Evangelizing with Power

Check that out. Seeds. And our ministry of the week this week is our vacation Bible school, soccer camp that starts tomorrow. and here to tell us about that is Mr.

Carlos Cuellar. Let's welcome him. All right. Thank you guys.

I'm just gonna take a minute just to share with you a few things about our soccer camp. We're really excited. This is the 2nd year that we get to do this, and it's really fitting because we're going right now through the topic of evangelism on Sunday mornings and what a better way to evangelize and to get into the community and be salt and light for the Lord. And that's the privilege that we have.

God saved us so that we can proclaim His Excellencies who called us out of darkness into His light. we get to do that by using Football by using soccer, and we're gonna, we're going to basically meet at a park for 5 days this this coming week, Monday through Friday, and for 2.5 hours each evening we're going to just get to receive not only Cornerstone kids but a lot of neighborhood unreached kids who don't know the Lord, and we're going to just get to teach them soccer skills as we impart the gospel to them and just really call them to to to put their faith in Jesus.

You, inside your bulletin, there's a little bit more information about that, where we're gonna be meeting, and you can be praying for us. We just appreciate your prayers throughout this week as we do that.

if you're interested in volunteering and haven't signed up yet, you can do that. You can see me on the lawn after the service, and I'd be happy to talk to you. We're gonna have, for those of you who are volunteering and who are part of the, the ministry, we're gonna have a short meeting right after the second service. I'd appreciate if you guys could be there.

if you volunteer, you're gonna get a very cool t-shirt like this. And some of the, some of you, a chosen few of you will get a very cool sweatband. So, Anyway, so that's another reason to volunteer if you haven't already, but just be praying for us. And last year was just a tremendous time.

God it above and beyond all that we could ask or think, and he brought us about 65 kids. And what we're doing is we want to see a lot of those kids come into our WA program, so you can be praying for that. Also pray that they're Parents who come out, we have several parents come out and stick around for the entire week, pray that those parents would be interested in coming to our new Spanish fellowship that we're gonna start this fall. So those are two exciting ways that we're reaching out and hopefully we'll make an impact, in those around those people around us.

So thanks so much. Come. You need No, we, so that's, begins tomorrow night at 66 o'clock, 6 to 8:30, and, you'll be meeting at the park, so you'll be showing up at the park at 6. And if anyone needs to know how to get there, please talk to Carlos, about, about that after the service, OK?

Well, this morning, we're going to, do the 2nd installment of our 3 week series on the subject of evangelism. And God has called us. in Christ, who are believers in Him to go into all the world, and evangelize every creature. That's literally what the text of Scripture, commands us to do, to evangelize, every creature, which means to make the good news of the gospel known.

to them. Last week, Mike, Barry, preached on God's role in the salvation of souls. And that was a critical sermon for us to, to hear because if we're going to be effective evangelists for the Lord, and know what our role is, we, we need to make sure we know what God's role is so that we never confuse those two. We never assume upon ourselves what only God can.

And should do. But what we're going to focus on today is what our responsibility is. God has chosen to include us in the, the process of the salvation of sinners, and today we want to focus on what our role is. I, the reason we're focusing on this, guys, is because there's actually a lot of confusing voices that are out there.

There's a lot of models of evangelism that we see exemplified, in people's practices, and then also there's a lot of literature out there that's teaching one method of evangelism and saying this is the better way to go than, than some other method. There are many people today, churches and organizations that are preaching, or they're evangelizing the loss. And the message they're evangelizing them with says nothing about sin, in, in any way. I remember asking one lady who was a bibl a counselor who worked at a church, do you ever tell lost people that they're sinners when you evangelize them?

And she laughed and she said, I never thought about that. I suppose I should, but I haven't. so there are many people out there who are not letting people know the news that they are sinners and, and even using the law to inform them of that. There are others that are preaching a gospel message that does not include the cross, the crucifixion of Jesus, and I shared with you guys, somewhat recently of a gospel tract that I received in the mail telling, telling me how to be saved.

And to be sure, I'm going to heaven when I die, and nothing in the entire tract was said about what Christ did to accomplish my salvation on the cross. there are others who say, hey, when you evangelize, begin with the love of God, or share the four spiritual laws, and then there are others who say, no, don't do that, that's actually bad, and start with the law of God and And I'm not at this point saying one method is better than another. I'm just saying that there's a lot of times we hear competing voices and And sometimes we can be left a little befuddled over, well, what do I do when I evangelize somebody and share Christ with them.

So what I want to do today is essentially give you 7 pieces of counsel.

This is not going to be exhaustive. If you want to learn in a detailed way how to evangelize, then take the evangelism class that starts the 2nd Sunday of September, and you can learn. in a more detailed fashion. This will not be exhaustive, but it will allow me the opportunity to hit on 7 hot button issues that I know I'm passionate about, and the staff is that we think would be of help for you if we covered them, today.

But let me begin by reading to you a quote from a book entitled How to Increase Your Church's Attendance. This was written by a pastor of a church of several 1000 people in the Midwest. a number of years ago and in the book, he's speaking to pastors and he's telling pastors how to, how to conduct an evangelistic service and how to conduct an evangelistic invitation. And listen to one of the pieces of advice that he gives to pastors.

He says, do not reveal the closing point in your sermon. Do not reveal the closing or the last point. Many of us in our preaching will make such statements as, now in conclusion, or finally, may I say, or my last point is, He goes on to say this, these statements are sometimes dangerous. The sinner now knows 5 minutes before you finish.

