You've Got The Power

Well, recently, I, had the opportunity, many of, to go to Indonesia. this was a conference that they had organized, for several, different people within their mission, biblical ministries worldwide. They also invited myself and their pastor on the East Coast and, other missionaries to come and hear from several different speakers on, evangelizing in an Islamic area. And at this conference, I really came to see the value in having people like Dan and Lillian, they, they had their area director there, also just the general director of, of BMW was there, really trying to give them counsel and guidance as they are praying through where to settle down, in Indonesia.

And also what would be some of the best ways to reach Muslims in their context. And one of the things that really hit me at the conference, and I've, I've heard different stories about this. I don't know if you guys have heard a book, heard of a book called, A Wind in the House of Islam. There's many reports of, of Muslims around the world, coming to know Jesus Christ as their savior.

In fact, many would say that there is a revival going on, amongst Muslim people. But one of the speakers that we heard from at this conference was a gentleman by the name of Mike Shipman, who's been instrumental in leading thousands of people to Christ in the largest Islamic country in the world. and he's written a book about what the Lord is doing there. We're, I'm gonna be talking a little bit about that book later.

But he has seen, approximately 14,000 people come to know Christ, not from him directly, but through the generations of people that have come to know the Lord in his particular area. 14 generations, actually, I think it's 12 generations of small group churches or house churches. there is clearly a movement of the Holy Spirit going on. And at this conference, he shared with us some of the things that they were attempting to do when they first arrived.

And then he shared with us just, a time of prayer and study that he and his partner went through where they began to just study, particularly the Book of Acts, also looking at Jesus and his interactions with people, particularly the woman at the well, and began to try to approach their evangelism in this very high security area. In a way similar to what you see on the pages of the Book of Acts. And so, I wanna lay out for you basically some things that I learned at this conference, some of which are controversial.

they're, they're issues that are debated on the mission field.

They're issues that are debated by Christians. How should we evangelize our friends and neighbors and family? How should we reach out to Muslims or people of a different faith background? And so I want to lay out to you some truths as, as a, a beginning of a dialogue actually.

I'm gonna be preaching this morning also November 8th. And your care group leaders are gonna be bringing some, some issues to your care group, and we'd like to begin a dialogue about the power of the gospel. Let me just start with this opening story or analogy. Imagine that the Blue Jays' Juan Bautista was going up to the plate this last Wednesday versus the Rangers pitcher Sam Dyson in the American League Division Series.

The 7th inning, 2 outs, runners on 1st and 3rd. And he swings at a fastball and flips his bat in triumph and begins to hop to first base, only to realize that instead of bringing a real baseball bat, he had actually brought up a wiffle ball bat and the 95 mile an hour fastball actually crushed his wiffle ball bat. And so the score remains tied. In fact, the Blue Jays go on to lose the game.

Or imagine Tom Brady comes out onto the field today versus the Colts with Nerf footballs. Well, that's actually more realistic. Or imagine Rory Roy, Rory McIlroy opened up his round today and gets to the, the driver box, the tee off and he pulls out his putter instead of his driver. All these things would seem very ridiculous to us., a golfer using his putter, a professional football player throwing around nerf balls or a baseball player bringing a wiffle ball bat up to, his at bat.

And yet, what I wanna propose today is, is that in essence is what we do when we decide to set aside what the Bible, set aside what the Bible calls the power of God. There's one thing on the pages of the New Testament that is called the power of God. And that thing is the gospel. It is called the power of God.

And yet, I don't know about you, but we're sometimes afraid to bring out the power of God in our conversations with people. I remember back in the 80s, I brought a friend of mine to a Billy Graham crusade at Anaheim Stadium. And this friend of mine was going on to be the head of our class. What do you call it?

The guy who gets the highest grades. He was the, OK, there you go, the valedictorian. And so I brought him to the Billy Graham crusade, and I was just hoping that whatever was going to be said at this crusade, that it was gonna absolutely convince my valedictorian friend of the truth of Christianity, and how that there is just, there are so many intellectual reasons to believe the gospel that he would just fall down on his knees and become a Christian. And what Billy Graham did is he got up and he just spoke about Jesus Christ died for sinners on the cross, was raised from the dead, and you need to repent and believe in Jesus.

And all these people came down the aisles and believed in Jesus. And my friend just sat there and I thought, why couldn't Billy have done a better job? I was somewhat embarrassed that there wasn't a more compelling, compelling reasons given for a valedictorian friend to believe. And he just sat in his seat.

