Father, we thank you for the grace of gathering,

the grace of being able to at any time turn to you. Lord, how often we don’t realize what a privilege it is to be able to turn to you because you have turned yourself towards us. And we can in all of life know that, God, you’re present. And you are drawing us in and you are walking with us and you are sanctifying us and you are conquering, Lord, all of our sin in us, God. So thank you, but also let us be quick to turn to you, knowing that you, Jesus, are our Savior and you’re our friend who walks with us.

Lord, we just want to bless your name. We say thank you that you are who you are. And there’s none like you. There’s none like you in heaven or on earth or under the earth.

You, oh God, in the end all will see that you alone are God and all will confess that Jesus is Lord. So we just confess it now and joyfully surrender now and just submit to your Spirit and to your Word. Amen. Bless our financial giving. Let it be a joyful sacrifice of worship, Lord, to give and trust that you use what we give for your kingdom. And, Lord, increase, we pray, our influence for your kingdom. Lord, use providence, God, to further your kingdom through our witness, through our resources. Lord, use us for your glory. We pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.

Well, good evening. It’s good to be with you. We’re going to be in Mark chapter 16, verse 15. No, I’m not going to make the same mistake of preaching out of Revelation on family worship. I learned my lesson last time. But at the same time, it’s good to take a break every once in a while when you’re doing really heavy work. Heavy study like we’re doing in Revelation and give our minds a little bit of a rest and consider some different things from the Scriptures. And, in fact, what I think you’ll find is what we’re looking at tonight has everything to do with studying Revelation well. Because if we study Revelation well, we’re going to be moved to do the very thing that we’re talking about tonight in Mark’s Gospel. Okay, so my simple exhortation, simple exhortation, for us tonight is simply this. You and I, as followers of Jesus, we have the mandate upon us to proclaim the Gospel. Okay? So it’s a very simple exhortation for you and I to take to heart and to retake to heart and to retake to heart that you and I are called as followers of Jesus to proclaim Jesus. To proclaim the good news. In Mark chapter 16, verse 15,

Jesus says, and this is Mark’s great commission, Jesus says, Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation. And I want you to think about that with me for a moment. Who is Jesus talking to? In other words, who is the great commission for? Because usually when I refer to the great commission, we talk about it from Matthew’s perspective. And Matthew, of course, it says, Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations. And the only biblical evidence is we have of who’s preaching. The present at the ascension of Christ is really His disciples, His immediate disciples, the apostles, minus Judas, of course. So we know Jesus is talking to His closest disciples, the apostles, who have been walking with Christ for three years, who saw Christ’s ministry up close. If we want to call them that, we can. These are the religious professionals. If there was such a thing. There’s not, but I’ll say it for a minute. I mean, these are the guys who Christ picked out. They’re the ones that got to walk hand in hand with Jesus for three years. They’re the ones that Jesus said would be the ones upon whom He built His church, talking to Peter specifically. So as far as the Gospel records go, they’re with Christ. So the great commission is for them. It seems. And then when we get to Pentecost, Jesus says, And it says that Peter does what? He stands up and he preaches the Gospel. And as one of the apostles, he preaches. And we’re told that many are cut to the quick, it says. And they want to do what they ought to do. They want to repent. They want to turn. So it seems like up to this point,

sharing Jesus is a professional’s sport.

But then when we come past Pentecost,

we have this kind of honeymoon phase of the ancient church, if you will. Everybody’s loving everybody. We’re told in Acts 2 that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings, to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and prayer. So again, what is the church doing? What is the ancient, original first church doing? They are gathering to hear the apostles. So again, we’re going to these chief guys.

But then that honeymoon phase ends and persecution breaks out. And I think it’s very significant. Who is the first martyr for preaching the Gospel?

It’s not an apostle. I think that’s very significant. It’s not an apostle. It’s Stephen, who is a deacon, who was a servant. He faithfully proclaims the Gospel. And for proclaiming the Gospel, he finds himself to be, and we talked about him last week, about Jesus standing in heaven and taking note of him, having, you know, spilling his blood for the cause. Of Christ. It’s Stephen. And when we get past this, we read in Acts chapter 8, that Saul, before, you know, Saul’s converted to Paul, it says he approves, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, catch this, except the apostles. The apostles.