Hence he digs in and prepares himself for the invitation so that he does not respond. However, if your closing is abrupt and a lost person does not suspect that you are about finished, you have crept up on him, and he will not have time to prepare himself for the invitation. Many people may be reached using this method. That's a totally serious piece of counsel from this pastor to other pastors like me.

And so there's a lot of stuff that's out there, a lot of voices that are clamoring to be heard. And we want to make sure that above all of those voices that we are hearing from the Word of God. So we want to talk about evangelizing with power, all of us, we're called to evangelize, and it's like, hey, if we're, if we're called to do it, and we're going to do it, let's do it with power. Let's do it effectively.

And the pieces of counsel that I'm going to give you this morning, we have these kinds of statements attached to them. we haven't spoken of, of the gospel coming to lost people in power, all men knowing, that, that we are Jesus' disciples. If we do a certain thing, we're gonna see that when someone was preaching the gospel to the lost, that thousands of them were pierced to the heart as they listened to the gospel presentation. We're gonna learn of, of what we should do in order to see men drawn.

Effectively to Jesus. We're going to learn in the book of Acts, the early church that with great power, they were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And then Luke, the writer of Acts, explains exactly why there was such great power in their proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus. And all of these things are attached to the seven pieces of counsel that we're going to look at this morning.

that if you follow these pieces of counsel, then your evangelism will be exactly as powerful as God wants it to be, exactly as effective towards the salvation of sinners as God desires for it to be. All right, you ready? Here we go, counsel number one, if you want to evangelize with power, if you want to be an effective evangelist, is infuse the gospel into your life and then give your life to people. Infuse the gospel into your life and then give your life to, people.

what, guys, we need to get out of our minds the concept that evangelism is something you do on Monday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. It's not something that you schedule into your day. Evan evangelism is life. It is to be the whole of your life.

Everything in your life is to be geared towards the gospel, the experience of the gospel for yourselves, and the demonstration. And proclamation of the gospel to other people. And if you want to be a powerful evangelist impacting the lost effectively, that the number one thing you need to do is you need to experience the gospel in all of its fullness. You need to pump your life full of the gospel, your heart and your mind and your life and your home, your behavior, your ethics and your theology, infuse the gospel into your life and then give your life away to other people.

it's one thing to go to the lost and to be holding a New Testament or a tract and say, hey, can I show you something? See this right here? You need this. Let me give you this, let me give you this, let me give you this, and you over here, you're lost.

Let me give you this, let me give you this. And that's, that's good. And that's a part of evangelism. But God calls us to do something even more difficult.

And that is to download the gospel into our lives and then to deliver our gospel-laden lives to people. That's a lifestyle of evangelism. a number of years ago, I learned something about preaching. When I first started as a pastor of Cornerstone.

back in 1992, basically, I, I had copious notes that I brought to the pulpit. I had like 456 pages of notes that were single spaced and typed out, and they were color coded and everything, and I even had, my points, and then even transition statements. What can I say to transition from one point to the next, and I basically had my sermons about 80% manuscripted. And the way I essentially preached in those early years was I had my notes, and I preached my notes.

All right, my notes, the truths were here on paper. And I stood up here and I delivered my notes. I delivered truth from my notes to the congregation. Around 1994 or 1995, I don't remember exactly when it was.

I know we were in March 3, that's how I date things., we were in Mark chapter three, and I got the feeling like something was amiss with that and, and I began to make this decision. I pretty much decided, what, from now on, I'm gonna put all my notes on one page. And I will consult it as I preach, but during the week, I will take the truth of God's word. I will jam it as much as I can into my heart.

And then when I get to the pulpit, I will give my heart to the people of Cornerstone. And I began doing that at that point. And it's very different than just dishing off notes. that I have sitting on the pulpit.

It's very different when I have my heart full of God's truth, and then I just give my heart to those that I preach to. And that's essentially what we are commanded to do. This is the way we effectively evangelize. We jam the gospel, we infuse the gospel into our lives, and then we begin to give our lives away.

And by the way, you jam the gospel into your children. You infuse the gospel into their lives, and then you give your children away to the lost. If your child says, I want to go to India, I want to go to this Muslim country, and you're thinking, man, if they go there, they may end up being dead in 2 years. Your thoughts should be, what, I have infused the gospel into my child.

And now I give my life, I give my child away to this gospel that I have poured into them. This is more difficult. You might say, well, I, I've never heard of that strategy for evangelism before. Where is it found in scripture?

Well, we find it in Thessalonians, First Thessalonians, Paul is reflecting back on his time with the Thessalonian believers. And by way of evangelism, when he was giving the gospel to them, he says to them in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction, just as what men we proved to be among you for your sake. Paul was saying, we didn't just stand, on some platform. Form and love the gospel to you.

No, we came and lived among you. We were among you. We were in relationship with you. And our gospel did not come to you in word only, but it came in power in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance, as you saw the men we were among you, and for your sake.

He elaborates on this in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. He says, having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased. In other words, we didn't just do this, but we were thrilled to do this. We were happy to do this.

We were ecstatic. We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives. Paul is saying when we were among you, yes, we gave you the gospel in word. But we gave you our lives.

And he goes on to say, how they suffered. Paul ended up suffering when he was in Thessalonica. He got persecuted by the Jews. He ultimately ended up getting run out of town.