We talked a little bit on the way home and I went home embarrassed with my tail between my legs. What I didn't know then. That I think I know now is that the gospel is the power. It may seem like foolishness to some, but it is the power of God unto salvation.

Now, there are many wiffle ball bats that we can use as we approach this topic of salvation. There are, let me just review a couple of them. We could, we can approach people and I've, I've probably done every one of these. We can approach people and just be really, really super careful because we don't want to turn them off to the gospel.

And in our context, we're not in a high security area, but we might just be very careful and, and maybe we go on and have a relationship with people for several months or 1 year or 2 years before we feel like we've earned the right to share the gospel. Or we try to demonstrate that Christians are really, really super smart and I just try to impress people with how smart I am, how much I know about world history, how much I know about philosophy. And I try to put into their hands materials that demonstrate that Christians are super, super smart.

Maybe that'll convince them to come to know Christ.

Or I just try to be the best friend I can and I'm their, I'm their best friend, for 6 months or 1 year or 2 years or 3 years, and I'm earning the right, trying to earn the right to share the gospel with them. that these are all good things, right? We're not saying that these are bad things. But is this the power?

Maybe I can just be a quiet example. I'm not really gonna open up my mouth for the gospel. I'm just gonna just try to be a quiet example of what Christians are like. I'm gonna try to prove that Christians are the best people and we're always the kindest people, and we always drive the most careful on the freeway, right?

the Christians, make the best choices in life. We handle our money better than anybody else. And the Christians raise their kids. We're the best parents.

We're the kindest parents, we're the kindest people on the planet. And that will convince them to become Christians. Maybe we're the most generous, we give away more stuff than anybody else. we're the most incarnational.

we, we, we adapt ourselves the best to the culture, just like Jesus adapted himself to his culture, and then his, his own family and his own village didn't want to have anything to do with them. There's all kinds of ways in which we can feel that we need to earn a place for the gospel. And I want to propose that as Christians, sometimes we're on this endless pursuit of trying to find acceptance as a prerequisite to share the power of the gospel. I want to read just a section from this book called NE 3 by Mike Shipman.

And he says this about this endless pursuit. He says, Each of the preceding pursuits presupposes that Christians must earn a hearing for the gospel. In fact, Christ has already earned that right. When Christ paid for our sins, he also earned the right for us to share the gospel.

Christ has given us the authority to proclaim the gospel to every creature. Christ has already earned the right for us to use the power of the gospel. And while these other factors or other methods that we just mentioned, they're not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but outside or void of the gospel, they do not have power to change life is what I'm proposing this morning. Without the gospel itself, they're like using a wiffle ball bat against a 95 mile an hour fastball.

Mike Shipman, in his context in Indonesia, Went to survey. several 100 people, Muslims who had come to know Christ to try to determine what was the most significant factor in them coming to know Christ. Here's what he says, the most common answer was that for the first time, someone had told them the gospel message that Jesus died as a sacrifice of the forgiveness of their sins. Quite simply, these Muslims gave their lives to Christ because they heard the gospel, and were invited to surrender themselves to Him.

it sounds very elementary, but that's, that's the common answer that Mike Shipman is finding in his context. People come to faith because they hear the gospel and are invited to respond to it. and so what Mike Shipman and his, partners began to do, back in 2005 is they began to use the gospel as the filter itself. Rather than trying to see if people are open, try to friend people enough to where they could see if they were open, they just began to use the gospel very early in conversations.

And to use the gospel in a way that is not necessarily confrontational but just by asking questions of people about their faith and bringing them to a very simple story of the gospel message. What they found is this, the only way to know who is open to the gospel is to share it with them and see who responds. Religious affiliation, clothing, body language, and institution or intuition are very poor substitutes. And so what they began to do is to go out and just share the gospel with people, asking questions, getting to the simple message of Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice, what that means for forgiveness of sins.

Mike tells a story of a man named Jamal Jamal, who had been a jihadi militant. a recently baptized believer set aside his fears and approached Jamal with the gospel. And Jamal surrendered himself to Christ. And together, these two men along with their friend, formed a team, and within 6 months, they led 200 people to faith and started 12 house churches.

this is going on today in Islamic countries, high security areas, where we would think of people not being open to the gospel, and yet the spirit is moving. And so what I wanna propose in the few minutes that we have together is you've got the power, right? I wanted them to cue snap or whatever that band is. You've got the power.

