just go to the mall. Just go to the mall today and you'll see lots of people, but they live their lives in quiet desperation. Have you ever experienced, and maybe you have, despair?

4:20 Have you ever had despair? Have you ever come to a point in your life where you just say, where do I turn? Where do I go? How do I live? That's the world.

4:37 They don't come across that way. They come across as having it all together. Everything's fantastic. Everything's hunky dory. But that's not reality in their hearts.

4:49 And so what could be more important for us? What could be more important than leading a soul bound for hell to the only one who can save them from their sin. The only one who can save them. So what we're going to discuss today is this thing called evangelistic counseling or how to lead an adult to Christ. Last week or last month, we talked a little bit about how the rationale behind it, you know, and we did talk about that.

5:23 But I would like to talk about some of the nuts and bolts and we're gonna go kind of quickly today on this because of the time factor. But we're gonna look at today, our thing is we're gonna look at the biblical mandate for it, preparation for winning souls, approaching individuals, what to teach, a lot here folks, leading to the point of decision, post decision, and then also some practical suggestions. And we're gonna do it all in fast fashion. We're gonna do it all. So I've given you notes.

5:56 I've given you notes. Everything that you're going to be we're going to look up here is in your notes. So you don't have to really necessarily look at the notes to get it, except we're going to look at a couple of items on the notes. And that will be at the bottom of the page, etcetera. So we're gonna look at that, but I'd like us to look at the biblical mandate.

6:42 How many verses can you see from the Bible on the great commission? Well, Matthew 2eight eighteen-twenty, right? Absolutely. Mark sixteen fifteen, the Great Commission. So that's alright.

6:54 I went down one side of the page, lined pages, and flipped it over and went down the other side. So many verses in the Bible that talks to us and motivates, tries to motivate the Christian in terms of going into all the world and preaching the gospel. We think of the world, we think of this going into all the world. We think of Africa, we think of Asia and we sang that song last month, You know, be a missionary every day. Tell the world that Jesus is the way.

7:26 I love that song, be it in the town or country or a busy avenue, Africa or Asia or Westlake, Ohio too. So, right? We're missionaries. We've got the best news on the planet and in the universe. How can we be silent?

7:46 How can we be silent? Biblical mandate on this. First of all, we're looking at Proverbs eleven thirty and there's so much we could talk about it. The fruit of the righteous is the tree of life and he that winneth souls is what? It's not hard.

8:02 It's wise. He that winneth souls is wise. People will come to you when you do evangelism and they might not like your style. They might say to you, oh, forget, you're a horrible way of doing it. And my retort to that is, okay, that's true.

8:21 I don't like the way I'm doing it either. How do you do it? How's it going with you? Somebody asked that to D. L.

8:29 Moody one time. Mr. Moody, your evangelism is really not there. That's great. Oh yeah, okay, I could learn more, but how are you doing it?

8:39 Tell me how to do it. And how's it going? And then Psalm 126. So for us, he that winneth souls is what? Wise.

8:51 It's wisdom of God. God considers it wise for us to lead people to Christ. It's wise. Psalm one twenty six, this really gives us our disposition. He that going forth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

9:11 A lot of times, the reason why we don't see people getting saved in an assembly situation is because we're not talking it up. We're not telling somebody. I'll never forget one long, long time ago in the old Our Daily Breads written by Doctor. Dihan, he had on the bottom one of those little quotes, you know, no loaves to the loafer. And the reason why we don't see a lot of fruit is because we're not picking.

9:41 The reason why, and we're not sowing the seed, we're not doing that. And so, you know, bringing his sheaves with him. And this is our disposition, going forth weeping. You know, we have to get... And one of the things that I pray for myself and I pray for anybody that, you know, for all of us Christians, this is what I pray for, is that we look at the plight of the lost and we never get over it.

10:09 We look at these people as God sees them and never get over it. It ought to break our hearts what's going on in this world today and just not get over it. We salve that because we say, I can't take the pain. I can't take the pain. How do you think God feels about it?

10:30 Man of sorrows, what a name, right? We've got this savior who is a man of sorrows. Why? He died on the cross to save us from that awful place called hell. He died to do that.

10:46 In our hearts, we want to be like Him. We want to have godliness in our lives. I'm... I am impressed. I am thoroughly impressed if somebody comes to me and says, well, there's a godly brother or there's a godly sister and yet they don't care about the lost.

11:06 I ask myself the question this, are they really godly or are they just putting some kind of front on to make them look like they're godly? Because the heart of God, He loves the lost. He loves lost souls. He does. Absolutely.

11:22 He does. Now I'm not... Folks, please understand, everybody, every one of us got different personalities. Every one of us have, you know, the way we approach things, you know, we have temperaments and all that kind of stuff. Forget all that for a moment.

11:38 Let God develop your temperament. Let God develop your heart. Let God develop the way you are. But by all means, have His passion for this world in terms of reaching them. What could be more important than that?

11:56 And so we go forth weeping, bearing precious seed. And so, then also John fourteen twenty six, we say to ourselves, I can't do this, but God will teach us. Now by strict interpretation, fourteen twenty six is talking, the Lord Jesus is talking to his disciples. For sure talking to His disciples and saying, I'm gonna give you the, you know, the authority to write the canon of the New Testament, fourteen twenty six as well as John sixteen thirteen. But notice what this is saying, but the comforter who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.