He didn't want to be a financial burden to the Thessalonians, so he says we were working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, and we basically poured out our lives to you like a. Father or a mother would for their children and, and it was a great sacrifice. Paul gave away his time. He gave away his energy, he gave away his life.

He did everything he could to meet their needs. He poured out his gospel infused life into the Thessalonians. Yes, we verbally preach the gospel, and we give the gospel to people in word, but we also take the gospel and put it in our lives and then give our lives to people. Toward it's life on life.

JI Packer in his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God says you are not usually justified in choosing the subject of conversation with another until you have already begun to give yourself to him and friendship. And establish a relationship with him in which he feels that you respect him and are interested in him and are treating him as a human being and not just some case. With some people you may establish such a relationship in 5 minutes, whereas with others it may take months.

Evangelism is not just speaking gospel to people, it's Letting the gospel fill your life, and then you begin to give yourself, you begin to give your life to people in love for them.

And this often involves sacrifice. This is lifestyle evangelism in the best of ways. And I'm not saying here, just Relate to people and hope that sometime over the next decade they're going to say, hey, there's something different about you. What is that?

That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a lifestyle where you are declaring gospel truth verbally, but you're also giving your life away to the very people that you are seeking to reach. There's a second piece of counsel that I want to give to you guys, and that is be righteous, do good deeds, and suffer well. You want to, you want to have an impact upon the lost, then be righteous, do good deeds and suffer well.

Nothing hinders the testimony of Christ any more than unrighteous living amongst professing Christians. they cause the enemies of Christ to blaspheme, turns the hearts of people away from even hearing the genuine truth that is being declared. but Peter says, if you want to have an impact upon the loss, be righteous, do what's right, abstain from what's wrong, do good deeds, live a life of doing good deeds. That's not just morally good deeds, but beneficial deeds of charity, meeting needs, material and, and even spiritual, whatever needs you see to pour yourself into doing good things.

Things and beneficial things to those in your life that have needs and suffer well. Look what he says in 1 Peter 2:12. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles. It's presumed that you're going to be among the lost in relationship with them.

And while you're among them, keep your behavior excellent. That's morally excellent. So that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, these believers Peter's writing to were being persecuted. They were suffering, they were going through the fires of affliction and persecution.

And part of the persecution was that some of them were being slandered as evildoers. They were being misjudged, mistreated, and slandered by the very people that they were seeking to reach for Christ. He says, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. what a day of visitation refers to?

In, in the Bible, a visitation from God could either be a visitation of judgment or a visitation of mercy. And Jesus uses this expression, when he weeps over Jerusalem, he says, you did not recognize the time of your visitation. In other words, I visited you in mercy, you didn't recognize that, and now judgment's going to come your way big time. and this passage, clearly, every commentator agrees that this is a visitation by God, a visitation of mercy.

And what Peter is saying is if you amongst the lost, keep your behavior excellent, you live a godly and holy life. And also, you, when you're being mistreated, if you suffer well, if you don't retaliate, but you render a blessing when you are cursed, and when people do evil to you, you forgive and you do kindness in return to them, and you're living a life of doing good deeds, even towards the very people that are misunderstanding. and slandering you and speaking against you, if you're living this way and responding to suffering in this way, then the lost people may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God on the day in which God visits them in mercy.

Peter is saying the day may come when God shows up, and the work of regeneration begins, and God begins to work in their life and show themself and their sin and show them the glories of Jesus.

And on that day, you do not want your life to be an argument that comes into their mind against receiving Christ. You want to be the person that they think about, and it only spurs them to look more seriously at this, to where on that day when God visits them in mercy, they're ready to respond, and your life has been an impetus used by God to steer them in that direction. how, like how many of us in this room want to be good evangelists? Raise your hand., we might pray, Lord, make me a good evangelist, and what the Lord may do with some of you?

He may say, what, I'm going to, I'm going to answer your prayer. And create an opportunity for you to have a huge evangelistic impact upon a lost person. What I'm going to do is I'm going to bring suffering into your life. You're going to be mistreated.

And the person that you're wanting to reach, I'm going to allow them to even do wrong against you. I'm going to allow them to see wrong being done against you. I, I want them to see how you suffer as a Christian. Well, when we think about that, maybe we're not so excited about having an evangelistic impact.

But what, I've heard testimonies of people that were influenced to Christ by watching a genuine believer suffer, suffer with grief and pain and tears, but suffer with hope in their hearts and trust in God. And so be righteous, do good deeds, and when suffering comes your way, when things don't go your way in life, when you're misunderstood and mistreated, respond well to that. And God can use that. To cause unbelievers watching you to glorify God on the day of visitation.

There's a 3rd piece of counsel if you want to be able to evangelize the loss with power, and that is love your fellow Christians. You say, Milton, I thought we were talking about evangelism today. We are. Don't underestimate the impact that we can have on the lost as we relate to one another and love one.

Another. Jesus teaches us this in John 13:34. He says, by this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for each other. The world will look on and say, wow, you must be a true genuine disciple of Jesus, all of you, because I see the way that you are loving one another.

In John 17, Jesus is praying to the Father. And he says, Father, I do not ask on behalf of these disciples. Alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. In other words, that all of these believers, the disciples, and then all believers that are, that believe in me through their testimony, and that includes us.

