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Oct 19, 2014

Evangelism 101 | Part 5

Passage: Acts 3:11-21

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:FitChurch

Detail:

Currently, our church is going through a series entitled, “FitChurch.” Its purpose is to remind us of what it means to be a healthy church. Is our church healthy? So far, we’ve looked at our preaching, our theology, our understanding of the gospel, conversion and now we are looking at Biblical evangelism. What does it mean to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to a lost world so that they might come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? Acts 3:11-21 will be our main text:

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. 12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

17 And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

When we hear sermons on evangelism, many of us feel convicted. Some of you might be unsure how to evangelize, and I hope this helps you today. Some of you might not feel the need to evangelize, either because you feel that you aren’t gifted in that way or because you’re not an extrovert. Evangelism is a difficult subject to preach on, but it is needed in the church. Without evangelism the church will dwindle to extinction. If the church doesn’t share the Good News of Jesus Christ, we will be the last generation of Christians. At the same time, God says that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). There are two aspects of this paradox:

1.       God commands us to do this work
2.       God Himself will build His church

Are you going to do the work of evangelism? Will you be part of this blessing, or not? I want to explain evangelism in simple terms. Evangelism spans many key aspects of our Christian walk.

My father is one of the wisest and most intelligent men I’ve ever known even though he has very little education. He does have a high-school diploma, but when he came to the U.S. from Iraq at 16, his high-school experience was vastly different from American students’. He doesn’t have many diplomas. He doesn’t have awards that show he is wise or intelligent. However, he has proven his wisdom and skill. Growing up I watched him as a grocery store owner, a caterer, an employer, a father, a husband and a pastor. He can explain complex and complicated issues in ways that even the smallest child can understand. What are his secrets for success? He told me they were:

·         The grace of Almighty God
·         The KISS principle: Keep it Simple Stupid

While that phrase might be crass, it reminds me to take complex issues and explain them in simple terms. Not everything is as complicated as it seems.

My dad was not the first person to come up with the idea of keeping things simple. John Wooden was a basketball coach for the University of California in Los Angeles. He used to begin the season by reminding his athletes of his offensive strategy: how to put socks on the right way. After a demoralizing loss, Vince Lombardi (who coached the Green Bay Packers during the 1960’s), brought his team together and said to them, “We need to get back to the basics. We’re not playing offense right. We’re not playing defense right. Our special teams are terrible! We need to get back to how to simply play football.” He then took a football in his hands and looking at his team, said, “I want to introduce you to somebody. This is a football.” For the rest of his speech he reminded his team of every aspect of football: from simple concepts to complex offensive and defensive schemes of a victorious team.

When it comes to evangelism, we can get caught up in all the details and forget what evangelism really means. Evangelism is a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. It is sinners telling other sinners where to find Jesus and the impact that Jesus has upon their lives. It can be complex and simplifying it can be difficult. However, evangelism is the lifeblood of the church. We have to be evangelists. We cannot sit idly by and wait for someone else to do the work. You are called, no matter the circumstance in which God has placed you, to be His witness to the uttermost parts of the world. For you, that may be someone next door. For others, it may be throughout the remote places of the world. You must do it.

Let’s look at five things to consider when you think through Biblical evangelism.

1. The Things that Sabotage Your Evangelism

What keeps you from sharing the greatest message ever told? If you knew of a cure for cancer, you would tell everyone who would listen. As a follower of Jesus Christ, you have the cure for the world’s greatest disease—one that not only kills the body, but destroys the soul—sin. That cure is Jesus Christ. Why aren’t you telling people about Him? There are nine things that I believe sabotage your evangelism.

Living a cloistered life

That word, “cloister,” is not a word that is used very often. It evokes images of sequestered monks and nuns who keep themselves separated from the world and its entrapments. We do the same thing today. This is the great sin in our day of Evangelicalism. We have ceased to engage culture. While we live in the world, we do not engage the world around us. Some of you might think, “I don’t engage with the world because I don’t want to be stained or tarnished by it. I don’t want my kids to be involved in it. We want to stay above all of that.” In one sense, that is a Biblical pursuit. Christians must not be corrupted by the world. The world is a terrible place. The world hates Jesus. However, the Bible never advocates living in sanitized Christian bubbles separated from the world. Many of you will think, “I am in the world! I work there. I live there.” However, we are more cloistered than we realize.