12:32 Now, strict interpretation tells us that's the teaching section of the New Testament and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. That's the first five books of the New Testament. And then John sixteen thirteen talks about the book of the third part, the book of Revelation. But by way of application, what God is telling us by way of application is He's going to teach us and He's going to bring to our minds and help us to be effective communicators of His truth. He will do that.

13:07 The spirit of God is going to do that. And then also Philippians four thirteen, you know this one, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I think about this particular thing. I think about, you know, I can do all things through Christ. Now I had a guy one time, I just can't believe he actually said this to me in a in a setting like this.

13:27 He said, well, what if I was blind? Could I fly a plane? You know, this guy was an elder of an assembly. I'm thinking to myself, what's wrong with you? If God has commanded us to do something, he's gonna give us all the wherewithal to do and obey that command.

13:48 That's what this is talking about. So I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Has He commanded us to go into all the world? The answer is absolutely. Absolutely.

14:02 Once would have been enough, right? Matthew 2eight 18 through 20. How about Mark sixteen fifteen? I mean, we can go on and on about the commands for us, do the work of an evangelist, do all these things. Well, God will give us the strength.

14:31 Be a worthy example. If there was any book that we really wanted to get to know, it wouldn't be calculus and it wouldn't be history or Edward Gibbon's, you know, mammoth work on the rise and decline of the Roman Empire or anything else. It's this book. Know it. See, they think that we've committed intellectual suicide.

14:58 They have. They think we've committed intellectual suicide by being a Christian. But the exact opposite is the truth. They've committed intellectual suicide if they're not Christians. Christianity is the only thing that makes sense.

15:18 It's the only thing that is... I mean, is... It's wedded with history. It's verifiable. It's incredible what we have.

15:25 And by the way, we have so much material on how to defend the faith. It's unbelievable. I got this iPad. I'm using an iPad. Isn't that amazing?

15:35 I got more books on my iPad than I got in my library. I can call up any, you know, boom, book after book. I got Lagos. 650 volumes approximately, I got the cheaper model on Lagos. You know, I'm thinking to myself, this is unbelievable.

15:53 We've got so much and yet we don't tap it. Know the faith yourself. Walk with Christ. Be a worthy example. Be a man or a woman of prayer, have a burden for souls.

16:07 Be a man or woman of prayer, have a burden for souls. Luis Palau, they call him the Billy Graham of South America. Had the pleasure of meeting Louise Palau one time and you know, it's just amazing to me. He said this about having a passion for Christ, a passion for leading. He says, you cannot do that unless you pray.

16:30 You must pray. Get a list of people that you pray for. Check them off when they come to Christ, you know. Check them off. Pray for them on a regular basis.

16:44 Pray for people on this. Be a man or woman of prayer. Have a burden for souls. And then know the Word of God, have a working knowledge of it, very similar to the first one. But really know it cold, have it down, get to know it more.

16:59 And then the more you know, the more you'll realize that you don't know. Isn't that amazing? The more you know, they realize, boy, I just really, wow, I just wish I could know more. And so you study and then learn a plan of salvation. I believe in a canned approach, personally.

17:18 What I mean by that is this, the problem with us and most Christians is this, I don't know what to say. You ever feel that way? You sit there, you're in a bus. Okay. Let's just say you're going to CTA or no, rapid transit, rapid transit.

17:35 You're on the RTA. You're on the RTA. It's different cities, you know. Anyway, you're on the RTA and you're sitting there and you're going, I got a witness. I got a witness.

17:46 Hands start getting sweaty, mouth gets cottony, you know. And you can't... Then you go, what do I say? Well, if you have a canned approach, what I mean by that is if you know exactly what you're going to say, you already have it down pat, you know exactly what you're going to say, then you can variate it and you can let the spirit of God change it up. But if you don't have anything and what you need to, you know, what you want to say, then it's tough to change up what you don't know.

18:21 So my suggestion is this, have a canned approach. I really like the May I ask you a question booklet. I like that. Read that through. Have a few with you all the time.

18:32 And then just look at those, look at that, maybe memorize the opening of it and have a, you know, have it down and be ready to go. Then you can change it up. Have a canned approach. It's really, actually it's quite fun. It's a lot of fun if you really think about it.

18:50 Approaching individuals. When we approach individuals, introduce yourself. It's a good idea. That's supposed to be funny. You know, how you doing?

19:02 Don't don't look, you know, like you're... Something's weird with you. Introduce yourself. How are you? How's it going?

19:08 My name is Chris. Good to see you. And one of the things that's really interesting to me in introducing yourself is is... And it's fun. It's it's a lot of fun.

19:18 One time I was in a mall, lake... A Lake Side Mall in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and I went up to this guy and he had two bookends. I... I'm assuming they were his sons. This guy was pretty big.

19:28 These guys were massive, you know? And what I do is I look at... I look somebody over, You know? You ever hear that song, hey, look me over. Right?

19:39 How many have ever heard that song? You're not responding. Okay. Okay. Okay.

19:43 It's an old song. It's an old song. Hey, look me over. It's really old. But what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna look somebody over.

19:49 I'm gonna look over... Look him over and I'm gonna go, okay, look at his shoes. I'm gonna look at his belt. I'm gonna look I'm gonna look at him over as fast and as fast as possible. Right?

