Abounding Grace

Larry: Pastor Ed challenges us to share the good news as we have opportunity. We have no problem talking about football, what your team versus my team, and where did you grow up. We have no problem talking about baseball, what your team versus my team, and where did you grow up. We have no problem talking about our hobbies, or our cars, or clothes, or whatever the new gadget is. But the things of the Lord? The church seems to be silent.

It's God's will for your life to love the people that are in your life and to love them enough to take the conversations that you have and share with them about the love of God for them.

Whether it's a family member, a friend, a total stranger sitting next to us, we have daily encounters with the unsaved, and God wants to use us to reach them. Today and tomorrow on Abounding Grace, we're going to learn how to share the gospel and get prepared for this calling.

If you have some fears regarding evangelism, or don't know what to say or how to say it, I think you'll find all of this super helpful. Here's Pastor Ed Taylor in Acts chapter one.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles open them to Acts chapter one, verse eight. Acts chapter one, verse eight, a Bible study that I've entitled "How to Share the Gospel." Notice again verse eight, chapter one: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

That's exactly how the book of Acts unfolds as the gospel, the power of the Spirit comes upon that small group of men and women waiting for the promise. In chapter two, the promise comes, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and then the rest of the book of Acts, the gospel saturates Jerusalem, saturates Judea, goes into Samaria, and then by the end of the book of Acts in chapter 28, the known world had received the gospel through this group of people empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It's still happening today. That's how you got saved, that's how I got saved, as the gospel continues to go forward. The Holy Spirit using the word of God in the people of God, that's still how God is doing it today. We learn that this is God's strategy for reaching the world. We live in a world that currently has 1.9 billion people that are considered unreached by the gospel.

Then you add to that many people that we would consider reached but still yet unsaved, rebellious, not interested, don't like organized Christianity, all of the reasons. There are billions of people on the planet right now that are still unsaved. It's God's heart that they would be saved. And how will they hear, the Bible says, unless someone comes to them with the message of the gospel? That's you and me.

In 2 Peter chapter three, verse eight, it says, "But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day." Then this is a beautiful statement: once we understand the eternal perspective of God, then Peter says this, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

Jesus Christ, when he was sent to the earth, when he came, the eternal Son of God came into the womb of Mary and put on a human body when he became man, he came on a rescue mission. He came to rescue us from the pain and penalty of our sin, both temporally and eternally. That rescue mission continues today, even after his ascension, but now it is him through us.

It's not simply a pastor's responsibility or some professional clergy. We are the church. So when you think about this phrase that we've been using—and we're going to use for the next few years in our study in the book of Acts—when you think of that phrase "Be the Church," you're going to learn over and over again what it means to be the church. What does that look like exactly? How is that lived out?

The primary way that being the church is lived out is through lovingly evangelizing, lovingly caring for, and lovingly serving the world in which you live. It starts with a care for souls. It leads to the building of bridges. It's covered by our walk in our life and love. Simply considering the lost, that is normal, natural, and needed for us as a church.

So many believers are either simply afraid of going out and openly and regularly sharing their faith, or they simply don't care. They do statistics on this all the time, they do surveys of churches all the time, and the numbers that come back are always pathetic if these surveys are true. The surveys will say something along the lines that 80-90% of believers have yet to share the gospel with someone else.

To me, that's just not the heart of God for us. It's not the heart of God to take what we know and not even care about the people that God has allowed in our lives. We don't even care enough to tell them or to broach the subject. And here's how it looks. We have no problem talking about football, what your team versus my team, and where did you grow up. We have no problem talking about baseball, what your team versus my team, where did you grow up. We have no problem talking about our hobbies, or our cars, or clothes, or whatever the new gadget is. But the things of the Lord? The church seems to be silent.

It's just not God's will for us as a church. I'm not responsible for the church at large, but I do have a responsibility for the souls that God has entrusted to my care. It's God's will for your life to love the people that are in your life and to love them enough to take the conversations that you have and share with them about the love of God for them. Have you ever asked one of your friends a simple question like, "Did you know there's a God in heaven that loves you?" and simply broached the subject?

Today I want to help you do that. Today I want to help you practically learn some things about yourself and about the gospel and the word of God that will better equip you walking into someone's life. Evangelism is not reserved for pastors, it's not reserved for evangelists. It's for all of us. You think some of you are going to say, "But Ed, you don't understand, that's just not my personality. I'm not really outgoing and I'm kind of shy."

Evangelism is for your personality. It is for the extroverts and the introverts. It is for the people that love to have those conversations and the people that would rather have very few of those conversations. Your personality is not the issue. What the issue is, is your heart. If you're introverted, God will use you in your personality. If you're extroverted, God will use you in your personality.

But there's no good reason—church, write this down and think of it, pray over it—there's no good reason for you and I not to be involved in evangelism. None. Zero. After today, you will be better equipped in knowing and learning what it is to follow the Lord. I think of John chapter one, verse 40, where Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these who had heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon. You might know Simon as Peter. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon, and tell him, "We have found the Messiah." Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. I just like that phrase. He heard the gospel, he started following Jesus, and the first thing he did was go get his brother. "Bro, you got to come. We found the Messiah."