Regardless of their, their history of any hostilities between each other and any prior wrongs that are done against one another, regardless of their economic differences and social differences and ethnic differences, that they would all be unified and that those who claim my name would be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I and you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. See, Jesus here 2000 years ago is contemplating in advance, what it is that he intends to communicate to the world, the truth about him, that proves to be persuasive to the world that he is truly the Messiah, the Savior sent by God, and Jesus envisions our unity with one another, the way that we love one another, to be what God uses.

To affirm The credibility of the truth about Jesus. I was rereading, just a little story about a guy, Jim Peterson wrote a book entitled Evangelism as a Lifestyle.

And in that book he tells about a friend of his named Mario. Jim Peterson was a missionary down in Brazil. There was a day where a guy named Mario and his fiance stopped by Jim Peterson's house. Jim invited him in for a bowl of soup, and Jim was there with his wife and his children, and the whole family sat around the table, and they enjoyed a bowl of soup with Mario and his fiance.

And didn't get into heavy gospel preaching at that point, but established a relationship with, with Mario that led to over the next 4 years, Jim Peterson met with Mario once a week, and they studied the Bible together. Eventually, Mario ended up accepting Christ as his Lord and Savior, and he experienced salvation. Shortly thereafter, Mario was talking to Jim Peterson, and he said, hey, Jim, do what it was that God used more than anything else to awaken me to my need for Christ?

And Jim said, no, I don't know what it is.

But he says in the book, I suspected that it was our intellectual discussions around the scripture that were just so compelling to him that he was persuaded. He expected that reply, but Mario said, well, I'll tell you what it was. Listen to what Mario said to Jim Peterson. Remember that first time I stopped by your house?

We were on our way someplace together, and I had a bowl of soup with you and your family. As I sat there observing you, your wife, your children, and how you related to each other, I asked myself, when will I have a relationship like this with my fiance? When I realized that the answer was never, I concluded I had to become a Christian for the sake of my own survival. I know some of you parents are thinking, oh my goodness, if I had someone come over to my home and watch the way we relate to one another, I don't.

All right, so we're not there yet. All right. But, but again, this just highlights how important it is, even when you don't have people in your home, brothers and sisters and parents towards children, children towards parents, husbands and wives, we need to be relating to one another as if Jesus actually died so that we can now love one another as if the cross has made some difference in our lives. So that when the us do come into our home.

We're not faking it just to be a good testimony. But instead, we're relating to one another and loving one another the way that we have been doing even when no one else was in the home. But in the life of Mario, it was observing the way a Christian family members were relating to one another. There's huge power in this, guys.

In fact, in the book of Acts, Chapter 4, it says, and with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. And as you're reading that, you're like, Luke, I'm curious, why? Why were they preaching the resurrection with such great power? Why was so much grace?

Upon the congregation in an evident way. Luke says, I thought you would ask that. Let me tell you why verse 34, for there was not a needy person among them speaking of the church, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. What was one of the reasons that the gospel was going forth and with power?

It's because of the way the church, Members loved one another, even to the point of selling stuff in order that they can have the money to address needs in the lives of their brothers and sisters. So let us love one another. Let us love one another, and be excited actually, about the evangelistic impact of our loving relationships with each other. You say, all right, Milton, all right, that's all good, infuse the gospel into our lives and, love one another and, and do that thing.

And, OK, we get that, but I really would like some help and, what do I say to a person, a lost person when I'm, they're right in front of my face. I've got 10 minutes to speak to them, or maybe more time than that or maybe less, but what do I do? How do I share the gospel with, with that person? what is the process?

Well, again, if you guys want more training on this, take the evangelism class, and you're going to learn this over a period of weeks. But let me give you 1/4 piece of counsel that now the rest of this begins to deal with your direct interaction with the lost person as you're verbally declaring the gospel to them. I want to highly commend to you guys, what is indeed a biblical practice. And that is that when you share the gospel with the lost, begin with God.

Begin with God. Don't start off by saying, do you feel empty inside? Do you have a hole that you're thinking needs to be filled? Do you feel lonely?

Do you need a friend? don't make that person the starting point. and I would encourage you not even to make their sin the starting point. Make God the starting point as you begin to unfold the gospel, to them.

This is actually, I would encourage you guys to do a study through the Book of Acts and look at all the occasions where there's any evangelizing happening. And we have record of what the evangelizing person is saying. And the consistent pattern you find is that they always seem to begin with God. It's just amazing in its consistency.

On the day of Pentecost, Peter Acts 2:22 says, men of Israel, listen to these words, Jesus, the Nazarene, and then he begins to speak about Jesus for about 13 verses and talking about what he did when he was here. And Old Testament. And Scripture that affirms the truth that he is the Messiah, his death, and also his resurrection, that he was approved of God and so forth. Peter preached Jesus, he began his presentation to them by speaking to them of God, the Son, Jesus Christ.

In Acts chapter 10, Peter is speaking to the Gentile Cornelius and his household. And look how he begins Acts 10:34, and opening his mouth, Peter said, I most certainly understand now that God, see, he begins with God, that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the man who fears him and does What is right is welcome to him, the Word, which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. You see, he's beginning with God, he's beginning with Jesus Christ.

He's declaring the lordship of Jesus. You yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee. of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, how he went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed, for God was with him. You notice nothing's been said of sin yet.

He gets to that. He gets to that, but he begins with God, portraying God. In Acts 17, Paul is on Mars Hill, and he finds an altar with the inscription to an unknown God. He uses that as the starting point for his message to those that were there.