This convicted my wife Amanda and me a few years ago. We asked ourselves these questions:

    1. How active am I in my neighbors’ lives? Are my neighbors people I merely wave to and don’t know their names; don’t know where they work or what’s going on in their lives? Or, am I involved in the lives of my neighbors? Do they trust me? Am I a positive influence in their lives? Do my neighbors tell me that they like living next to me?
    2. How many unbelievers do I consider friends? While it is sinful to have light unequally yoked with darkness, remember that Jesus was called a Friend of sinners. He partied with tax collectors and prostitutes. If we are going to imitate Jesus Christ and His ministry, then we cannot be friends with only Christians.
    3. How many spiritual conversations have I had with unsaved people around me? You might think that people don’t want to have spiritual conversations, that people are too busy living their own lives, that people are hostile toward Jesus. However, every time I have shared the gospel with someone, I have always been treated with respect and honor. While great persecution might be going on across the nation, I haven’t seen it in our area. I haven’t seen persecution like the persecution in the New Testament. If you are going to use persecution as an excuse not to evangelize, remember that persecution didn’t stop the New Testament church when they were being beaten, jailed, when they faced injustice from the government or even in the face of death. In those moments, the New Testament church proclaimed the gospel.

You have opportunities. Are you failing the test? It is easy to make the church your only community. It is time—as Rebecca Pippert said in the title of her book—for Christians to get Out of the Saltshaker and into the World. Rethink your approach to life and ask yourself difficult questions. Have you created a force field around yourself that hinders you from sharing the gospel?

Being full of conceit

You look at unbelievers and are disgusted by their sin. You are appalled at what they do. You look at their brazenness and think, “What filth! What dirt! What a waste!” The Apostle Paul heard similar things at the church in Corinth. After listing some of the most heinous sins of the New Testament world, Paul reminds people in 1 Corinthians 6:1, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” He reminds us that we were just like the world: objects of God’s wrath filled with debauchery and sin. If you have been saved so long that you forget who you were before Christ—that you were a filthy, rotten, dirty sinner before Christ demonstrated His love for you—then you have neglected the chief teachings of Scripture. You must display humility and love to the vilest of sinners. When Jesus, the perfect Son of God, saw vile sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors, He didn’t react in pride, but compassion. “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). That must be your mindset if you’re going to be an evangelist.

Living a corrupted life

You might not evangelize because you are too busy living like the world. Last week you were cursing and carousing with them. Why would they listen to the gospel if you look just like them? If this describes you, then when you share the gospel you would need to bring neck-braces for all the people who get whiplash from the change they’ve seen in you. They would never think that you would be the one to bring the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Crippling the message with garbage

We sell the gospel like our dietary ideas and our get rich quick schemes. We talk about it like our conspiracy theories against our government and extra-terrestrial ideas. These types of things are on Christians’ Facebook pages all the time. We peddle garbage and then say something nice about Jesus. People already consider that Christians are “whack-jobs”! We lump nice phrases about Jesus into dietary pills and government issues. You need to be careful not to sell the gospel like you sell everything else because you will cripple the message.

Living in chaos

One of the ways someone will determine the veracity of any teaching is by looking at the adherents of that teaching. People won’t just listen to the gospel that you preach, they will look at the gospel that you live. Does your lifestyle add up to what you are proclaiming? You say, “Jesus is the joy of my salvation.” Are you joyful, or do you constantly mope around? Is Jesus the One Who brings clarity to every aspect of your life? How is your marriage? Do your neighbors see a Biblical model for marriage? How are you raising your children? How are you using your money? Are you in financial bondage like the rest of the world, consumed by materialism? I am not advocating lives of fake perfection, nor am I saying that you shouldn’t let people see your brokenness and humility. However, Peter says in 1 Peter 2:12, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” The idea here is exemplary lives, not just good lives. If you’re going to proclaim the gospel, they should be able to see the change that Jesus has made in your life.