19:58 So I looked this guy over and I said, hey, how you doing, Mike? He said, hey, how are you doing? This is in the mall. You know, I'm there to witness, you know. He said, how are you doing?

20:12 I said, I'm doing good. I shake his hand. He offers his hand. I shake his hand And he goes, woah, how about these guys? How about these?

20:20 Now there's a point where you cross a line in which the guy is gonna look really stupid if you have no idea who he is and you tell him that. And I have no idea who this guy is. The reason why I know his name is Mike is because he had it on embroidered on his jacket. You know? And so you gotta just, you know, and he goes, I said, hey, Mike, I took a chance.

20:45 I could have been his brother's jacket, you know? No, I'm Frank. You know? But he said, I am I'm, you know, he acted like I knew him. How do you like them?

20:53 Remember when they were this? And they were... How big they are? Going, uh-huh. And I said, I can't say it.

20:59 I go, well, good to see you, Mike. And here's for you guys. I gave him out the literature. I'll see you later. God bless you, man.

21:07 Okay, guys, let's go, you know. And it was just wow. But you want to look somebody over. You want to be as personal. Introduce yourself to him.

21:15 Introduce yourself. And then be neat and conservative in your dress. You remember this, and we wrote this down last time, but you don't have a second chance to make a good first impression. By the way, by the way, they say that the clothes make a person. Well, certainly is true when you're approaching somebody else.

21:41 It certainly is true. If they can't get past you, they're not gonna listen to your message. They're just not gonna listen to your message. So be neat and conservative in your dress. You know, especially if you're going on an exercise to go and tell somebody about Christ.

21:58 But I have my rights. I can do whatever I want. I can dress the way I want. Well, let me tell you something. Yeah, you got your rights as a Christian, for sure.

22:08 You can dress whatever, but if they can't get past you, it's over. You don't have a second chance to make a good first impression. It's not about me. It's about them. It's about them.

22:23 I remember when we used, when Scott brought a whole bunch of youth from this assembly, and it was really cool because some of them, it was just really precious. I got to tell you this story. One guy had, did I tell you this already, white hair? I told you this story? White hair, shot...

22:43 And he had shocks of blue in it. It was Will Henning and his brother Bruce had dark hair with the, you know, he he dyed it, you know. And I'm standing there and these guys got the plumber pants going. You know, they got they can see their underwear. You know, I always call them plumber pants because they just I just want to go, you know.

23:04 I just I just have this propensity for that when I see the plumber pants. Not a good not a good thing. So I mean, they got... I mean, Will had a bob... Safety pin through the ear.

23:15 He had all this kind of stuff. He didn't even wear a belt. And I mean, it just... And it was from this assembly. Can you believe that?

23:23 So I take our take our guys, the guys helping me to teach, Kenny Barrett and and Danny Fredericks. And when I'm standing, I said, Danny, Kenny, come here. And I'm standing there. And these guys are in the... Over in the side.

23:35 They're playing guitars. I don't know. They're thinking they're the boss or somebody. I don't know what they're doing. They're just playing...

23:41 Trying to play guitar and do Christian songs and all that. It was great. And I said, what do you see? Now Kenny and Danny are like sociological geniuses. I mean, they can read the times.

23:52 I mean, they understand. Well, I see this and I see that and I see that and I see that. And I said, oh, yeah, that's good. And they kind of finished and I said, what else do you see? And they they just kept going.

24:02 I see this and I see that and I see this. And I said, well, that's great. I said, what else do you see? And they finished, you know, and they did it again. I said, what do you see?

24:12 And they looked at me in frustration and said, what do you see, Chris? I said, I see that they're here. And I praise God that they're here. And then I went and we talked in our class on open air evangelism. I said, you've got to get rid of the blue out of the out of the white hair.

24:32 You got to take the safety pin out. You gotta get... If you gotta get a cord, pull up your pants and tie it. You gotta do this because if they can't get past you, they will never listen to your message. You know what they did?

24:46 They did exactly that. They did exactly that. He die... He bleached his hair. I mean, was bleached.

24:53 And he bleached it. He came back. He actually combed it. It was like sticking on a Don King mode. But he moved it over a little bit and he actually did this.

25:01 And he was super effective on a platform in New York City where people were listening to him. That was Will, a tremendous communicator. And I just was thought, you know, so be neat and conservative in your dress. Have combed hair, clean hands and nails. Don't let your mannerisms detract from Christ.

25:20 Some of us got... You might have a, you know, weird mannerism, you know. You know? Or... How you doing?

25:30 Or, you know, like doing this or always going to the eye to clean your eye or something. Have somebody look you over, you know, and help... Have a good appearance. Stand comfortably and erect. Don't slouch or prowl like a tiger.

25:45 Stand up and talk to the individual if that's what you're doing. But don't prowl like a tiger. Hi. How are you doing today? Do you know Jesus?

25:53 You know? And that's... You need a you need a tick tick. And so I mean, that can kind of freak somebody out. So what you wanna do...

26:13 And then we're going to continue with this and start with a good opening sentence such as, If you were to die tonight, where would you go? But if you're a scrub nurse, don't ask that question. You know, before the surgery, if you were to die tonight, where would you go? You know, pull the mask off and get off the table. Don't ask how many legs does a cow have unless the Lord leads you.