Right in your hands. And, and we just need to let it go. Pastor Milton says in the Gospel primary, he says, outside of heaven, the power of God is in its highest density found inside the gospel. This must be so, for the Bible twice describes the gospel as the power of God.

Nothing else in all of Scripture is ever described in this way, except for the person of Jesus Christ. Such a description indicates that the gospel is not only powerful, but that it is the ultimate entity in which God's power resides and does its greatest work. We don't see the power of the sun, the power of volcanoes, the power of floods described as the power of God, but the gospel has been given that description, the power of God. So why are so many Muslims coming to Christ in Indonesia?

According to Mike Shipman, it's because of the power. Of the gospel. And so I want to lay out Three basic truths about the power of the gospel. And then challenge us as a congregation, with some homework that you guys are going to.

Go out with today and then several of your care group's leader, leaders maybe, we'll be talking about this this afternoon. Well, the first, the first truth is this, and that is Christ has the power. Christ has the power. We see this in Matthew 28.

You guys know this great, very famous passage, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth has been given. We're talking about this in our theology class on Wednesday, has been given. That's a passive voice. The idea is this is an action that has happened unto Christ, has been given.

There's an implied subject here and that subject is God the Father. Open up to Let's see, John 17. Open up to John 17. We're gonna look at a couple of verses here.

Christ has been given all authority. And he affirms this in the high priestly prayer in John 17. He's speaking to his father. He says, starting in verse one, Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son.

that your Son also may glorify you as you have given him authority over all flesh. That he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So there's this inner Trinitarian exchange of authority.

We know that God in His essence is all powerful. And yet Christ as man was sent by the Father to the earth. And there's so there's this inner Trinitarian exchange of power where the Father grants power to Christ the Son. And there's this power has to do with a particular realm.

Verse 2 again says, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that's over all humanity, that he that is Jesus should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. So Jesus Christ has been given authority by the Father to give eternal life to all whom the Father has given him. The Father has given Christ a portion of humanity, and Christ has the authority to give eternal life to that portion. And then in verse 3, he tells us what eternal life is, that they may know that they may have a relationship with you and His Son, Jesus Christ.

So all authority has been given to Jesus by whom? By God the Father. He has authority over all humanity. And we know that Jesus Christ is awaiting for the Father to put all of his enemies under his feet.

We see in 1 Corinthians 15:25, you can write that down. Jesus must reign until he, the Father has put all of Jesus' enemies under his feet. And so Christ has the power. But not only that, you've got the power.

Why? Because Christ has given you the power. You've got the power Jesus, who has been given all authority, says this to us. All right, I'll read it for you.

For therefore, this is a continuing on Matthew 28. Verse 19 and 20, go therefore make disciples of all nations. Jesus, who has all authority, has given a command to the apostles, which has also been transferred to us because of the little phrase at the end of this passage, even to the end of the age. The apostles have not survived to the end of the age, so we have, so this is a command to the church of all ages.

Go therefore and make disciples of all ethnos. Every ethnic group, make disciples of every ethnic group baptizing them. In the name under the authority of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you for lo, I'm with you always, even at the end of the age. Amen.

So you've been given, I've been given the power to go out and exercise Christ's power. We've been given the authority to go out and make disciples, make followers of Jesus Christ. and, and the type of thing, thing that we're engaged in is something that Christ has been granted the power by the Father. Christ has been granted certain portion of humanity by the Father and Jesus Christ is going to give eternal life to those people.

And we get to go out and participate in that inner Trinitarian exchange. Of power. This is making sense. God the Father has granted all authority to the Son.

God the Father has granted a portion of humanity to the Son. Jesus is going to give eternal life to that portion of humanity. And he tells us to go out and make disciples of all ethnos, every ethnic group. And so we get to participate in this inner Trinitarian exchange of power.

That's pretty amazing. You've got the power. And so Paul says, that's why Paul can say, In Romans 1:16, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the good news of Christ.

Why? For it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, Jew first and also for the Greek. The gospel is the power of salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel is what is going to bring about salvation.

This good message, this good news is going to bring salvation to absolutely everybody who believes it. He goes on to say, in 1 Corinthians 1:18, speaking to the Corinthian church, he says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to those who are being saved, it is the power of God. Those are two passages in the New Testament, that indicate that the gospel is the power, more powerful than the sun.

