Last week I was honored to be asked act as guest preacher and deliver the message at my church. This is a huge reponsibility that I don't take lightly. I decided to teach from one of my favorite books in scripture, James 4. The sermon below is the result. I pray it was, and continues to be Glorifying to the Savior.
Is Jesus your friend? I started to put this together as a joke, but realized there may be a teaching principle in there. It features the cast of Wretched Radio (Todd Friel, Tony Verkinnes, and David "Hip Hop" Shannon) break dancing.
For more information on wretched radio, check out www.wretchedradio.com
A few weeks ago, my Pastor asked me to sub in for him and teach our Wednesday night bible study. He and I talk quite often about evangelism, and he knows the burdent the Lord put on my heart about reaching the lost, so he asked me to teach on that subject in particular. It turned out that there was no way that I could fit it all into a 1 week class, so it has turned into a 3 week series.
The first session was focussed on two main ideas, "What is evanagelism" & "Why we don't evanglize". Below is the 1st of the 3 sessions, if you are intersted in evanglism I urge you to give it a listen. If you're not intersted in evangelsim...I beg you to listen to this message.
I know there are a lot of smart people that read this blog, and I would love your thoughts and comments on this message, but not related to me. I would like them to be focussed as to how this message could be improved and how effective it was in Glorifying the Lord. That's why we preach & teach, for His glory.
The Most Important Thing We Have (Session 1/3)
(1Cor 15:1-4)
"Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (emphasis mine)
1. What is evangelism?
a. Evangel literally means "_______________" - Or Good "___________________"
b. Evangelism is the _______________ of "Good News"
c. An Evangelist is the ______________of "Good News"
There I was, at the airport on my way to St. Louis for a business trip. Sitting all by myself I had commandeered (unbeknownst to me) the only working power outlet and was charging up my gadgets. I was alone for a while, but soon the terminal started to fill up. A man sat down a few chairs away from me and tried to use the outlets below his chair. But no dice, they weren’t working. He slid down closer and tried the next set with the same result. So I offered to unplug mine so he could charge his phone. I knew this was the Lord’s doing and my opportunity to start a conversation, but I blew it and just let him plug his stuff in and slide back down to his seat.
About 30 minutes went by and I was so convicted it was driving me nuts. But as each minute passed by, the awkwardness increased and it was harder and harder to start a conversation. I couldn’t get out of my own way.
Finally, I just asked, “So, where are you headed?” Seems like such a simple question to ask in airport, doesn’t it? But to me it felt like the hardest question I’ve ever had to ask. It seemed like such an awkward and forced question. Why was it forced? It was forced because the reason I was asking him the question was to get to something. I wasn’t asking because I cared for the answer. Do you see the subtle difference? Do you see the lesson to be learned? I share the Gospel because we care, so I need to care to share the Gospel. I know I’ve learned my lesson, I pray you will learn from my mistake.
Anyway, it turns out his name was Gabriel. He was in the Army (served in Iraq), got out about a year ago and just got the call to go back to active duty and return to Iraq. He went to church “sometimes” and thought he was going to go to heaven b/c he was a good person. He heard the Gospel and it was amazing to witness once again the power of the Holy Spirit convicting him of his sin, and his need for a savior. He had never heard the Gospel like that before. I know the Lord brought us together for a reason that day, please pray for Gabriel.
I stumbled across another amazing video this AM, and I wanted to share it. It's another in a great series of videos from the folks over at I'll be Honest. There's nothing I can add, except I urge you to watch this video and heed the message.
We chose a few years ago to tell our (now 4 y/o) daughter that Santa isn't real. We did so to make sure we focused on the right things at Christmas, but we are sure to constantly remind her that other children do think he is real and it is important to not ruin that for them. Besides, we should spend our time telling people the Gospel of Jesus Christ...not debunking some story of a velvet wearing home invader. :P
Anyway, this morning I was shocked when my daughter asked if we could go down to a local store to see Santa. She actually prefaced the entire question by saying, "I know it's not really Santa, it's a guy dressed up like Santa". I was thinking of this as a great parenting opportunity, but my wife had a great idea and rightly said it would be a great witnessing opportunity. We decided that what we would do is ask our daughter if she wanted to bring a million dollar bill along and share the Gospel with the man dressed like Santa. She said "Yes". Praise the Lord!