26:35 You say, how many legs does a cow have? Yeah. You ever asked that? If God's using it, then do it, know. Excuse me, can I ask you a question?

26:44 Yes. How many legs does a cow have? Why four? Have you ever heard of the four spiritual laws? You know, and it just, you know, that's cheesy, I think.

26:58 But I've done cheesy. So I'm willing to go cheese on that for sure for the gospel. In approaching individuals, what we want to do is we want to be friendly. Okay? A lot of times when we do personal evangelism or we do mass evangelism, we're nervous.

27:19 You ever see somebody really nervous? They go, Hi. How's it going? You know, relax. Praise God they're doing it.

27:39 You know, pray... I praise God that they're actually attempting to do it. But be friendly. Person's gonna go, what's wrong with him or her? You know?

27:52 So in approaching individuals, be friendly. And then also, what you want to do is you want to be tactful. You want to be tactful. In being tactful, that's where you want to look somebody over. I'll never forget the time, I don't know if I shared this with you, but I'll never forget the time I'm in Paramus, New Jersey in a park.

28:20 Did I share this with you? I'm about to anyway. If I didn't, forgive me. I'm in Paramus, New Jersey and I have a whole bunch of Word of Life Bible Institute students. We're teaching them evangelism.

28:31 So we thought we'd do personal evangelism in Paramus, New Jersey. So I go up to the guy and I say to him, and I did not look him over. I went up to him and I said, hi, how you doing? He goes, good. How are you?

28:47 I said, good. I said, can I ask you a question? He goes, yeah. I said, if you were to die tonight, where would you go? I don't wanna talk about this.

28:56 Can't you see this? Just like that in this place of the professional Schroeder trying to teach these world lifers how to be smooth and how to be, you know, all that kind of stuff. And this guy is screaming at me. Can't you see this? And he had magic marker on his face like this.

29:18 What would indicate? What would that indicate? Radiation. Radiation. He said they've given me six months to live.

29:26 I don't want to talk about it. And he stormed off. Now I am standing there going, my socks just went up and down. And I'm just going, oh my. And the grass couldn't grow faster.

29:41 I wanted the grass to go up around me and all to hide me. That's exactly how I felt. I felt stupid. I felt like I really blew it. I felt all that kind of stuff.

29:51 And I'm standing there going, I'm trying to actually breathe. And this guy is now, he's booking it. He's so angry at me. It's unbelievable. And I'm standing there and everybody in the park, it wasn't that big of a park, were looking at me and I'm going, Oh, try to recover.

30:10 Okay. So then I started and he's way down now and it's taken me a while. I ran after him. And before I got to the back of him, I stopped and started to walk to control my breathing. So I wouldn't like get sick to my stomach.

30:26 I mean, seriously. And I'm going, so I come up to him and I tapped him on the arm and he looked at me and I said, I just want to, I want you to know something. I said, I'm so sorry. I'm a moron. I'm an idiot.

30:42 I am crude and rude. I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I am sorry about your situation. All I wanted you to do was to take this piece of literature and just read it.

30:54 Would you do that? And now he had time to calm down and he said, okay, I'll do that. And he took it and I just that was it. Be tactful. Be tactful.

31:07 If the person's got a wart on the end of their nose with three hairs growing out of it, don't look at that wart and stare at it and go, wow, you've got three hairs growing out of yours, my grandmother has eight. You know. I mean, don't don't do that. I mean, be tactful. Be very tactful.

31:27 Also, be personable. Personable. I don't know how to spell it. I think that's right. Be personable in the sense that get their name, use it occasionally, actually have a conversation with another human being.

31:42 It's another person. You can actually do that. They'll like that. I've even the big and burly. Do you ever see the big and burly guys that look like they're Hell's Angels guys?

31:52 I've talked to them. And my group, my thing is, especially in the summertime, they got these massive tattoos on them. And I go, I'm like really weird. I'll go up to him and say, oh, that had to hurt. That wasn't that bad.

32:07 Wasn't that bad. One guy did this to me. It wasn't that bad, but it was really bad under here. And he goes like this. And he had swear word right there.

32:19 And it said, f you, right tattooed right on his armpit. He goes, He's laughing at me. And I said, that had to hurt. Forget that. Forget he's trying to he's trying to rattle my cage.

32:35 But now I can talk to him. Now I've got I'm bridging, I'm talking. Be personable. Sometimes when people look the scariest, they want to be talked to. Seriously.

32:50 They look scary, they go, man, I would never go there near that person. Don't worry about it. Don't look on their countenance, that's for sure. And then also, what you want to do is learn the person's name and use it. This is a problem I have, but you learn the person's name and use it.

33:11 Learn it, get it down, do a word association, whatever it takes for you to get that down. But use it. People like to hear their name. They like to... Then when you say, okay, Cindy, it's really a pleasure to meet you.

33:25 I really... And then use it. Your name again, okay, Cindy. Cindy, it's wonderful to see you. And they like that.

33:32 They really do. So be personable, learn the person's name and use it. It's really nice. Now you say, well, they do this in sales and this has got to be very carnal. No, they borrowed it from us.

33:46 The sales guys borrowed it. We're being personable. We're being from one human being to another human being. That's what it is and that's what we want to do. And we'll have a successful time, I think, in terms of talking to people.