Not thinking that it’s worth the cost

There’s a reality that evangelism will cost you something. What’s the alternative? People go to hell without a Savior. People will spend eternity in hell and be lost forever. What is worth more than sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ? Every time you evangelize, that question will arise. The devil will do the same thing that he did to the Apostle Peter when he was asked about Jesus on the night of His arrest. “Do you know Him? Are you one of His followers?” Peter decided that it wasn’t worth the persecution. When the devil tempts you with that, remember that Jesus went to the cross for the sake of evangelism. Jesus demands that we sacrifice. You probably will never face a cross, a sword or a gun. Is popularity worth more than seeing people come to know their Savior?

 Thinking that evangelism is the job of evangelistic crusaders

You might think that evangelism is for the extrovert. You might think that because you’re an introvert, you do not have the ability to evangelize. However, Jesus tells all people that they will be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). At the heart of the gospel is the understanding that you have been given the greatest gift ever given and you have the opportunity to share that gift with others. You do not understand the gospel if you don’t understand your part in sharing it. An average person can take the gospel and transform the world that they live in; I've seen it.

Many of you know that my brother was killed in a car accident, but you might not know much about him before that happened. Chris was an average teenage kid who succumbed to the temptation of the world. He was a drinker. He loved to party. He was fast and loose with women. Until he attended a Bible study at this church, that was his life. It was at that Bible study that Chris took the Word of God at face value. He said to our Youth Pastor, “I want to make a difference. I don’t want to live for myself any longer. I want to live for Christ. I’m going to do whatever I can to make that happen.” He was a junior in high school, only fifteen years old. There was nothing extraordinary about him. He went to public school. He lived his life among unbelievers. Yet, he did something miraculous and I got to see it first-hand. He came home one day from his speech class and told our parents, “I’m going to make a difference through my speeches.” “What do you mean, son?” “I’m going to preach Christ in every one of my speech assignments. I will find a way to present the gospel every time I give a speech.” He had seven speeches to give that semester. Other teachers, including pagans, stopped their classes to bring their students to listen to Chris give his speech. If you get serious about Jesus, you’ll be surprised at what He will do.

Do you know what Chris did next? He came to my father and said, “Dad, I’m going to start praying at lunch. I’m going to start reading my Bible during lunch.” “Son, they’re going to come at you.” “I know, Dad, but I’m going to do it.” He would go and read Scripture. People would come up to him and ask him to pray for them. Teachers told him that he was taking too much time at lunch and that he’d have to do it another time. So he decided to get up earlier on Wednesdays and go to school and start a Bible study. For the first three weeks no one came. He was ready to give up hope when two kids came. Then four. Eight. Sixteen. Thirty-two. Before long, he had four-dozen kids coming to a Bible study on Wednesday mornings. He used to tell our father, “Dad, I’m the only believer in my school. They’re all unbelievers.” By the end of the year, he had led three dozen kids to saving faith. Many of them are still walking with the Lord to this day.

Then he died a couple weeks into his senior year. God took the testimony of an average sixteen-year-old kid and changed the school. If you don’t think you have an opportunity to change your world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you don’t know how great your God is. I am blown away at the things that God has done through average people.

Most people in Hinckley know me as the pork chop cooker, not the pastor. I have had schools call and ask me to come and speak to their kids because of the death of a student. Three hundred kids at Hinckley-Big Rock listened to the pork chop cooker talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you pray that way, God will give you opportunities. In my community, I have had at least three public opportunities to share the gospel in the school and no one said a word about it. If you pray like that, God can make a Billy Graham out of each one of you. But you don’t pray that way. You don’t think that way. You don’t say, “God, I’m willing to make a difference. I want to do this for You and Your glory no matter what the cost.” We have a great God Who can use donkeys to proclaim His message (Numbers 22).

