Real Life Radio

David J: Today, on Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: If you have the gift of evangelism, you will be unusually burdened for the souls of people, strangers. You will be moved with compassion in an unusual way.

David J: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I am David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

Guest (Female): Looking for an inspiring way to pass some time, or maybe just need some help to get through your workday. How about listening while you work? The Jack Hibbs Podcast brings you real stories, real people, with real life experiences. From inspiring journeys to thought-provoking conversations, we have got it all. So discover a world of knowledge, laughter, and connection. The Jack Hibbs Podcast and so much more are available on our website at jackhibbs.com. That is jackhibbs.com, where faith meets real life.

David J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called First Samuel and a message titled Church Growth 101 Part 5. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel, and he was the first of its prophets. So here in chapter 16, we will continue to see that just as the Spirit of the Lord came upon King David, God wants to do the same thing for us. You see, for the church to grow in a healthy way, there is got to be a dependency upon the Holy Spirit's anointing rather than simply human effort.

So when a church aligns itself with the Holy Spirit, the growth that follows is both productive and meaningful. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that the gift of evangelism, it is twofold. It is not a talent, but it is led by the Spirit. But whether or not we think we have the gift, we really should all be sharing about our faith and excitement for the Gospel. Now with his message called Church Growth 101 Part 5, here is Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Now, first thing we look at tonight, the gift of evangelism. It is not given to everybody as we see, but to some. How can you know if you have the gift of evangelism? That is a great question. And I think it would be safe for us to all ask that question before us in the Lord is, "Lord, you know, how do I know if I have that gift? Do I have that gift?"

Well, first of all, there are a couple of signs, a couple of indicators. You will be concerned for the souls of people. You say, "Well, I'm concerned about the souls of the people anyway." Yes, but if you have the gift of evangelism, you will be unusually burdened for the souls of people, strangers. You will be moved with compassion in an unusual way.

If you have been standing in line at the market, if you have been somewhere, and it does not matter where you are at, it does not matter what time it is, it does not matter what is going on in your life, you have this almost irresistible drive to walk up to that person and to begin pleading for their soul.

Now, let me explain what that means. That does not mean you throw yourself at their feet and tackle them and say, "Oh, you know, you are going to..." You know, scare them to death. But there is this, there is the Spirit of God, he is moving on you. It is almost like your life is placed for a moment into a vice, into the only person you can see. And you hear perhaps this thought in your head: "Go tell them. Tell them."

I have got to tell you that when that has happened in my life, never, not once ever have I ever obeyed God, and he embarrassed me or let me down or hurt me or whatever, maybe made me look like an idiot. Never. Every time that anointing, that drive, that push has been as it is, that person that God led me to will always be open to the Gospel. It is amazing. And the great thing is, they are happy to be hearing about the word of God, and you are sharing and you, and in your mind you are going, "I cannot believe they are still standing there. I cannot believe they are listening." You are blown away.

But it all starts with an unusual burden for someone's soul. And if it is that, if it is a person that you see on a repeated basis, their life, their face, their name will be on your lips and prayer and God begins to cook that person.

Now listen, if you have read books on missionary ventures and and lives of like say Hudson Taylor and others, God not only burdened them with people, God burdened some of these great evangelists with nations where they were completely burdened for nations. The moment they walked into a country, as Hudson Taylor did for China, he was consumed with the salvation of the Chinese people. God gave him a burden for a country.

Now I do not know if God will give you a burden for the country, but here is the thing, if you have the gift of an evangelist, you will be hungering for people's souls. It is amazing. It has often been called a burden. I do not usually like to use that term burden, but I will perhaps now call it a deep concern or a load that is deposited upon your heart by God. It is as though he is sharing a part of his heart with your heart.

Another thing is that you will want them to know about Jesus. This is an amazing thing. You will want a person to know about Jesus. You may find yourself saying things like this and off your lips or in your mind, "If they only knew the truth about Jesus, they would receive him. If they knew the truth."

And you have this concern. You want to learn more about Jesus, and your whole desire is that you might tell others. Because you are so in love with that person's soul that Jesus you know is the only remedy, and you will, as it were, run to them as an ambulance driver or an EMT to give them aid, but it is for their soul. You are so concerned about their soul. It is amazing to me, a person who has this gift, they will be more burdened or concerned for a person's soul than that person is for their own soul. They will care more for their destiny than that particular individual himself.

Is not that amazing? That is not normal, you guys. That is not normal. That is from God. He begins to cook that in the heart of one who must tell people about Jesus.

Now again, I am going to be inserting this, I trust, throughout the evening, but if you do not have that, that does not mean you are a sub-base Christian. It just means you do not have that gift. And thank God not everybody has that gift. Can you imagine what a... God knows best. All these people would get saved, but then nobody would teach them. They would just be saved, and that is all they would know, John 3:16. That is all they would know forever.