He says in Acts 17:23, for while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with the inscription to an unknown God. What therefore you worship in ignorance, this, I proclaim to you, this God, I proclaim to you. Now these are pagans, they know nothing about God. They don't know like the Jews know that God is the Creator and sustainer of all of life.

And so Paul begins with creation truth about God, the God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he gives to all life and breath and all things in Him, we live and move and exist. Now eventually Paul gets to sin. But he begins by giving basic truth about God. He gets to sin in verse 30, when he says, God, this God I've been telling you about, who is your Creator and sustainer, the one who gives you every good gift you enjoy in life.

God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent. Again, the consistent pattern throughout the Book of Acts is that when someone is evangelizing, they begin with God. You think of even Paul on the Damascus road. no human evangelized him, but, Jesus did, right?

And he had an encounter with the glorified Christ, where he saw his glory that left him blind for a handful of days. That gospel presentation to Paul began. With the revelation of the glory of Jesus Christ. Now, sometimes people say, well, and, and, and I think we, we understand what they're saying by this.

They say, well, when you're, when you're evangelizing someone, you should always begin with the law. And my response to that would be, well, what do you mean by the law? do you mean the book of the law? If that's what you mean, then I would say, yeah, I totally agree with that.

Begin with the book of the law. What's the book of the law? It's the first five books of the Old Testament. And then how does the book of the law begin?

Do you open it up to Genesis 1:1 and it says, thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not steal? No, you open up the book of the law, and it says in the beginning, God. Created The heavens, and the earth, and goes on to speak of all that God has created, indicating this world belongs to him. And all the sustenance we draw from this earth is because of the creative handiwork of God.

And we learn in Genesis that we have sinned against God. This God has a right to give us instructions, but we have sinned against him. And you read all this about God. And it's not until Exodus chapter 20, that God begins to speak the 10 Commandments.

So I would encourage you then. As you evangelize, go ahead, begin with the book of the law, which begins with God. You say, well, When I evangelize, I, what by law is the 10 Commandments. I think we should begin with the 10 Commandments, to which I would reply, that's really great.

Have you read the 10 Commandments lately? have you opened up your Bible and read Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy 5 lately? Have you read the 10 Commandments lately? Because the 10 Commandments begin with a proclamation.

The proclamation that the 10 Commandments begin with is, I am the Lord, your God. God is speaking. He doesn't start off saying, have no other gods before me. Don't lie, don't steal.

He begins by saying before he gives a single command, I am the Lord your God. Look at me. This is who I am. I am Jehovah.

I am the self-existent one. No one brought me into existence. And I am also your God, which implies I am your Creator. And so being your God, I am your authority.

I have a right to tell you what to do. And not only am I your God and the self existent one, but look what I've done for you. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, therefore, have no other gods before me. And on the list begins.

I love the tablets on the screen behind me because these tablets on this image do something that a lot of people fail to do when they produce a facsimile of the 10 Commandments. They normally, a lot of times begin with the first commandment, but this on this tablet, it begins with, I am the Lord your God, and I love that. So when you speak to the lost, if you want to begin with the 10 Commandments, that's great. But do what the 10 Commandments do, start with God.

And what? God is speaking to Israel saying, I brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery. To a pagan Gentile who may know nothing about God, you might have to basically portray God to them. And, and then begin to speak to them that God is the one who created you.

God is the one who sustained your life. He gives you every breath that you breathe, every heartbeat, all good things in your life are gifts from Him. You see, guys, it's not until, this is why we begin with God. It's not until people see God, In his immensity and in His glory that they can then even begin to comprehend the magnitude of their sin.

Almost everyone that I have ever witnessed to, I think there's been just a couple of times that I recall that I have witnessed to someone and they refuse to acknowledge ever sinning in their life. It was over in Israel. Last year in October and November, and we were witnessing to a guy over there who said that he has never committed any sin in his life, and those people are, are rare. 95% of all the people you're ever going to talk to will admit, yes, I've lied.

Yes, I've stolen. Yes, I've committed adultery in my heart. almost everyone knows intuitively that they have failed to even live up to their own standard, and almost anyone you ever talked to, they, they themselves will have a bad feeling about that. It's like, yeah, I know I haven't been what I should be, and yeah, I feel bad about that.

And sometimes when we're witnessing the people, that's all we're looking for. And it's like, OK, so you're ready to pray and to believe. When somebody who is being quickened by God and regenerated by God, they don't just see that they've sinned. But they see their sins as being against God.

We'll see this further. JI Packer in his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, says the gospel is a message about God. It's not just a message about rules being broken. It's a message about God.

It tells us who He is, what his character is, what his standards are, and what He requires of us, His creatures. The gospel starts by teaching us that we as creatures are absolutely dependent on God and that He as Creator has an absolute claim on us. Only when we have learned this can we see what sin is. And so I come in to you.

Begin with God. Make it your ambition that what, God, by your grace and through your enabling, I want to speak to this lost person. And please, through my words, show them your greatness, show them your glory. In fact, when I preach the gospel to myself every day, I always begin with God.

My God is immense beyond imagination. He measured the entire universe with merely the span of his hand. He has also been unbelievably good and merciful to me as the Creator and the sustainer of my life. Every breath, every heartbeat, every function.

of every organ is a gift from God. Every legitimate pleasure I experience is a gift from his loving hand to me. There's no greater object, object of admiration, wonder and delight in all of the universe. why I began that way?

Because when I begin with the greatness of God, that's when I begin to understand the greatness of my sin. And when I understand the greatness of my sin, I then begin to understand the greatness of the grace that God has shown to me. Look at how Peter does this in Acts 2. I love this.