If we have that heart, I believe if we adapt ourselves to the heart of Christ, we will find many times our first response will be to take the gospel and introduce someone to Jesus and Jesus to someone. Today we want to gain from the word a better understanding of the heart of Jesus on his rescue mission, knowing that the coming of the Lord is at hand and knowing the days in which we live are dark and evil. Knowing that those who do not have a saving faith in Jesus Christ will perish, we will learn that we have the wonderful privilege and honor of telling others about our faithful and loving Savior and inviting them to Jesus too.

Our time together will be divided into two sections. The first section will be practical in the sense of how do you prepare and what are some things to think about when you leave here? What are some things to think about when you think of reaching out to your brother, or reaching out to your mom, or reaching out to your boss, or some of the friendships and relationships that you have and have been developing in your neighborhood? What are some practical steps to be prepared and ready? Secondly, I'll walk you through the word and through the Romans Road and teach you how to biblically share the gospel.

What steps that means and how to use the Bible to share the gospel. If you're taking notes, here's some practical things. Number one, in preparation, be a person of prayer. Because salvation is a supernatural work of God, we need to tap into it through prayer. Pray for the lost. Pray for the people in your life that you know aren't saved. Pray for your family, pray for your boss, pray for your neighbor.

Pray when you're watching the news. Instead of being so upset about what you see, pray for the people on the news. Pray for the people that the news is slighting and you're hearing about this decision and that decision and you get so angry. Stop being angry and pray. Pray for the salvation of our leaders. Pray for the person that's ripping off in our community. Pray for all the kids that are causing havoc. Pray for the people that don't have homes. Stop being so caught up in the world and start praying for the souls of the people in this world.

That's what "Be the Church" is. If you look like the world and you sound like the world and you act like the world, you can't be the church. The world has diluted your identity as a follower of Christ. There is a distinction and difference between this world and the follower of Jesus Christ. Keep that distinction. How? By prayer. Pray for the lost, pray for the difficulties, pray for our country, pray for our city, pray for our leaders, pray for our state, pray for the world.

Pray for yourself, secondly. Pray for yourself in areas of boldness and courage. Pray for yourself in light of where you are, where your attitude is, and where your headspace is. Is your headspace in the gospel or is your headspace somewhere else? Pray for yourself. Take yourself before the throne room of God. Ask God to give you a burden for the lost. Ask God to give you a care and concern for the unsaved.

Thirdly, pray for those that God lays on your heart. As you're praying, people will pop up. Pop up by face, they may even pop up by name. So pray for people by name. Every believer should have a list of people by name that they're praying for regularly. It starts with our family. We have unsaved family, unsaved brothers, sisters, in-laws, unsaved parents, grandparents. It starts with our family, then it expands to the people that we have contact with the most. All of us should have a list of names that, if not every day, regularly we're praying for.

Finally in prayer, pray for an open door. Just ask God, "God, would you set it up? I'm ready. I just feel this name keeps coming up, this situation. God, open the door for me, I'm ready. I want to step in. I've been talking to them for a while, I think they trust me. I'm ready to broach that subject." Pray for an open door that God will set up, and you will find God will answer those prayers. It will happen.

Number two, practical preparation: be supernaturally natural. Stay natural. When you think about sharing the gospel, don't be weird about it. Don't purposely go on the offense, get a new t-shirt like "I'm an evangelist" and take your Bible and start knocking people with your Bible. No, you can just be yourself empowered by the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8 says the Spirit of God will come upon you and you will be witnesses. There's a supernatural element of you just being yourself.

And don't be weird about it. Sometimes Christians will walk around like all bummed out, just like zombie-like. There's no joy in their life, no life, no hope, no encouragement. Then there are those that are sarcastic and biting. "Everything's so bad. Would you like to follow Jesus with me?" You know what their answer is? No. Where's the joy of the Lord in your life? Where's the excitement? You are born again, you're a new creation in Christ, your sins have been forgiven, the shame has been removed, your eternity is secure in Christ. The gospel, friends, is good news, not bad news.

Supernaturally natural. We have seasons of difficulty and discouragement, that's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to misrepresenting Jesus in your life. Not just in presenting a lifestyle, but you are living in a time where the narrative around Christians today is not just a narrative, there's actually some truth to it where Christians are just known for what they're against now. They're known for protecting their own comforts and ease, they're known for their anger and their angst.

That's not the proper platform to present the good news of the gospel. Someone that's not living understanding the sovereignty of God and trusting him with our lives, no matter what comes our way, instead Christians just want to take a stand and they want to fight. If you're going to fight and take a stand, just do it for the right reasons. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. There's a spiritual battle going on in our life. And when they have all this stuff going on, it's the people that get neglected. Jesus came to save people. So when you're on his mission, you're going to care about people.

You're going to learn to take advantage of the relationships that God has brought into your life. That's where, when we think of evangelism, I think the most effective part of evangelism is something you would call relationship evangelism. Where you are building different friendships and relationships, or you've been gifted with a family and those relationships, where those relationships will naturally rise supernaturally to the gospel, where you're taking every topic.