Wanting instant conversions

Be patient planting and cultivating gospel seeds. When God gives you opportunities to reap the benefits of that work, take them. You need to have the mindset of a farmer. There are farmers out in the fields reaping their harvest right now. They are rejoicing over their harvest. Don’t forget that six months ago they were in an empty field planting small seeds into the ground, hoping and praying that those seeds would come to fruition. Far too many of you are worried about the harvest. Evangelism involves more than just the combine. It involves preparing the ground, planting and cultivating. Paul says it this way, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Some of you might be disheartened because your friends aren’t accepting Jesus right now. Be faithful in cultivating that relationship. God will be the One Who makes it grow.

Not being clear on the gospel

Evangelism cannot happen without understanding what the gospel is and how conversion takes place. The gospel is not some Jesus “Genie-in-the-bottle” garbage. It is not Jesus as the self-help Dr. Phil with a better haircut. It is not a Hallmark card with some pithy statements on positive thinking. The gospel of Jesus Christ is: we have a holy God Whom we’ve sinned against; God in His great love for us sent His Son Jesus that He might die and redeem us from our sins.

We need to be praying, stepping out of our comfort zone and doing the work that God has for us. How do we do it?

2. The different styles of evangelism seen in the Bible

There isn't one style or one way to evangelize. There are at least six different styles of evangelism that are clearly seen in Scripture:

  • The direct style. This was my brother’s style. Get up and start talking and people will start listening.
  • The intellectual style. This is the style of one of my favorite speakers, Ravi Zacharias. He goes to places like Harvard and debates with other intellectuals. They talk through issues. The Apostle Paul did this as well.
  • The testimonial style. This style is helpful for those of you who aren’t comfortable handling the theological facts of Christianity. You can be like blind Bartimaeus who said, “I don’t know how it happened. I don’t know the theological jargon, but I met Jesus. I was blind, but now I see. It’s because of Jesus.” Any of you can do that. If you’ve experienced Jesus, you can share the testimony of that encounter.
  • The personal style. This is lifestyle evangelism. It’s interacting with people on a mission. Jesus dined with prostitutes and tax collectors. He didn’t do that so that He could become a tax collector or a prostitute. He did it to seek and save the lost. He did that through relationships.
  • The invitational style. This is when you invite people to come to evangelistic events. You ask people to come and see what Christianity is all about. You invite people to witness the community of believers and the love that we show one another because of the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
  • The serving style. Dorcas lived this out in Acts 9:36-43. She served people. Serve the less fortunate so that the love of Christ might be seen.

There are many different ways to evangelize. What’s your style? Whatever it is, put it into practice. Everyone is an evangelist! Each individual is just a different kind of evangelist. Take the gifts and personality that God has given you and start using them for the glory of God.


3. The sovereignty of God in evangelism

God is sovereign over our evangelism. Conversion is the work of God. We are not saved by works of righteousness, but by the grace of God (Titus 3:4-7). Pray for your unbelieving friends. Pray, “Lord, open their hearts. Open their eyes. Give them the ability to see their sin. Work in their lives. Convict their spirit.” The sovereignty of God is important in evangelism.

    1. It gives hope. The vilest individual who is opposed to the gospel is reachable because God is God. That man or woman in your life who hates God is still reachable. Go after those who are violently opposed to the gospel. God is able to change them. That was Jesus’ style. He saved all kinds of people who we would never choose to start a religious organization: tax collectors, fishermen, zealots. God says, “I’m going to show you what I can do with a bunch of worthless people. I’m going to save them and I’m going to change them.” He does this in Acts 9:1-19 with Paul. The worst person He could have gone after was Saul of Tarsus. Saul put up a long fight, but it took a nanosecond to change him. When you believe that God is sovereign, you won’t be afraid to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the most hardened sinner because God can change anyone. He changed you, didn’t He?
    2. It gives peace. When people turn away, they are not turning away from you. Don’t make this a personal thing. They are not opposing the messenger, but the message of Jesus Christ. Don’t be offended. Don’t take it to heart. People are blind, dead and held captive by the evil one. They are rejecting Christ—not you. Until God opens their eyes to the gospel, they will reject Him.
    3. It is a work of God, not our speeches or presentations. Evangelism has nothing to do with your fine-tuned methods of evangelism, but everything to do with the work of God. “And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). You don’t have to be a know-it-all. Just show the power of God working in your life and the power of Scripture in the lives of those around you.