The very first evangelistic sermon in the history of the church. Again, I told you, he says, of Jesus of Nazareth, he begins to preach Jesus to them. It takes like 13 or so verses to present Jesus and how he is the Messiah, how he died, how he was raised, approved of God, and here's Old Testament scriptures that affirm who He is and he's just presenting to them the glory. and the grandeur of Jesus.

And then he sums it up by saying, therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. And I want you to be there in this moment, guys. Peter is climaxing his declaration of the glory of Jesus as the Messiah, the chosen one, the risen one of God. And I'm sure the listeners were like caught up and they're like, Whoa, he's awesome.

And then there's a pause. And Peter says, this Jesus, whom you crucified. Oh Oh, We crucified. This one.

Who is so great and glorious. And those words come out of Peter's mouth, this Jesus whom you crucified, and their immediate responses. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said, brethren, what shall we do? And Peter told them, But they would not have understood.

They knew they crucified Christ, didn't they? before the day of Pentecost, they all knew they crucified Christ, those that were involved in that. Did they feel guilty about it? No.

But when Peter stood in front of them and in the power of the Holy Spirit portrayed the glory of Jesus, and preached Jesus to them as he really is. Now this, this fact, they already knew that we crucified Him. Now they don't feel so good about that. In fact, they're pierced to the heart.

But I don't think they would have been quite so pierced to the heart if Peter didn't begin. With God, begin his gospel presentation by proclaiming the glory of Jesus to them. You think of Isaiah and Isaiah 6, he sees the Lord at the beginning of that chapter high and lifted up. We know from John's Gospel that what Isaiah saw was the glory of Jesus himself.

How does Isaiah respond upon seeing God as he is? He says, woe is me, for I am ruined. I'm an unclean man, and I need atonement. And he received that atonement as the story continues, but it was his vision of God that showed him the magnitude of his sin.

Isaiah, before he saw the Lord, did he know he was a sinner? Yeah, we know Isaiah, he was a prophet. He, he knew that he was a sinner. But something about seeing God in His glory awakened an awareness of the magnitude of his sin.

Beyond what Isaiah had ever experienced before. And that's why guys, when you are bringing the gospel to the lost, begin with God. Declare his glory and His greatness, then and only then can people see the greatness of their sin. 5th piece of counsel that leads us right into this is when you do share the gospel, do make sure that you speak of sin.

And when you do speak of it as being against God. Don't just try to show someone that they're a sinner. Don't just try to convince them that they've lied, and get them to acknowledge that you do want them to acknowledge that, but you ultimately want them to see that the lies they tell, the disobedience that they've had to the 10 Commandments are ultimately acts of offense against God. All right?

For a person to say, yes, I'm a liar, I'm a thief, that indicates some progress. But again, most people will acknowledge that fact. What you want someone to do is to acknowledge and understand that those sins are against this incredibly glorious God that I have been speaking to them. But do speak of sin.

And again, there are many people out there that don't speak of sin, as they share the gospel with The lost. In fact, listen to what one pastor here in Southern California said in a book a couple of decades ago, and this is his advice to you regarding evangelism. He says unsaved souls will need a great deal of positive affirmation before they will be able to listen and hear and begin to comprehend the truth of saving grace. No wonder Jesus Christ employed a strategy of evangelism where he never called a person a sinner.

If the Pharisees read that, they'd go, well, he did. He called us graves and full of dead men's bones and hypocrites, and the woman at the well would say, yeah, he, he did point out my sin of immorality. So this is not even a true statement. But he goes on to say they were sinners, of course, but he never told them they were.

Now listen to this. In this guy's opinion, the proclamation of the truth of their sin would only have driven the nail of unworthiness deeper, until the promises of forgiveness would lack the power to loosen and extract the spike of sin, self-condemnation, and guilt. So don't, people are fragile. Don't tell them they're sinners because that'll beat them down so much that they'll say, I'm not even worthy of the gospel.

So I'm not even going to believe. It's too bad that the apostles didn't get this counsel. because they blew it big time, but amazingly it was effective. in Acts 2, Peter is saying, you disown the holy and righteous one and put to death the Prince of life.

This man you nailed to a cross and put him to death. You crucified him. he's coming at them with their sins in this matter. And did they walk away so beaten down that they could never believe the gospel?

No, their response is, they're pierced to the heart. They're like, what shall we do? Peter says, he tells them what to do. And they do that.

And that day, 3000 souls are added. to the church. So, what, guys, just go with the biblical model, rather than some of the models that we have, out there today. God will save those whom he has chosen to save as we faithfully preach the gospel.

And again, don't just speak of sin, don't just get a person to acknowledge that they've sinned. You need to labor to show them that they sinned against God. That's the purpose of the law. We use the law in our evangelism.

Not to show people that they've sinned. We use the law to show them that they've sinned against God. That's the point of the use of the law. In fact, Paul does this in Romans 2.

He says in Romans 2:21, you who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? Well, yes. You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you not commit adultery in your heart? Basically, he's saying, and the listener says, well, yes.

Now listen to this, because this is where Paul's heading. You who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you not dishonor God? that he's leading them to that awareness. And so we want the last person not just to say, yes, I've sinned, but for them to see that every one of their sins are against God, who is infinitely holy and infinitely righteous, who is their Creator, and who owns them and has the right to tell them how to live.