34:25 It will accomplish the work in which it was sent out. This is God's word. Use it rightly. Understand it's the word of God. It's the Word of God.

34:35 Give it to him. I had a friend of mine that it was just really amazing to me told me this story. He said, Chris, I was in my... I was at work downtown Cleveland and I got in an elevator and the guy was in the elevator and I broke, opened up the conversation with him. I just, I just said, this is all I said to him.

34:53 He said, I said to him, Jesus loves you. The guy, the guy right in the middle of the conversation, you know, was, oh, didn't say another word until the thing hit them open and opened up and he walked out and the guy just bolted right out of the elevator. Jesus stopped conversation. He didn't say turn or burn, fly or fry, meet your maker or your baker. All he said was that Jesus loves you.

35:23 You know, Jesus loves you. And the guy just took off. Right? Two weeks later, he gets at his office and he opens the door and it's the same guy. He said, you're not gonna believe what happened.

35:40 And my buddy said, what? What happened? He said, you remember that time in the elevator? He goes, yeah, of course. He said, you told me that Jesus loved me.

35:48 He said, I went home that night. He said, I just, man, I went to bed. I couldn't get it out of my head. All I'm hearing is Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me.

35:57 Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. He said, it was driving me crazy. I couldn't sleep. He said, I got up on Detroit Avenue.

36:04 He was living on Detroit Avenue. He said, I got up and I started walking in the, you know, at night and I'm looking for a church that's open. And there was this Baptist church there and it was open. They were having a revival meetings. I went in and I trusted Christ as my savior.

36:19 Just thought you'd like to know that. Yes. Even when it says Jesus loves you, which reflects the word of God, deal with the person from the Bible. Speak clearly and avoid theological language. Hello there.

36:41 My name is Chris. Good to see you. Yes. Have you been washed in the blood of the lamb? Excuse me?

36:56 Yes. Have you come to the cross and been crucified with Jesus? No. And I don't think I'm going to do it. You know, yes.

37:10 And I just want to ask you the question of the eschatological ramifications of the length of the toenails of Daniel's image. Do you know that? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? So even with the issue of being born again, people have a whole host of definitions with the words born again.

37:33 Are you born again? Are you born again? Are born again? Are you? What think ye of Christ?

37:41 What what ye, what are you talking about? You know, I've had people do this. What think ye of Christ? And I'm going, okay, okay, okay. We're here to communicate the gospel if we're bypassing them in terms of definitions.

37:55 I asked a bunch of kids in an Owana in Chicago. I said, what does it mean to be born again? And kid raised his hand. This is an Owana in Chicago in a church. And I go, what does it mean to be born again?

38:10 The kid goes to be reincarnated. People have no idea. In fact, I didn't know that the New York Mets were all Christians. I didn't know that. Because in the Daily Post, the New York Post, you flip that over because that's where the backside is, in the backside is the sports page.

38:27 It said, Mets born again. I couldn't believe it. I said, praise God, the Mets are saved, you know. So you've got to avoid the theological... Speak clearly and avoid theological language.

38:41 Avoid church language. We get this church... Church ease going, you know. We really do. How is salvation?

38:48 You love salvation. You need to be... You need to define words for people. I need to define words for people for sure. Don't use the language of Zion.

39:00 Also never use slang, but use wholesome words. Don't try to, hey, what's up, man? What's happening? Hey, man, what's up, man? You know, if I'm not a black guy, don't act like a black guy.

39:15 I'm serious. Don't do it. If you're not... If that's not your customary type of thing, then don't do it. And I fist pump, okay, because I don't like shaking hands.

39:26 But don't don't go... Don't start to act what you're not. Be who you are. Really, that's very important. So don't use slang and all that.

39:40 Don't do that. And then never use words that would offend God. Don't use words that offend God and explain all biblical words. You've got to do this. We need to be good communicators.

39:53 See, people say, we talked last month, last time I was here about us teaching the gospel. We need to know not only what the gospel is, but how to communicate that gospel to individuals. And you say, well, I'm not sure how to do that. Well, get to it. Get to it.

40:13 Start working at it. We're gonna talk a little bit about that. We're gonna talk a little bit about that in the ensuing minutes. So what we wanna do in terms of approaching an individual, if possible, with a member of the same gender. There's no confusion on this.

40:43 And so, but I've seen that. Another thing too is what we want to do, although not always possible on the streets or in a confusing area, try to find a quiet and undisturbed place to talk. You have a wana, you're not having it tonight. But you normally have a wanna. If let's say this young man, a Doringer comes to me and I see him and he's not...

41:04 He's from the neighborhood and I say, hey, let's talk. Let's... Know, can we talk? I'm not taking this young man to a private room. I'm not doing it.

41:14 And that certainly is... How old are you? 13. 13? I'm not taking a five year old there.

41:21 I'm not taking Gabriel to a private room. Let's talk. I'm not doing that, you know. I'm not doing that because it can be really, it can really be a problem. All they got to do is accuse you once and it's over.

41:36 They're shutting the joint down. You better have a good lawyer. They can even be wrong. Right? Wise as serpents and harmless as a dove.

41:47 Don't be stupid. I'm serious. Don't be stupid. In Los Angeles, California, there was a daycare center in which the man that owned the daycare center, he owned it and he really loved children, he was falsely accused. It took him like eight months to get the charges dropped.