But I think you know what I am saying. God, God will do this. He cooks that in their hearts. In Mark 6:34 it says, "And seeing," that is Jesus seeing a great multitude, "Jesus was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things." Do you hear that?

He looked at the people and his heart. The word in the Greek is that his bowels were moved or shaken with concern. Have you noticed when you are really concerned about something, you feel it in the midsection of your body? You do not feel it in your heart, do you, in your chest? You do not feel it there. You feel it in what the Greek word is, in your, in the bowels of a man, in the bowels of a person, deep, the seat of emotion.

Well, you have a concern for souls, you want them to know about Jesus, and also you will desire to tell them yourself. This is great. You can always spot an evangelist in embryo, or an evangelist that is growing. They will be in a setting and I have seen this many times firsthand. They will be in a group of people and they are all Christians and they are loving the Lord and they are talking, "Oh man, we should tell that guy about Jesus." And the guy who has the gift of evangelism, he will spot the person. "Oh, we should tell that person about Jesus." They say that out of a sense of being timid, "We should tell that person about Jesus." And if somebody in the group goes and tells them, the evangelist, though he is glad that someone is telling them, he is chewing at the bit. He is like, "I wanted to tell them." "Well then why didn't you go tell them?" "Well, I was afraid to." "Well, you lost, too bad. I got to them." "Well, I want to tell them next time!" They just cannot handle it.

They have got to tell people about Jesus themselves. And many people, I see this happen, where will be talking, and this brother or this sister is over here, they start, you can see their gears going. And they, all of a sudden they cannot handle it and they just cut that other Christian off and they go, "And Jesus this and Jesus that and Jesus," and they are gone and they are going, and you just back away and you let him go. They want to tell people about Jesus themselves. It is beautiful.

Now look, again, if you do not have that gift, you are hoping and praying somebody shows up to tell them about Jesus. Oh man, I wish there was an evangelist around here. If there is not, do the work of an evangelist yourself. But you want to tell them yourself if you have that gift. And you will risk it, by the way. "Oh, I am nervous, but I am going to do it." Those of you who have the gift of evangelism, again, you will be so concerned for that person, you will not care the cost.

David J: You are listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That is jackhibbs.com. And for now, let us get back to our teaching. Once again, here is Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: Years ago, many years ago, probably 1980, '81, Richard Cimino and I. He pastors Calvary Chapel Grass Valley in Oregon now, I mean, uh, Grass Valley in Northern California, Northern California. It is close enough to Oregon. Uh, we were walking along the boardwalk in Newport Beach, and there is a chopper gang there. And I do not know if they even have, do they even have choppers anymore? Oh, those old guys, they got the choppers, the big forks out there, remember that? And the guys have leather on and It is pretty scary looking people.

And so we are walking along and it is really late at night. We were sharing the Lord with people. And there was this guy, he is loud and he is the leader of the pack guy. He is big and hairy and scary. Hairy and scary. And Richard and I were telling people and telling people and telling people, and then we saw this chopper gang and this leader and we shut our lips and we walked right by with our Bibles just And it was great. And as we walked by, we were still silent, and we both looked at each other at the exact same time. And the Spirit of God convicted us instantly at the same time.

And we turn and look at each other and we just said, "You know what, this is wrong." "Well, I do not want to talk to him." "I do not want to talk to him either." And I do not know how it happened, if we flipped or what a coin. I honestly do not remember. But somehow, it fell on me. And when we walked back, we walked right up to that guy and I said, and I had my Bible, and I said, "Excuse me! I am a Christian. Before you kill me, can I tell you about Jesus?" And the guy goes, "That is funny." And the guy goes, "Hey, this guy wants to tell us about Jesus." And everybody starts laughing, and the guy goes, "Shut up!" And everybody shut up.

And we told him about Jesus, and everybody had to listen in the whole gang. He made them listen. And the guy goes, "No." It was very sad though, because we gave him the Gospel and he goes, "God would not want me. I am so bad, you have no idea. If you asked these guys how bad I am, God would never want me. If I were there, it would not be heaven. I am so bad of a person. There is no way Jesus would ever want me." And we were pleading with the guy. "Yes! It is you! In fact, listen, look at this scripture: To whom much forgiven, he loves much. That is you, man! That is you!" "No, I would like to believe that." He was so swallowed up with condemnation, he would not believe it. And we wound up having to go away, and it was very sad but we prayed for that guy. Who knows. You know, who knows what ever happened to him? You know, he is probably pastoring a Calvary Chapel somewhere. That is what probably happened. But that is where it goes.