If God is completely sovereign in conversion, you might think you don’t have to do anything. A helpful resource for understanding this paradox is J. I. Packer’s book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God. It is a short book that deals with two extremes in evangelism. While salvation is a complete work of God, God still holds people responsible for their decisions.

Asserting man’s responsibility to the exclusion of God’s sovereignty.

Churches do this all the time. They try to come up with clever marketing tactics. They seek to make the gospel palatable for unbelievers. They’ll have a rock band do worship on Sunday mornings. They add fog machines and lights in order to make worship a concert-like experience. When the pastor gets up to preach, he won’t preach things that would be offensive to an unbeliever. These are seeker-driven ministries. The unbeliever is the customer. Evangelism is packaged in such a way that enables them to respond. That’s not Biblical evangelism. Those tactics forget that no person seeks after God unless God Himself through His Spirit allows him or her to do so. Make sure that your evangelism isn’t about performance, but the precepts of Christ. Evangelism happens because of God. It is brought to fruition through God and for the glory of God. However, this doesn’t limit your role.

Affirming God’s sovereignty in a way that eliminates man’s responsibility

If God chooses the elect, why do you need to do any work at all? Not doing anything at all, sitting back and waiting, doesn’t balance with Biblical evangelism either.

How do you balance these two things? How can God be the One Who works and yet expect us to do something in that process? Think about it this way. Who is the giver of all life? God. Parents, didn’t you have to do something in order to have children? We live with this paradox. God is the giver of children, but you have a part to play. God is not in the business of virgin births. He did it once; He’s not going to do it again. There is a part you play in that process, but I cannot look at my three children and say to my wife, “Look at what we created! Look at what we did! Pretty good!” No. I have to recognize that God gave us these children. This is like salvation. God does the work, but allows us into the process. He allows us to have a role, not so that we can say, “Look at what I did,” but “Look at how great God is!”

What is our job as evangelists? We are the obstetricians. We have the joy of bringing these children into the world. We help the process. God is the One doing all the gestation. We have the opportunity to be the hands and the arms that bring that child into existence.  What a glorious thing!  A Biblical  view holds the sovereignty of God in one hand  and our responsibility in the other hand. It will pull us back and forth, but don’t let go of either pillar because both are Biblical. 

 

4. The substance of our evangelism

Acts 3:11-21 gives the substance of our evangelism. It’s hard to focus on one passage of Scripture when we look at subjects like this one. We want to know what the totality of Scripture says on this subject. However, within this passage Peter and John have just healed a man who was lame from birth. The people’s first response is: look how great Peter and John are. Peter responds right away, “Why are you looking at us with such astonishment, as if we have the piety or power in ourselves to do this?” Evangelism is not about the saved individual; it is about the Savior. Any time someone marvels at your evangelism, point to Jesus.

Seeing Jesus as supremely glorious

In Acts 3:12, Peter immediately turns the attention from himself to Jesus. Peter and John see Jesus as supremely glorious. This is why they evangelize. The more you are infatuated, enamored and blown away by the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more you will share it with others. If you are shaky on what the gospel is, you probably are not evangelizing. If you are filled with the utmost joy at how God has revolutionized your life, you’re going to tell others about it. One of the problems we have is that we aren’t awed by the work that Christ has done in our lives. If you aren’t awed by it, why would you think that He could change others? Peter and John say, “This Jesus, the One Who was prophesied about by the prophets, the God of our patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, glorified this man.” They call Him, “The Author of Life.” They call Him “The Holy and Righteous One.” They say that it’s His Name alone that saves sinners from their sin. Jesus is it! He’s everything. He is our All in All. If Jesus is not that in your life, you will never do evangelism.