42:08 And they still, it ruined his business as a daycare center. It ruined his reputation. It was disaster and it was false. So we need to be wise as serpents and harmless as a dove. So be very careful about that.

42:27 But we do want to talk to them. We want to talk to them and have them face us and talk to them about these things. Now let's talk about what to teach. Talking, teaching salvation, the basic elements of that. We're gonna have three things on this and they're just a little slow.

42:47 Come on, boy, come on. Okay. First of all, want to talk about is faith and repentance and they are inseparable. We need to be theologians, folks. Sorry, but we need to be theologians.

43:00 We need to know what repentance means and we need to know that it is inseparably linked to faith. We need to know this. We need to really be careful what we're people what it means to get to heaven, how to get to heaven. This is what we're doing. If there was, you know, if I was a physician and I said to Mr.

43:20 Doeringer, I said, you know, oh yeah. Oh yeah, you said this hurts. Does that hurt? Okay, that hurts. Well, your knee feels good to me.

43:29 He would be going and if his mom and dad are with him, Scott was and Mindy was with, I think we're gonna get a second opinion and we're gonna do it fast because this guy has no idea what he's talking about. And that's called... Let's operate on his knee right here. He's a crazy man. He's a crazy man.

43:49 You're out of... See, then it would be called malpractice. But yet how many of us are practicing malpractice in terms of leading people to Christ, the most important thing going? How does a person get to heaven? We're here to tell them that.

44:05 How does a person get to heaven? Faith and repentance. They're inseparably linked. You cannot have true repentance, which means a change of mind. And you cannot have true repentance without true faith.

44:16 And you can't have true faith without true repentance. They are inseparable. And then also, you have to have, you know, and notice what we've got here and we talk about cover the gospel message thoroughly. But if you look at your notes, I'd like you to look at this, the death, burial and physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you may say, well, I really understand that.

44:39 But there's teaching today. You know, Zane Hodges is teaching this and there's a whole bunch of guys teaching this. You do not need to have Jesus Christ on the cross. You don't... Do not need to know that Jesus Christ rose again physically from the dead.

44:54 Zane Hodges taught that. He taught at Dallas for so many years. We say, wow, that's incredible. And why'd you mention his name? Because I'm trying to warn you of it.

45:05 We need to teach the Word of God and the Word of God is clear. And every time those disciples went out and preached, they preached the death, burial and physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every time, even at Mars Hill. And that's exactly what we need to teach as well. We need to teach that.

45:26 Notice what it says, the death, burial and physical resurrection. And look at first Corinthians fifteen three and four. You have to know that, that Christ died, was buried, rose again the third day. That's the gospel in a nutshell. I don't want to be accused of it.

45:42 That's what a person must believe in order to get to heaven. And then also we want to cover the gospel message thoroughly in the sense that Jesus Christ, who is he? Some of the disciples of those... Of that would have the aforementioned individual said, you don't even need to know that Jesus is God in order to be saved. Then what's the point?

46:07 I'm not trusting in Jesus, the guy lives three stories or three floors above the store. His name is Jesus too. Who's Jesus are you talking about? And this is exactly what Paul addressing in the second epistle, but I fear lest by any means is a serpent beguiled Eve through his craftiness so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For he that cometh and preacheth another Jesus.

46:34 People are preaching other Jesuses. Who's the Jesus of the Jehovah's Witness? Michael the Archangel. How about the Mormons? Spirit brother of Lucifer.

46:44 They will stand here and tell you that they've trusted in Jesus Christ and they believe that he's God. Because that Mormon thinks he will be a God. That's true. Absolutely true. Say, was Mormonism Christian?

47:17 And then the person of Christ, who is he and what did he come to do? And so notice else, why did he come? Why did Jesus come? And then also what... How did he save us?

47:30 What were the mechanics, the motives and the meaning of this? The atonement through the blood of Christ. And then we also need to know who is man. Why are we in trouble with God? Why are we in trouble with God?

47:45 Does it seem to you as we're going through this that we need to understand theology? We need to understand the teaching of the Bible regarding these issues. We do. We need to understand it and you can understand it. We expect of our kids to really be brilliant in calculus and all these different things and know the languages and all this.

48:11 But yet somehow we don't want to teach them the nuts and bolts of the gospel. Who's man? Why is he in trouble? What is hamartology? What is the doctrine of sin?

48:25 What is this? Why did we name it that way? Why is this? What is... What's the problem with mankind?

48:32 And so we need to do it because people's lives are on the line. And so, you know, people's lives are on the line. And so the atonement through the blood, who is the man? Who is man? Why is he in trouble with God?

48:44 What can man do? Nothing. Salvation is by grace. The Bible is God's inspired word. And so this is what we need to have.

48:52 And then we also have some basic plans and you have them in your notes. The Romans wrote, one of the best is, may I ask you a question booklet. It's outstanding. Outstanding booklet. And then also we want to lead to the person to the point of decision by asking review questions.

49:10 So I talked to this individual about Christ. I want to ask review questions. I want to see if they understand. What would it be... What, you know, why do you think we need the Lord Jesus?

49:20 And the person goes, I don't know. I got work to do. I've got work to do in telling them. Why do you think we need the Lord? I'm not sure.

49:30 I don't know. Why do you think it? Well, if they don't understand why we need the Lord Jesus Christ, I got to back up in my witness. My goal is not to notch my Bible and get them to pray a prayer. My goal is to have them understand.