The sun's not called the power of God. Volcanoes aren't called the power of God. this big mudslide up in, where's that at? The grapevine, that's not called the power of God.

The gospel, the good news is called the power of God. The good news of the gospel. But don't we have to earn the right? To share the gospel.

Don't you and I have to earn the privilege to be able to share the good news? With people Well, let's go back and review what we said at the beginning here. Mike Shipman says this, Christ has already earned that right. When Christ paid for our sins, he also earned the right for us to share the gospel.

Christ has not given us authority, or Christ has given us authority to proclaim the gospel to every creature. The gospel says not because of perfect messengers, but because of the worthy Lord who accomplished it. You have been given the power. And yes, it's important to develop friendships.

We don't want to minimize that. Yes, it's important to be kind. Yes, it's important to try to, to minister not just with your words but with your deeds. But what is the power?

What is it that saves people? Is it because you can demonstrate that you're really smart? I remember in high school, I just had this, I really did have this obsession with feeling like I needed to prove that Christianity was the coolest. The smartest, the most intellectual, the most obvious choice.

I remember sitting down with a friend of mine, showing him a Christian music video to hoping that it would prove to him that Christianity is cool. I don't know if you guys remember a guy named Steve Taylor back in the day. I love Steve Taylor, I still love Steve Taylor. And so I sat down and I showed this guy, this guy, this unbelieving friend of mine who's all into MTV and I said, I'm gonna show him the Meltdown music video and then he'll see that Christians and Christianity are so cool, he'll want to become a Christian.

And he watched the video and he, and he, and what he said afterwards? He goes, That was lame And I was like, what just happened? I thought that was really cool. And it had a, it, it has a nice message and, Steve Taylor's lyrics, there's some really good messages in them and so on and so forth.

What I didn't realize. is I'm fighting an uphill battle, right? I'm fighting this battle which basically says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. I can try to bolster it up.

With all kinds of things to make it cool, intellectual, smart, so on and so forth. The fact is, is the gospel is foolishness to those that are perishing. The good news is, is we know that all authority has been given to Jesus Christ by God the Father, and God the Father has given a portion of humanity to God the Son, and Jesus is going to give eternal life to that portion of humanity. And so those who are being saved, it is the power of God.

And so that's why when we share the gospel with people, some people, it's an aroma. of death, and the others, it's an aroma of life, and it happens over time, right? When I was being shared the gospel as a young person, there were times when I thought it was acceptable to me and other times when I thought it was stupid. I can remember sitting around a table with that same non-Christian friend and all of his family, and we were laughing at the Sunday school teachers at our, at our church, how dorky they were.

We just thought they were so uncool, making fun of all of our Sunday school teachers. And then the gospel fell upon me at 14 years old, the Holy Spirit began to convict me of my sin, that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and then all of a sudden everything made sense. Why? Because suddenly I got smart.

No, because the Holy Spirit opened, it became opened up the power of the gospel to me. And so you have been given this powerful thing called the gospel. Jesus Christ calls everyone in this room who is naming Christ to go out and make disciples of all nations, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So make disciples, baptize them as a, as a first part of discipleship.

Very excited to see the baptisms that are happening in our various care groups and stuff. We wanna encourage you guys to be thinking about baptism, about people that come to know the Lord, encourage them to get baptized right away. Let me just give you real quick the AEIOU of believers baptism. You can write this down.

AEIOU believer's baptism. It happens after conversion, that's A. Every believer is baptized. That's E.

So after conversion, every believer is baptized. I is it's by immersion, we baptize people by immersion. We put them all the way under the water to symbolize their death, burial and resurrection of Christ. oh, it can be bap, it can be by the one who reached them, the one who reached them.

We're not baptizing, we're not demanding at Cornerstone that every single person be baptized by Pastor Milton. The person can be baptized. If you led them to Christ, they can be baptized by you. And it should be with urgency, you, with urgency, that is very soon after conversion.

Now talk to me later about those of you guys have, that have kids growing up in a, a believing family, that's a little bit of a different issue. But if you lead somebody to Christ out on the street or your neighborhood, they come to know the Lord, baptize them as soon as you can. I can post that later if you guys weren't able to get all of that down. But thirdly, others want what you got.