That's why I like to know a little bit about everything. I'm not really into NFL football, but I know a lot about it because it'll build a bridge with guys and gals that know the NFL. I know quite a bit about baseball—I'm not too happy this year—but I know quite a bit about baseball and that becomes something I can talk about and look things up. Why? To build a bridge. I don't know too much about fishing or hunting, but I could learn if I needed to, to talk about those things. Why? To build a bridge. I'm willing to take the time to learn whatever I need to learn to get to know you, so that the more you and I get to know each other, the more relationship is built, the more you trust me, and then the Holy Spirit will say, "Now's the time."

So I say, "Oh, you're a fisherman? Yeah, well tell me about fishing." Fishing, poles, boat, and I'm listening. Then perhaps the Lord would say, "Did you know Jesus, when he was walking around, some of his first followers were fishermen? Did you know that?" And there's just an immediate connection with the Bible. And it continues on, relationship evangelism. A lot of times believers will hear a message like this and they'll go, "Let's go!" and they'll start screaming and yelling and be so offensive in their delivery techniques.

The message of the gospel is in and of itself a very offensive message. It's offending to people because when you start talking about sin and failure and God's holiness, who wants to talk about failure? People have defense mechanisms. As soon as you begin to talk, they'll put up the wall. That's why relationships are very important. You don't need to be offensive. You don't need to go right after them, "You sinner!" Don't go to work tomorrow and go from cubicle to cubicle saying, "You're a sinner, you're a sinner, you're a sinner. Jesus died for you." Build some relationships, bring some donuts and coffee, do something to tell somebody that you care. People don't really care how much you know until they know how much you care. And if you have the love of Christ in you, you already care. You just have to tap into it, release it, and die to yourself.

Number three, the practical things: pray for wisdom. Ask God for wisdom. Anyone that asks him, God will give to you wisdom. Wisdom is the "how" of life. Knowledge is the "what" of life, wisdom is the "how" of life. So pray for wisdom because you're going to talk to and approach different people differently. You're going to learn to live your life in such a way—this is not hypocrisy where you pretend, that's not it—that's why you need wisdom of how to approach different people differently. The greatest thing you can do when you're serving someone is simply listen to them. Don't interrupt them. Just listen, find out where they came from, find out what their story is.

Find out why they're so angry, or why they're so scared, or what it is in their life. Everyone has a story. Let someone give you their story. This is going to take time, building a relationship takes time. We have to get out of our mind this idea that we're the ones that go and convert people. You convert no one. I can't convert anyone, you can't convert anyone, nor do I desire that. The Bible says that you and I, we plant seeds, sometimes we're used by God to water them, but only He gives the increase.

Larry: And that really takes the burden off of us, doesn't it? We're receiving practical preparation for sharing the gospel today on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Pastor Ed is back with us now and Ed, as you know, sometimes as we're sharing the gospel we're asked a question that we really don't know the answer to. So, how should we handle that? Sometimes a fear of not knowing what to say to those hard questions even keeps Christians from entering into conversations as well.

Pastor Ed Taylor: You're right, Larry. It can be very intimidating when you're talking to someone about the things of God and you have a limited knowledge of the Bible. And let's be honest here, we all have a limited knowledge of the Bible. We're still learning, we're still growing. I've been studying the Bible now for 33 plus years and I'm still learning so much and wanting to learn so much on how to communicate the gospel and answer questions. Part of your own personal training, though, is to be equipped, to equip yourself.

There's a great resource from a good friend of mine, his name is Charlie Campbell, and he has a book out that says "One-Minute Answers to Skeptics." Actually his ministry is so powerful in helping you learn how to answer complex questions with simple answers. The resource that I was trained on and that I still use—I try to read it weekly—this book is powerful. It has been republished, but the title which I bought it under is "When Critics Ask" by Norman Geisler. They have changed the name, so the newer version is called "The Big Book of Bible Difficulties" by Norman Geisler.

These two resources not only give you answers to the Bible difficulties, but Geisler especially helps you understand the different views and he actually helped me think. This book is what has helped me think the most in how to approach and answer a difficult Bible question with the desire to draw someone. Remember this, don't ever forget this when you're asking these questions: even if the discussion gets heated, don't let it get so heated because you're building a bridge. And you're building a bridge to the other side so that when you build the bridge, you're wanting to connect with them to bring them back with you. Don't be so quick to just prove your point. I know we talked about it might be intimidating, but once you step in, you can share what you know. You don't need to worry about what you don't know. And if somebody asks you a question you don't know, you can always look it up and study, and it'll make you wiser as you do. So go for it, talk to somebody this week and email me and tell me how it goes. I'd love to hear about it: ed@edtaylor.org.

Larry: Very helpful. Thanks again. Are you interested in hearing this message again? It's easy to do, just visit aboundinggraceradio.com, oneplace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our pick of the month here in April is "Real Worship" by Warren Wiersbe. In it, he defines the essence of worship and discusses the key issues surrounding the sometimes controversial topic within the church. We'll send you "Real Worship" when you give a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Call toll-free 877-30-GRACE. Again, we're at 877-30-GRACE. Resources like this are also easy to order through our online store at calvaryco.store. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.