49:44 And if they pray a prayer to trust Christ, that's great. But it's not the prayer that saves them, it's the Lord Jesus Christ who saves them. And that's my... They need to understand. If we let Jesus out, would there be any difference?

49:58 And if a person said, no, this is really important in Owana. I talked to this. This is the same for young children as well as adults. If I go to a child and says, we let Jesus out of this, would any any difference at all? And the person goes, no, no difference.

50:12 We got work to do. We got a lot of work to do. One of the beautiful things is when you hear a child or an adult say, yeah, it makes a big difference because without Jesus Christ, I'm not saved. I'm doing backflips inside. That's exactly what I'm doing.

50:30 And then if if I came to you and said, had three minutes to live, this is one of the best all time questions all ever. So let me pick on Doeringer. If I came to Doeringer and I said to him, I said, by the way, what's your first name? Trevor. Trevor.

50:45 Yeah, I knew that. I knew that, Trevor. I came to Trevor and I didn't know whether he was saved or lost. I didn't know his spiritual setting. And this is after the small talk and a nice green Under Armour shirt and all this, this really cool and all that.

51:00 Now I'm I bridged and I'm turning this conversation to Trevor, Bob Findout. I said, Trevor, if I came to you and I said to you that I had three minutes to live, And I came to you and I said, Trevor, I got three minutes to live. Can you tell me how to get to heaven? What would you say to me? And his answer is gonna reveal to you what he believes.

51:27 Oh, look at the time. Okay. So, so but the thing about it is you'd say, I mean, and his answer, seriously, his answer will reveal to you. I've had people go to me and say, well, you need to be a good person. I said, two minutes and forty five seconds.

51:44 They go, oh, yeah. Yeah. You be good. I said, not enough time. And I wait.

51:55 I don't supply the answer for Him. I want to find out. It's a great question. It's an outstanding question. If you were to die tonight, where would you be?

52:04 And then if you were to die and stand before God and He were to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say to Him? That's from EE or evangelism explosion training. And then that's a great question. These are great questions. They're in your notes for you to look over.

52:22 So I look at this and then you lead to the point. Bring the individual to the point of decision, invite him or her to trust Christ as their own personal savior. Donor, do not... Donor him. Don't donor...

52:37 I hate this thing. Do not pressure. Do not pressure him if he desires to receive Christ, you know. But if he desires to receive Christ, have him pray in either his own words or have him follow in the sinner's prayer. Be sure he understands what prayer is.

52:54 Now here's the deal with this. People say, I never, never have anybody pray with me. I never do that. Never, never. That's wrong.

53:00 Let's wait a second. Let's just think that one through for a minute. Let's understand that the prayer is not the thing that saves you, it's Jesus Christ. But most people do not know what to do. They have no idea what you're asking them to do.

53:15 So what I like to do is I'd like to help them. If I'm confident enough that they understand where we're going, I said, would you like to ask Jesus to be your savior? And I've had people, not with manipulative looks or anything, with serious looks in their eyes and going, yeah, please. That was me. I did that very thing 03/22/1971.

53:35 I prayed the sinner's prayer and I didn't think if it was some little chant that I give that automatically gets me into heaven. I was really talking to God. I just didn't know how to put it. And so make sure that when you pray with somebody, make sure it's theological and it goes over the issues. And in our next installment, we're gonna have...

54:14 And if you sin now, now what happens? If you sin now, what happens? And then give them assurance. My wife trusted Christ six times because she didn't have the assurance. Give them assurance.

54:28 If you sin after you've received Christ, here's what takes place. This is really true with children. This is very true. Can a child have assurance of salvation? Yes.

54:38 Yes. The Bible gives it. In fact, that's our main source of assurance is that. Also reassure the person by asking, what did you just pray? What has Jesus done for you just now?

54:54 I've asked this to adults. I've asked this to children. I asked Jesus to be my savior. What has He done for you? He's washed away my sins.

55:02 I've had five year olds tell me that. You know, I mean, it's wonderful. Where is where is Christ right now? I asked this kid in Brooklyn one time. He said, He's at the right hand of the Father.

55:20 I go, wow, that's pretty cool. Not what I was expecting, you know. But you know, we have this whole thing with ask Jesus into your heart. You've got to be careful about that. I say that, but I asked the kids.

55:32 I asked the kids. I said, what do I mean when I say ask Jesus into your heart? Boom, they raised their hands. I said, yeah, you mean to say that you asked Jesus into your life? I go, yes.

55:43 That's exactly what I mean to say. It's not into your left ventricle that we're talking about. We're talking about into your life. And then also, will he ever leave you? This is so important.

55:54 Half of The United States, half of the marriages in The US are wind up in divorce and the kids think they're the problem. Why mom and dad left each other. And they think they're it. So now all of a sudden they have no assurance. They think that nobody can be counted on to stay with them and to care for them.

56:14 And so, you know, will he ever leave you? I've done this, may I... I've done this with the guy in Wall Street, this guy with a beautiful suit, Wall Street. I will never leave you. Right in front of the stock exchange, He trusted Christ as a savior.

56:32 I said, okay. And I started the follow-up process. I said, put your hand like this. This guy, I don't know, he worked on the stock exchange. He went just like this.