Christ has the power, you've got the power. And believe it or not, others want what you got. They really do. Because Christ is in the business of saving people.

This is implied by Christ's command to go. If Jesus is commanding us to go out and make disciples, it would seem ridiculous if there were no disciples to be made. Right? Why is Christ commanding us to go out if he knows we're gonna be, we're gonna total, totally fail?

At our job, right? Now, there are people in the history of redemption who have been given jobs that were not very, there wasn't very good prospects, right? Jeremiah was one of them, right? Jeremiah was told, go and preach.

Nobody's gonna listen to you, they will all reject you, and Judah will be carried away into Babylon. That was his job. OK, so if, if that was our job, we could say, we're gonna preach, but nobody's gonna get saved, and we're all gonna be carried away, down to Mexico or Canada or wherever, right? But that's not the job that we've been given in this dispensation.

Christ says, all authority has been given to me. Now go make disciples. and he has told us, that the harvest is plentiful. Matthew 9:37, the harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. He says the fields are white with harvest. So Christ has given us authority to go out with this powerful message, and to go share the powerful message with people, with the promise that the harvest is plentiful. There are people out there that want what you've got.

They just need to hear it. I heard a story when I was in Indonesia about a Muslim man who had been visiting a missionary. And this missionary was developing a relationship with him over several months and then over a year. And the Muslim knew this guy was a Christian missionary, and he could see the books up on his shelf every time he went over to this missionary's house.

What the missionary didn't know is the Muslim man was stealing books from him, taking them home and reading them. And then secretly coming back and putting them up on the shelf. Over a year goes by, one of the, the indigenous missionaries within Mike Shipman's organization eventually ran into this guy, led him to Christ. And he went back to the missionary and he had this to say, he says, I've gotten to know you and we've become very good friends for over 1 year.

And I've been waiting for you to share the gospel with me for at least 6 months. Why didn't you share the gospel with me? And the mid to which the missionary replied, I was just trying to establish a friendship with you. This guy was ready, this guy was, the fields were white with harvest.

This guy is just waiting to be plucked. the Holy Spirit had prepared his heart, and the missionary didn't even know it. How could the missionary have known that this guy was ready? How could he have known that this guy was ready to receive the gospel, or maybe not ready yet?

What I want to propose to you in this dialogue that we're having is that the only way to filter, the only way to really know if somebody's ready or not, is to share the gospel with them. As you begin to open up the truth of the gospel, and then if they're not open to the gospel, we don't have to get red, red in the face about it. We don't have to get upset. We just realize they're not ready.

maybe they'll never, never be ready. but at least we have shared the gospel with them. We see that the message of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing. But to those who are being saved in the process of being saved, it is the power of God.

How is it that God has decided to save people? It's by bringing this power. It's by bringing the driver out, not the putter, when you get to the driver's box, when you get the tee off. It's by bringing the gospel out early in the relationship and seeing where the Holy Spirit is moving.

God says in first, or Paul says in First Corinthians chapter one, he goes on to further say, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where's the wise? Where's the scribe, the spirit of this age, has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it was pleased to the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

How are people getting saved? They're getting saved through the foolishness of this message called the Gospel, Jesus Christ. and Him crucified. This is how people are getting saved.

And there are people in our context all around you, that the Spirit has prepared for salvation. And we need to, as it were, share the gospel with them like it's their lucky day. Share the gospel with them like it's their lucky day. Think about it.

How many truly born again Christians are there, let's say, in the Inland Empire? who knows? But is it, is it 5% of the population truly born again believers? Is it 10%?

What are the chances that people in your context in the Inland Empire will happen upon a truly born again Christian who has the power of the gospel in their lives and they can communicate it? What's the chances? Out outside of God's sovereignty? Let's just talk about just chances, right?

Somebody's just walking along, and they just happen to run into you. And you have the power of God to salvation in your heart, and how to communicate it. It is their lucky day, right? This is a person who has no hope in this life, who is underneath the wrath of God, awaiting for the day of judgment, death, or Christ's return.

It's been pointed for men to die once after this, the judgment, that's not a good thing, right? And it's all of a sudden, they just happened to run into you. It is their lucky day. And if we can just open up our mouths and begin a conversation, make a connection, and begin to ask some questions just to see if they're even open to spiritual conversation.