And therefore, their sin is not just sin, their sin is as infinitely bad as God is infinitely good. Preach God. And then when you preach sin, show them through the law that their sin is against this God. That is what makes sin.

Sin Romans 3:23 and Paul's summary statement all have sinned and falls short of the glory of God. That's his point. So we use the law, use the 10 Commandments to, to show people their sin. And what, sometimes when we use the law, our motive is only I'm going to use the law to show them that they really need Christ.

There's nothing wrong with that. why Paul used the law in the book of Romans? He used the law. To show people their sin so that they would thereby know that they're qualified for salvation.

Read the logic of Romans 3:23, and the verses preceding that. Paul's point is to show that everyone is sinners, including you, and that makes you qualified for the salvation that Jesus. Jesus came to give. Jesus came to save sinners.

So I'm going to take the time to show you that you're in that category. So it's actually good news that you're realizing you're a sinner, because now that you're in the category of those that are qualified to be justified by faith in Him. Jesus said, I didn't come to call the righteous, I came for sinners. So we show them out of love, their sin, so that they know that they're in the camp of the qualified ones for the Savior who came only for sinners.

Use the law with this intent. There is a 6th piece of counsel that I would give you. And that is, yes, you preach God, and yes, you speak of sin and show them that their sin is against God. But when you evangelize, speak much of the Savior and of his cross.

You don't want to get so caught up in speaking about their sin and their violations of the law, that that's where your primary passion is. And And it's, you overlook really emphasizing Jesus. Here's the deal, guys, anyone who's watching you evangelize, and they're taking notes, they ought to be able to say when you're done, man, that person preaches Jesus. Man, that person proclaims Christ, that person is passionate about Jesus.

Yes, he used the law, but he is passionate about Jesus. That is Paul's description of his own ministry. He says, we proclaim him. That's what we're all about.

We're all about proclaiming Jesus. As we proclaim Jesus, the revelation of Jesus, the glory of Jesus, his death and his resurrection from the dead. God uses that to show people their sin, their need of Him. In 1 Corinthians 2:2, Paul says to the Corinthians, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

When I was with you guys 5 years ago, that's all I wanted to talk about was Jesus and Him crucified. I went to the cross. I went to Jesus. You guys came to me and said, Hey, what do you think of this guru who's just coming through Corinth, and here's a new philosophy he's advocating.

What do you think, Paul? Paul's like, I don't know. All I know is Jesus and Him crucified. That's all I want to talk about.

Paul says, I was content to come across to you like that was the only thing I knew. was Jesus and Him crucified to the Corinthians, in chapter 15, he says, now I make known to you the gospel. And he goes on to explain what the gospel is and the very first thing is that Christ died for our sins. There are people today that are preaching Christ apart from the cross.

That's exceedingly dangerous. And what, you could do that. You can go to the gospels and pull certain things. About Jesus, his love for the poor, and, and whatever, you can pull certain things about Jesus and preach that, and you can get almost anyone on the planet to follow him.

But you take the cross of Christ, and you stick that in front of people's face, you'll divide any audience that you're speaking to. There will be some who say, that is the God for me. I want that God. That is the God for me, who died for me and showed me his love and giving up his life for me.

Some will come by faith to Jesus through the cross and experience the power of God, but others In the room will say that is stupid. That is moronic foolishness. I want nothing to do with that. And others will be morally outraged.

It will be a scandal to them that God would slaughter his son so that we might be saved. And there's a lot of literature out there where people are utterly offended by the teaching of the Bible of the vicarious atonement to the death of Christ, and they have all kinds of criticisms against it. And what, there are some people in the church that have grown ashamed of the cross. But what, guys, don't just preach Jesus, you preach the crucified Messiah.

You publicly portray him as crucified, as Paul says he did to the Galatians in Galatians chapter 3. He is the crucified one. Yes, he is raised, but when we preach the gospel, we speak much of Jesus and of his crucifixion. The reason it's not popular to do so is because the cross shows us the magnitude of our sin.

John Stott in his book on the Cross of Christ says nothing reveals the gravity of sin like the cross. The cross does not flatter us. It is impossible for us to face Christ's cross with integrity and not feel ashamed of ourselves. For if there was no way by which God could righteously forgive our unrighteousness, except that he should bear it himself in Christ, it must be serious indeed.

The cross not only shows people. The love or the gravity of their sins, but the cross also shows people the relentless, ruthless love of God for them. God was willing to, was willing to go to any lengths in order to save us. And guys, may we never lose the amazement over that, that, I, I know myself, I know the life that I've lived.

And The offenses that I've committed against God by breaking His law, and that God would take his perfect son and slay him on the cross for me. What, what amazing love is this? And that Jesus was willing to lay his life down and be crushed upon a cross for my salvation. Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life like this for me.

Through the cross, God shows us the gravity of our sins. He also shows us the greatness of his love. There's a 7th piece of counsel. My last point is, guys, in conclusion, is at the end of the day, when you're sharing the gospel, call upon people to repent and believe.

Repent means to change their mind about God, change their mind about themselves, change their mind about anything else they've been putting their trust in up to that point, change their mind about their sin, and turn to God away from their sin, and to believe to deposit the sum total of all of their trust in Jesus and in Him alone. Ultimately, you call upon people to do this. The gospel is not just a group of facts. sometimes we use the word share, like I was able to share the gospel.