Showing people their rebellion and need for repentance

What do Peter and John tell the crowds? They tell them Who Jesus is. They tell the crowds what He has done. Then they get up close and personal. “This is the Jesus you killed. This is the Jesus you traded a murderer for. You handed over the Son of God to be crucified.” Evangelism can’t merely be, “Jesus is great,” but it has to move to what they have done to Jesus. “Jesus is great, but we killed Him.” With every sin you commit, you hang Jesus on that cross. You nailed those nails into His hands and feet. You need to tell people that. That won’t be fun. It’s easy to proclaim how amazing Jesus is. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). There is no other way. You need to tell the people around you that they are in rebellion and that they need to repent. Show them that. It’s difficult to tell people, “You’re a sinner and you’re going to hell.”

First Peter tells us to do this with gentleness and respect. Don’t be a jerk about it. Remember that you were once on the highway to hell. You must call people to repentance. Peter says, “Brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, but you cannot plead ignorance before God. You are still in rebellion.” He tells them in Acts 3:19, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.” A person cannot come to Jesus Christ without turning from their sins. You want to be saved? Repent of your sins. How are you going to do it? God works through you. He will see it done. Pray to that end.

Sharing the refreshing grace that God offers

He doesn’t just point out God’s judgment. When you turn in repentance to God, Peter says in Acts 3:20, “…that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.” Though we were in our sin, because of the finished work of the Cross, we can be saved. When you are saved, times of refreshment will come. This doesn’t only happen in this life, but also when He returns to take us to be with Him again (Acts 3:21).

When was the last time you were honest and humble enough to show someone how glorious Jesus was? When was the last time you were honest and humble enough to show someone their rebellion and need of repentance? Do it with gentleness and respect. When was the last time you shared God’s refreshing grace that comes through repentance and faith? For many of us, it’s been far too long. For others, we don’t know where to start. It starts by identifying specific individuals and praying for them. Pray  that you would be filled with boldness from the Spirit to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. How do you do it?

 

5. The strategy for moving forward

This series is an examination of whether or not we are healthy as a church. I think we are not as healthy in our evangelism as we think. Here is my four-point strategy for moving forward. If Village Bible Church wants to see an ever-growing rate of evangelism through the ministries of our church, we need to do the following:

    1. Become missional in all aspects of our lives. For far too many of you, the gospel ends when you leave the parking lot. The work that I do at 5B’s Catering is as much of a ministry as preaching. You need to know this. You cannot separate the sacred from the secular. You are a Christian in your workplace, neighborhood and school, just like you are here at church. Stop making a dichotomy. Jesus wants you to engage as a son or daughter in every aspect of your life. Stop separating the two. Be a Christian at all times in all places.
    2. As elders, we need to model evangelism. At times, we’ve failed in this regard. Our elders need to help the congregation see that evangelism is the lifeblood of the church, both across the street and across the world. Our congregation needs to know what it means to follow Jesus Christ by carrying out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). We need to be willing to model what it means to be persecuted so that our church will see what it means to be bright lights in every sphere of life. Pray that your elders will model this for you.
    3. Elders also need to teach Biblical methods of evangelism to the congregation. We must do a better job at teaching and training you in evangelism. We are going to continue teaching you what the Bible says about evangelism and the gospel so that when you proclaim it, it will be the true gospel.

Celebrate your moments of evangelism. Don’t miss opportunities for the gospel. Pray for opportunities to witness; pray for growth in evangelism; pray for one another to have opportunities to share the gospel. The eternal souls of men and women are at stake. Tell others about your opportunities to share the gospel of Christ so they can pray for you and so they might grow in their faith. May we reach the world with the life-saving gospel of Christ. What will happen if we get serious about evangelism? Jesus took a small group of people and used them to change the world. Don’t you think He could use our church to change the Fox Valley area? Don’t you think that we could change places all over the world where we have ministry partners? God wants to change the world and He wants to use you. Are you ready for the opportunity to do so? This is something we must understand or we will die as a church. Pray that God would lead us in our mission in days to come.

 

Village Bible Church  |  847 North State Route 47, Sugar Grove, IL 60554  |  (630) 466-7198  |  www.villagebible.org/sugar-grove/resources/sermons

All Scriptures quoted directly from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Note: This transcription has been provided by Sermon Transcribers (www.sermontranscribers.net).