Brothers and sisters, according to the Bible, we're gonna find a lot of people that are very open to talking about spiritual things. And that's, that's exactly what, what we're finding on the page of the scripture. It's, it's what I'm finding in my own evangelism. I don't know about you, but I've had this caricature of the average person out there that I'm interfacing with.

My, the average person that I, that I'm having a conversation with before I bring up the gospel, I think there's someone who has already investigated all of the claims of Christ. that they've heard all of the best arguments against Christianity and the gospel. They have a well formulated opinion as to why they reject the Bible, why they reject Christian worldview. And they're very well established in that rejection of Christ.

And they're not open to hearing another position. That's who I think I'm interfacing with when I walk around. I just call me a negative person, but that's the way I think. What I'm finding, however, is that most people that I engage with, don't know very much about the Bible at all, do not have a well-formed rejection of Christianity.

They've heard some basic arguments, but they don't know how to defend it. And I found that most people that I engage with in our context are actually pretty open to talk about spiritual things. Give you an example. My son and I, after a baseball game, we're really hungry.

We go, we stop by Subway, right smack in the middle of downtown San Bernardino in a pretty bad area of town. We go in. To get our sandwich, we start talking to this gal, and she starts telling us all these crazy stories of things that happened right there in front of Subway. Just people getting beat up and shot and stabbed, and we're wanting to get our sandwiches and get out of there, right?

But then I just, I just, this stuff's been on my mind. I've been just, it's been on my mind that, wow, every person I'm engaged with, it's their lucky day, right? And so I just ask her, I say, man, why do you, why do you think there's so much evil in the world? And so she says, well, people just, it's, families aren't like the way they used to.

That people aren't raising their kids, they're just letting their kids run around the streets, right in this neighborhood. We have 12 year old kids that are running around with guns in their belts. And so I began to ask her more questions. Why is this?

And then I just ask her a question that hopefully you're gonna talk about in care group a little bit later. I just asked her this question. So do you have any religious background or do you go to church anywhere? She said, oh yeah, I used to go to church down here the way, but I haven't been going for a long time.

And then that just leads to one thing and then before it, we're in a full blown gospel conversation and I'm able to share, share the complete gospel with her and give her information about our church and, and we were only there for probably 1520 minutes. And we didn't get shot. We didn't get mugged. And it was just a great opportunity.

about, maybe about a month and a half ago, I'm driving one of our baseball players home from a game. It seems like it's always happening after games and, I start sharing the gospel with one of our teammates who's grown up Catholic, started talking to him about Adam and Eve and connecting the story of Adam and Eve to the cross. He had never heard of Adam and Eve in his whole life. I said, you gotta be kidding me.

I, I said, Adam and Eve, the garden, the snake. You've never heard of that. He goes, no, coach, I've never heard of that. And so I, I just began to explain to him the story of Adam and Eve.

This is an American who's grown up in the United States of America. He's grown up Catholic, doesn't go to church very often, obviously. and never heard of Adam and Eve. People, the people that you're engaging with out there, folks, the vast majority of the people in our, in our community are not people that have a knowledge and they're rejecting the gospel.

They don't know the gospel. A lot of the people that are growing up in our community have never heard. They don't go to school anymore and see a Christmas pageant. They don't call it Easter break.

It's spring break. Like these things have not happened for a long time. People are getting, if they hear anything about Jesus, it's some reject, it's some some somebody's making fun of, of the Lord on the Cartoon Network. And so it's their lucky day.

If we can share the gospel with them. Now, we know as 1 Corinthians chapter 2 tells us, the natural man does not receive the Spirit of, the Spirit of God for their foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. But the Holy Spirit is in the business of waking people up with the gospel. God is in the business of granting repentance.

He's in the business of doing this. CH Spurgeon says this, never lose heart in the power of the gospel. Do not believe that there exists any man, much less any race of men, for whom the gospel is not fitted. Steve Smith, a missionary to China who's seeing a similar type of results in China, says this, find the people the Holy Spirit is attacking.

The Holy Spirit is attacking people. This is an inner Trinitarian thing that goes way beyond you and me. The Father has granted us a portion of humanity to the Son, Jesus is going to give eternal life to that portion of humanity. The Holy Spirit is in the business of convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.

And Jesus has commanded us to go out with the authority of the gospel to make disciples of all nations, telling us that the fields are ripe. There are people out there who want to believe, who need to know the gospel, and we need to share it with them like it's their lucky day. And if they reject the gospel, guess what? You've still accomplished the mission, right?