And I'm not going to criticize that. That's cool. But sometimes we can be so, I guess Wimpy, when we share the gospel that we're like, well, I just want to share some things with you. And this is who Jesus is, and this is what he's done.

And I, I just want to leave those, those facts with you for you to contemplate and And there's something missing in that. All right, what I just said is OK, but it's not complete. There's something missing, something missing in that. The gospel at its core is a confrontation.

The gospel embodies a command from God. In fact, the evangelists in the New Testament, they, they deliver commands. Acts 2:38, repent, Peter says, in Acts 16:31, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's an imperative.

In First John 3:23, John says, this is his commandment. that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ. To the last, God says, believe in my Son. That's a command.

Are you going to obey or disobey? To us as believers, every single day we get up in the morning and God gives us a command, Believe in my Son today. And ultimately, we're not just sharing facts, but we are making an appeal. 2 Corinthians 5:20, we are ambassadors for Christ.

Paul says, as though God were making an appeal through us, we beg of you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. Ultimately, the gospel leads to a command that we communicate from God through us to the lost. And the question they're left with is, will they obey or disobey that command? We often think of the gospel as something to believe in, but we often don't think of the gospel as something to obey.

But what's interesting is, In 2 Thessalonians 1:8, Paul speaks of those who do not obey the gospel. In 1 Peter 4:17, Peter speaks of those who do not obey the gospel, meaning the gospel is something to obey, apparently, which means the gospel ultimately delivers a command. Will a person obey or disobey? So you share the gospel with someone and ultimately, you end up making an appeal to them to believe and you communicate to them that not only is this who God is and what he's done, through Christ on the cross, raising him from the dead, but God now commands you to believe in His Son.

And you have a choice to make where you obey that command to believe or disobey. Now, if a lost person says, well, I appreciate you sharing that with me, but I'm not going to do that. I don't think I need to do that. I, I think I'm, I'm good enough to get into heaven.

What, what they're doing is what they've done throughout their lives with all of the other commandments of God. God gives them a command and they disregard it in favor of their own wisdom. God now gives them a command in the gospel and they disregard it because they say, well, I disagree with God. I don't need that and I'm not going to obey that command.

That's why only those whom God has regenerated, only those whom God quickens and opens their heart, only those people are able to hear the command of the gospel to believe in Jesus, and say, I will bend my will, and I will believe in obedience to God's command. I will be obedient to The gospel. we're pretty much out of time. Let me just say one thing.

You ever been sharing the gospel with someone and you get all the way to this point and you're like, so, so would you like to, Ask Christ to save you right now, and they're like, yeah. And then you panicked? Like, OK, and this happened to me a number of years ago, a guy I was working with, I've been sharing the gospel with him for like 4 months and, and finally, he was broken one day and he says, I, I'm ready and, and I like panicked and I started trying to think of, OK, so Now, are you sure?

And I, I started going through the checklist and he's like, yeah, and everything checked out and I said, all right, so, all right, I want you to pray and he's like, OK, and, and, but before he prayed, I said, hang on, now when you pray, make sure you thank God for sending his son to die.

And he's like, OK, I'll do that. And I was like, well, and, and, and you also, you need to mention the resurrection because God raised him from the dead. OK, I'll do that. And, and I kept stopping this guy from praying because I want to make sure, everything's got to be included in the prayer or it's not going to work or something.

And But I find great, I found great comfort over the years in, The story Jesus tells of the tax collector who came into the temple and was so broken over his sin that he couldn't even look up into heaven. And all he could get out was God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Period. And Jesus says that man went home righteous.

Amen. So the point is, is God doing a work in someone's life? Is he opening their heart? And if he is, and they respond in faith, it's the faith that saves them.

But the Bible does call upon the lost to call upon the name of the Lord and to be saved thereby. And so ultimately we want to call upon the lost to do exactly that. Well, let me ask you to bow your heads. We're gonna have Jay Wetker from the Master's College come out next week.

To preach. The final installment of the series, so we have more that we're going to seek to learn about. Evangelizing the lost, But I guess my biggest challenge today is that that we all need to Here, here's what I want your priority to be, to say, I want to live a gospel infused life. I want, I want to just every day be just jamming the gospel into my heart, just cramming it into my life and And memorizing scripture and, and searching out truth, listening to sermons, reading books and whatever, meditating and, and reading God's word.

I want, I want to take as much gospel truth as I can get my hands on. I want to be greedy for it. I want my whole life to be infused with it. I want my relationships with my, my spouse and, and my children, my brothers and sisters to be infused with the gospel.

And then I want to start giving my life away, my gospel infused life. I want to just start giving it away. I will give of my time and my energy. I will give of the love that is in me that God has put there.

I will pour out my life as a drink offering. Jesus to accomplish our salvation didn't just come and drop it off. No, it came through him giving up everything. He gave up everything.

He poured out his life. How can we think then that our call to evangelism is to do anything less? Than to let the gospel just fill our lives and then to just start giving our lives away. Dear God, help us to To do this, that the gospel would bleed out of every pore of our body.

If someone were to prick us, it would be gospel that would come out. And that we would be willing even to the point of sacrificially to just give our lives to people. our time and our resources to show them gospel love through our deeds, and then to speak gospel truth to them through our Lips. Lord, help us as we practice these things and follow these pieces of counsel.

To Be able to evangelize with power. Ineffectiveness. What we've seen today is our job, our role. We leave the rest to you.

Help us to glorify You, Lord, in the way that we evangelize. We ask these things in Christ's name. And all God's people said, Amen.