There are a few lessons that I've (re)learned through this experience.
Everything we do should be about spreading the Gospel. Believe me, I think of this all the time...but somehow I got lossed in "Being a good parent" & trying to teach my daughter something. All the while I neglected to teach her the most important lesson of all. That we must share the Gospel to all people.
My wife is fantastic, and I am so blessed to have such a Christ focused woman as my bride.
You can preach the Gospel everywhere, anytime. And we need to think harder about this when we plan our day.
Matt 28:19-20 (NASB) 19"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Last weekend, I traveled with about a dozen men from my church to Marengo Ohio for the Ohio Church of God Men's Retreat and Ox Roast and I was able to witness one of the most amazing answers to prayer in my life. Let me set the stage a bit:
The original worship leader for the retreat had a death in the family and had to cancel the night before things were set to begin. This led the organizers of the retreat to scramble around to try and find a replacement at the last minute. They were able to find a very talented Christian artist from Indiana who plays with the Gaither's. No that isn't the answer to prayer, well at least not mine.
While leading worship at the Friday night service (and doing a fantastic job) this individual also mixed in a few songs that they had written themselves, one in particular which was about how Jesus called us to be the "salt and light" of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). That by itself wasn't the issue, however it gave me pause when he went on asking us if we ever noticed "that neither salt or light make a sound". His primary point in the song was that as Christians we have to live "right" and let the Lord's light shine through us. Don't get me wrong, he was right we ARE called to do that...but that is a biproduct of salvation...not our primary goal.
While he was singing his song, I just bowed my head in prayer. This is something I often do when I don't agree with the theology of a particul song in worship (even at my own church). Rather than get myself upset and lose focus on the fact that I am there to Worship my Lord, I simply continue to worship through praise and prayer. This time I prayed (hard) that the Lord would find a way to make the message clear this weekend that we are NOT called simply to live a good life, but we are called to seek others and share the Gospel with them.
Enter Joel Penton. Joel is a former Defensive Lineman for the THE Ohio State University. (This made him quite a hit in the middle of Ohio, and everyone was elated to have him be there). Joel delivered a message on Friday night that was powerful entitled "Real Men Love Jesus", but the answer to my prayers came on Saturday.
It turns out that Joel noticed the same thing I did about the artist's "Salt & Light" song on Friday. He struggled quite a bit after hearing that song (and other conversations in fellowship afterwards), and decided to work late into the night and change the message of his Saturday sermon to clear things up. He delivered an amazing message on "How Do We Respond To Jesus' Coming, Dying, Rising? We Must CLEARLY Articulate The Gospel." The entire message was focussed on how we are all called to share the Gospel clearly, not through our ambiguous actions...but through the Word of God.
Think about it. What if you were wathing as a friend of yours was out for a walk one day while listening to their iPod. Now this friend is so engrossed in their music that they don't realize they are walking right out onto a busy 8 lane freeway, and a tractor trailor is bearing down on them at 65 MPH...and you know they will surely die. Which of these would you choose?
Just sit back and walk back and forth on the shoulder, hoping that they will see your example and realize that they should stop walking on the highway?
Yell, scream, and run and get their attention doing everything in your power to warn them about what is about to happen?
I bet you would choose #2. But yet each of us know countless people that are headed to hell b/c of their sin, and we don't do a single thing to warn them. We just sit back and hope that they will notice what we are doing, and come to be saved that way. We are called to warn them about their certain peril and tell them about the Gospel and what Christ did. The real display of love, knowing what we know about Jesus and what he has done, is to share the Gospel and persuade them to Repent & Trust in Jesus so they don't end up in hell:
2 Corinthians 5:11 (New American Standard Bible)
11Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.
Wow, how awesome was that? What an amazing answer to Prayer! Here is a little bit of Joel's sermon, mixed together with some photos...all put to the special theme song that the worship leader wrote for the Ox Roast:
Thanks Joel for allowing yourself to be a vessel of Truth, all Praise and Glory to the Lord!
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