Because the gospel is as 2 Corinthians 2:16 says, says one, it is the aroma of death leading to Death, and to the other, it is the Roma of life, leading to life. Who's sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient for such things? I want to just challenge all of us in this room with this thought, that in our sphere of influence, that we would be able to say that everybody who knows me has heard the gospel.

Or at least there's been an attempt. That everybody who knows you, that, that you've made some attempt to at least steer the conversation towards spiritual things, and give them a very simple gospel presentation, so that they can either think about it, and maybe the Lord will draw them later. Maybe you're just one part of the process of them coming to know the Lord. or maybe they will come to know the Lord right there because you opened up your mouth for the gospel.

I want you to turn to John 6 as we wrap things up here. Turn to John chapter 6. Do we believe Jesus when he says that the fields are ripe with harvest. So part of what I'm giving you this morning is I'm, I'm giving you more of like the, here's the way we need to think as we approach the topic of evangelism and in your care groups, you guys are gonna be going over a pamphlet or a, like a 4 sheets that are gonna get you more into the practical stuff.

You can pick, if you don't have computer access and you want to get a copy right away, as you head out the entrance, there's a stapled together two pieces of paper. It's called Any Three Evangelism, anyone, anywhere, anytime, and You can pick that up. I'll show you how to get to it on our website in a second. but your care group leaders will also have access to it because they're, they're down here, for our discussion group leaders.

Let me, let's, I wanna just read to you out of John chapter 6, starting at verse 37, as we bring this to a close. Jesus says, In verse 37, I'm reading from a New King James. All that the Father gives me will come to me. So the Father's given people to the Son, right?

And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. Look at verse 39, this is the will of the Father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose how many? Nothing, none, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up at that last day.

Verse 41, the Jews then complained about him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. So here's, he's sharing the, he's sharing the gospel, he's sharing of himself. But there are some Jewish leaders that are not open, they're hardened, and they're, they're complaining about Jesus because he says he's the bread of life. He's saying, I am the gospel.

So here's how Jesus responds to them, verse 43. Jesus, therefore answered and said to them, do not murmur among yourselves, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at that last day. The Father is, verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me. Verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father draws them.

The Father is in the business of drawing people to the son. But nobody could come to the sun unless the Father's in the, is doing the drawing. And so our part is really to go out and share the power of the gospel message. We get to participate in this inner Trinitarian power exchange.

The Father is given to the Son, the Son is giving eternal life to those that have been given to him by the Father. The Holy Spirit is out attacking people. And we get to go, and we just share the gospel, and we're just filtering with the gospel. We ask questions.

We say, hey, you have any religious background? No, I don't either. Oh great, hey, let's talk about golf, right? Nobody wants to hear it.

Say, hey, let's talk about baseball. You just move on, right? You don't have to worry about it. But if all of a sudden you start talking, hey, you, Do you, have any religious background?

Do you go to church anywhere? Yeah, I go to church over here. I can't remember what's the name of that pastor, Milton, Vincent, I can't remember what his first name is. Oh yeah, I go to that church too.

Oh, well, I really, I've only been there once. You start, you start engaging them a little bit. your, your, care group leaders gonna talk about CGLGD. We're gonna talk about connecting with a person, all right?

We're gonna talk about getting to God, asking some questions to help them start thinking about their view of God. So, what do, what do they believe? How are they getting their sin guilt forgiven? How's their view of God getting them to forgive forgiveness of sins?

Getting to the, the subject of lostness, and then we're gonna try to get to the gospel by sharing some real simple stuff that goes right back to Genesis, Adam and Eve, and then come to a place where ask them, so are you believing this? Do you find yourself believing what I've just told you? And the amazing thing is, in Indonesia, and in China, and other places around the world, is when people are actually being presented the gospel, many, many people are coming to know Christ.

There is a wind in the house of Islam.

You're not gonna hear this on CNN or any of the news stations. But there are people, Muslim people around the world coming to know Jesus Christ, because the gospel is powerful. Let me tell you one final story about a, a gentleman in our church, who had been around Christians for many, many years. And he was crying out, recognizing a void in his life.

In fact, he was suicidal. Until one day, the principal of Woodcrest Christian School called Aurelio in his office and shared the gospel with him, shared the good news of Jesus Christ, how that Jesus Christ was the forgiveness of sins. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he could have his sins forgiven, and he could go to heaven. And Aurelio got on his knees and, and received Christ right there in this office.