But you will run the risk. The your your protection logic goes out the window, God will overshadow that. If called upon to do so. In First Corinthians 9:16, First Corinthians 9:16 Paul says, "For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of. For of necessity it is laid upon me, yes, woe unto me, if I preach not the Gospel," Paul says. There is this desire to tell them yourself.

One of the greatest examples of this, in fact, one of the, if not the greatest example of an evangelist in all of the Bible, is Philip in Acts chapter 21, uh, verse 8. Philip the Evangelist, it calls him right there, Philip the Evangelist. But listen in Acts chapter 8. Let me read it to you. It starts at verse 26. Acts 8:26 says, "Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, 'Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.'" Wow, that is on the news tonight. "This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch, of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge over all of her treasury. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning, and sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit of the Lord said to Philip, 'Go near and overtake this chariot.' So Philip ran to him, and he heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. And said, 'Do you understand what you are reading?' And he said, 'How can I, unless someone guide me?' And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him in the chariot. And the place in the scripture which he read was this: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation his justice was taken away: and who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth." So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or some other man?"

Then Philip, listen everyone, this is beautiful. Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture, that is the prophet Isaiah concerning the suffering of the Messiah, preached unto him Jesus. Now, as they were, as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "Behold, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Listen, then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." Notice, belief comes before baptism. "And he answered and said, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.' So he commanded the chariot to stand still, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and baptized him." Is not that a great story?

Now, here is the amazing thing about it. Philip was preaching in Samaria, and there was a huge awakening, a spiritual awakening taking place. Okay, imagine, the church, so to speak, the church in Samaria is exploding, it is booming, it is going great. And Philip is preaching and God says, "Leave this place." That does not make sense. God says, "Leave this place, go down to Gaza." So as Philip is going down to Gaza, the man is going by in the chariot, an Ethiopian, a black man, going down back to North Africa. He went up to worship. A eunuch, it says. Why does it say a eunuch? This is important.

Evangelism, it is all by divine appointment. Do not ever underestimate God. Philip does not know what is going on. All God says was, "Leave this place. Go to Gaza, it is desert." That is all he knows. You and I, we have some insight presented to us by the word of God. Philip is just going down and there is an Ethiopian eunuch going by in the chariot and that is when God says, "Go, join yourself to that man in the chariot." Oh, okay. And the guy is in the chariot. Philip is running up there. Hey! He is listening to the guy read the prophet. "Hey, I recognize that. He is reading Isaiah. You understand what you are reading?"

In evangelism, if you have that gift, that is what God will do too. In fact, even if you do not have the gift, God will still give you confidence, should I say anything? And the person will say, "Well, what are you thinking about?" Or, "Do you have anything to say?" "Who, me?" "Uh, yeah." It is, it is a miracle. It is a miracle. So Philip, watch, Philip made himself available. God confirmed it. When he hears the prophet Isaiah being read, "Hey, Jewish scriptures. The Old Testament. That is my, that is my people." And the evangelist Philip knows exactly what to ask. "Hey, you understand what you are reading?" What a great line. Think about it. We could do that today. "Hey, is that a cross around your neck? What does that cross stand for? What does that mean?" Boy, I tell you, you ask that question today, you do not know what kind of answer you are going to get, but it is an open door. It is amazing.

Second thing we want to look at tonight is this. The gift of evangelism, it is a gift. It is not a talent. It is not human ability. This is something. I have seen people destroyed this way. For example, I have seen a person's life get all messed up because they were a really, really talented speaker. They really had the gift of gab or what you want to call it. They could talk, they could sell you anything. And this person got saved. This person got excited about Jesus. And everybody began to tell this person, "You know what, you should be an evangelist. You should be an evangelist. You have the gift of evangelism." They had never heard him evangelize ever. But he was excited about Jesus, and he was an excellent salesman. And so they put human concept and human idea with human talent. And they tried to spiritualize it. And they sent this guy off on his way. Great guy. Listening to the encouragement of people, Christians. Launches out in his talents. God was not in it. And crashed and burned.

Just because you can talk or you have a great vocabulary or whatever, it does not mean you have the gift of evangelism. It is a gift from God. It is divine. It often is used in people who are very aware of their insecurities and of their weaknesses and would not normally ever go up and approach someone, so that they themselves would know that it is of God. Are you with me? Do you understand that? That is very important. You would never, and how many times has God even ever used the head of the Harvard debate class in the ways of pastoring or evangelism? Well, everybody would think it is from his degrees at Harvard. God does not do that. It is very important. It is not of human talents.

And then thirdly, we have to wrap this up for time's sake. Thirdly, the gift of evangelism, it advances the Kingdom of Christ in three ways. I will say these quickly. In church growth, church growth happens when there is evangelists in the body of Christ. Church growth happens. You know what, I do not know, if you found this church by the advertisements in any newspaper, you are one of the rare few. We have the most, you know, minuscule announcements in the