56:41 I said, okay, I, he goes, I will, will never leave you. Who's I? He said, Jesus. I said, who's you? He said, this guy, you know, he's as tall as me and everything.

56:52 He said, it's me. I said, will he ever leave you? And he goes, no. That's exactly from the Bible. You know what he said to me too?

57:03 Actually, I said to him, I said, tonight when you go to bed, I want you to lay on your pillow, take your hand in the darkness and just go, Lord, you said this, I will never leave you and thank Him. Thank Him. And that is powerful. That is really powerful. And then if you sin, what does God want you to do?

57:24 Confess it. Confess your sins. And so some suggestions here. Here's some suggestions for you. A, If you're with a friend and one of you is involved in witnessing to an individual, do not interrupt your friend but rather be in prayer.

57:45 Here's the thing... Here's the deal. Let's say Scott and I are witnessing, we're going door to door in this neighborhood. We're just going down the street door to door. If Scott's got the lead in terms of talking to that individual, I will never interrupt him no matter what that person asks unless Scott gives me the permission to ask.

58:05 Let's say I wrote a book on babies with cleft palates and why God allowed it. And I wrote the definitive work, why babies in Africa with cleft palates, why did God allow that? And I and I I... 7,000 page work on this. I got my PhD.

58:20 They conferred it was just... It is the work. And yet when somebody asked Scott that question, why do babies have cleft palates in Africa, why did God allow that? That's an actual question we had in Brooklyn. Why did that happen?

58:34 I am... I'm not to interrupt him unless he asks me to come in. And then I will give the cliff notes version of that and back out of it because God is using Scott and showing him and how to go. If I jump in and all of a sudden take over the conversation, two things happen. You confuse the person being witnessed to and you damage your relationship with your partner.

58:59 You do that and you don't want to do that. So you want to be in prayer. And then B, isn't that cute? Don't get sidetracked. Stick to the issues and beware of the individual who is insincere and not really interested in the gospel.

59:15 This is really true. You'll get somebody just wanna ask question after question after question. In fact, that's a good telltale sign. If a person asks you a question regarding about, you know, the credibility of the New Testament. Then they ask you another question in the middle of your answer to the first question.

59:36 What is that telling you? Then they ask you another question and then another question and another question. They're eating up your time. That's what they're really doing. And so thank them for talking with you and thank them and and move on and bring it bring it...

59:51 Don't get sidetracked. That... You know, the babies with cleft palates, that's exactly what happened. A Danny Giovanni and it was right on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. We were talking and one of the students, Word of Life came up to me and said, Chris, this guy wants...

60:04 I don't know how to answer him. Can you talk? I said, sure. I said, hi, Chris. My name is Chris.

60:09 He goes, my name is Danny Giovanni. I said, Danny, I hear you've been talking to my friend here. And they go, Yeah. And he says, I just got this question. What about babies in Africa with cleft palates?

60:20 Why does God allow that? I said, I have an answer to that question, but you're hearing the gospel now. I answer that question. But if I can just put it to the side a little bit and you need to know Jesus Christ. Well, he trusted Christ as his personal savior.

60:38 I praise God for that. What... Guess what question he didn't ask after he trusted Christ? Didn't ask the question. It's the problem of evil.

60:49 But stick to... Don't get sidetracked and understand that you're getting sidetracked. And then also thank the person. Thank the person that you have witnessed to and taking the time to speak to you about this important matter. Thank, you know, thank them for that.

61:06 It's a personal relationship that you're having with them. And so talk to them. And another thing too is, I wanna ask you a question. This is a picture, artist's rendition of the sinking of the Titanic. That is not just our culture.

61:21 That's people. That's people. I don't know how many died that day in the icy waters after when that thing sank, which is still being talked about. And that happened in '19, I believe, '14, 1914. And you think of people just going down, drowning, freezing to death, drowning, hypothermia, then drowning, and then death.

61:52 This is it. And the next question I want to ask is, do we really care? Do we really care? I can't answer that for you. But the question is, do we really care?

62:11 I was praying about and thinking about, you know, as I was coming here. And I was thinking about my my friends, the Skeletons. And I was thinking how they were doing and then to see them here was like unreal. It was really great to see them. One of the things that we have had the privilege of being with the skeletons at Boulevard Bible Chapel...

62:39 This is cool. I'm just I'm just gonna say it. In the back of that Bible Chapel near Miami, near Hollywood, is this big map of the neighborhood and pins all over in the main auditorium. And they said, we've been here, here, here, here, here, here. We're going out in the open air.

63:00 All these young men are going into the open air on the beaches almost every week with sketch boards and everything. They go door to door. They do that and they put it in front of their assembly all the time. C. T.

63:17 Studd once said, I'd rather have a chapel within a yard of hell than to have a chapel way far away from it. We are here in Westlake Bible Fellowship, in Westlake, Ohio. And this is unbelievable fertile ground for the gospel. It is. It is.

64:02 And I might get in touch with somebody, it doesn't matter. What are we doing? Because do we really, really care? Father, we just ask you that you would help us to care. Help us to see people as lost and help us to do something about it, not just as an activity, but as a lifestyle.

64:23 Help us to really minister to people with your word, by your grace, in the power of the spirit of God. And we just ask you that you would help us to do this. Help us to be missionaries every day in Westlake or regions beyond. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

64:46 Thank you.