But then afterwards, he got a little angry. And he went back to some of his Christian friends who he knew were Christians, and he said, why didn't you tell me? I've known you for years. He's like, I, I would have.

I would have come to know the Lord, but in, in God's sovereignty, in the Lord's timing, it was Randy Thompson, let him know the Lord. But how many Aurelios are in your life? How many Jamals are in your life right now that they are fruit ready to fall because the Holy Spirit is attacking them. And they're just waiting for somebody to give them the power of the gospel.

That's our challenge. if you'd like to go pick up this book, you can get it on Amazon.com. It's an excellent, excellent book. I'd highly recommend it to you.

Anyone, anywhere, anytime, Lead Muslims to Christ now. It's not just about leading Muslims to Christ, although that's the main context in which it's addressing, but then it gives in the back all kinds of different ways to apply it to your context. So I'd encourage you to take a look at that on our website, it's probably almost impossible to see, but you can go to our outreach section. Go down to outreach, go down to, you'll see underneath individual outreach, both of the documents that I've given to our care group leaders for discussion are on our website.

And so you can get the PDFs of those and start taking a look at them, as you prepare yourself on sharing the gospel. Here's your homework. We want you to go out this week and intentionally try to connect with an unbeliever and ask them one question. After you've gotten to know them a little bit, you're dialoguing.

So, hey, do you have any religious background? That's one way to ask the question. Or, hey, do you go to church anywhere? That's all you have to do this week.

Hey, do you go to church anywhere? Or hey, do you have any religious background? That's all you need to do this week, right? What do you need to do?

Ask a question. Do you have any religious background or do you go to church anywhere? And if that leads into a conversation, you wanna keep talking, that's great. If that's all you do, you have fulfilled your homework.

I want you to come back and be ready to report to Pastor Milton next week. Right? Have you fulfilled that homework? Talk to your care group leaders.

The care group leaders may already have systems in place, for evangelism, so this is not a top-down thing, but if the care group if your particular care group leader is using this particular system, then go for it. I think you guys will really enjoy it. So what we're, what we're challenging you to do, not that there's anything wrong with other, developing relationships and friendships and this and that. But let's not, let's, let's, let's not do wiffle ball evangelism, leaving the gospel to the end.

Let's do power evangelism, bringing the gospel in early in the relationship, just like Jesus did with the woman at the well, sits down, makes conversation with her, but it's not too long before he's bringing in the gospel, right in that relationship, read through the book of Acts. As you go throughout the book of Acts, it's not long before they're bringing in the gospel into the, into the conversation. I don't know about you. But, some of the most awkward Evangelism.

Opportunities I've had is when I develop a relationship with someone over several months and I've been afraid to bring up Christ. And then, and then 6 months goes by and then 9 months go by and then a year, they know I'm a pastor. They know I'm a Christian, and I've yet to bring up Christ. I'm trying to figure out how I can wiggle it in.

And that just gets more and more awkward the longer I wait. But if it just becomes part of who I am, and it's early in the relationship, I found that most people are like, all right, you're a Christian, you're a pastor, whatever, and if they're open, they're not. and if they're not open, then we'll just talk about baseball. And I'll keep that friendship open, and then just see where it is, where's the Lord gonna open up another opportunity to talk about Christ.

Is this making sense? All right, let's pray that the Lord will grant us. His spirit and power as we go out. Let's have the band come on up.

Lord, we thank you so much for your goodness to us. We, thank you, Lord, for just, granting us this, privilege, who is sufficient for such things. Lord, we consider, that you have given us as believers the opportunity to go out and to be part of this inner Trinitarian power exchange. And to go out fishing as it were, for those whom you are working on.

we ask God that you would help us to open up our mouths that gracefully. recognizing that, There's people all around us that've been taken captive by the devil to do his will, but you're in the business of granting repentance. And so we can share confidently the gospel and see who, you're granting repentance to. we ask God that you just be with the Hubiars as they minister in their context in West Asia and, and Brazil, Mexico, Lord, that you just bless all of those that are underneath their ministry, that you cause the gospel to go out and power.

And we ask that you'd use us in the Inland Empire, and we pray, Lord, for the festival of treats that's coming up that you would just really just use our people as they invite and as we minister to people in our community. We pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.