So the church, the church is scattered, but not the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Catch this. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the Word. And of course, you get Philip, who is not an apostle. Philip goes and they see a great revival among themselves. And then Philip, who is not an apostle, preaches the gospel to the eunuch in the desert, which we can imagine he took back, not an apostle, to the place from which he came. So it’s becoming clearer, isn’t it? The gospel mandate is for all disciples. Everyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus is to preach and proclaim the gospel, not only officeholders,

not only officeholders. You think, what’s the purpose of an officeholder in the church? What’s the purpose of a pastor, an elder? What is that? It’s not so everyone else can go, oh, wow, you can do spiritual things and you’re amazing. And I could never do that. Wow, let’s gather and watch you do amazing spiritual backflips. That would be cool. That’s not the point of a pastor or an elder. The purpose of a pastor and elder is to model the Christian life, to hold themselves to a gospel, a higher standard, so that other people can imitate them in what they do. No, not everyone’s called to stand up and teach the Word of God. But of course, men, women, we’re teaching our children in our own homes. Are we called all to lead public prayer? No, but we certainly should pray and be praying with our families and where we’re given opportunities.

So, I’m a really bad officeholder. I guess Chase and Chris are too. If we’re the only ones who know what it means, to really follow Jesus and everyone else’s hands are tied and just watching.

And you have to think, too, what is a disciple? And we talk about this all the time. A disciple is someone who doesn’t just learn. Like, ooh, I could tell you play by play how, you know, that guy’s game works. Pick your favorite sport or pick some trade. Pick woodworking, pick plumbing, pick whatever. Ooh, I know how it’s done. Yes, but a disciple doesn’t just know how it’s done. A disciple can do it. A disciple can do it. What does the Apostle Paul say in Corinthians chapter 11? He says, imitate me. Is that imitate Christ? That was not a special letter to apostles. The Apostle Paul was writing to all the churches. So Paul’s saying to all the churches at Corinth, all of you should do the things that I do and the things that I do. I’m only doing those things because Christ did them. So how disingenuine is Paul if he’s saying, imitate me, but not really because, you know, you’re not cut out to do it. And then we can go even further up the chain and say, Jesus, it’s confusing. You’re telling us to follow you, but you don’t really mean it. There’s only these select few that can do it, which, of course, is not the case.

Paul takes evangelism serious because Jesus takes evangelism serious. Luke chapter four, it says, when it was day, Jesus departed and went to a desolate place and the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. For this purpose. So you see, this work of being a disciple is not a work of observing. There is some observing to learn, but ultimately the work of being a disciple, the disciple is to imitate. It’s to imitate. And it’s to reproduce yourself in someone else. And friends, I say it, you know, with sobriety and with just seriousness. We have, I think today in America, we have a lot of churches, but not a lot of disciples.

We have a lot of people that gather together and want to carry that label Christian and they’re coming to church. And they’re doing these things. But friends, do we have people who are actually following Jesus? Are we disciples of Jesus? The Great Commission is for all of us. And until Christ returns, as we’re studying about in Revelation, right? You and I are a scattered people, just like the ancient church. They were scattered throughout the known world to go and proclaim the gospel. You and I are scattered where we live to do what? Scatter. See, we’re scattered people, scattering gospel seed wherever we go. One of my favorite verses on this is in Peter. And this is, you know, I know I float a few phrases, you know, prayer dependence, word saturation, Christ in the community and gospel proclamation. And this is a verse that hit me when I came to Providence. Peter says, you’re a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim. The excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You and I are called to proclaim the excellencies of Christ. That’s what you and I are called to do. And I deeply desire that in my own heart. I deeply desire that for you in your own heart. And I deeply desire that it be a part of our DNA as a church because it’s what real, healthy, biblical churches full of disciples do. They proclaim. They proclaim Christ.

So why do we do it? I just want to run through some reasons why we do it. We do it. And this actually, this first reason is enough. All right. We do it because God told us to do it. Big period at the end of that sentence. That’s all the convincing you need about why you should be studying, discovering what it means to share Christ, because God told you to do it. God Almighty said, do it. And when God, the infinite God, says to finite creatures, you go do a thing. The only thing we should say is, I’m off to do it. That’s the only thing that you and I should say. And when we don’t do it, preaching to myself, when we don’t do it, what we’re saying is this. I don’t actually fear God. I don’t fear him. I have a certain pride in me. I have a certain set of priorities, and I’m able to tell the God of the universe, no, I’m not going to do it. Friends, you and I have a fear problem. When we let the pride of our flesh tell God, no, I’m not going to respect you as the God of the universe. But it’s more than fear. Here’s the second reason why we should obey God in evangelism. We fear God, but secondly, because we love God. What is the apostle John? John tell us in his epistles. He says, whoever has God’s commandments and keeps them, it’s he who loves me. So I understand fearing God and loving God are not two strange concepts. They’re like completely apart. The only way to truly love God is to fear God. Because when I see who God is in his holiness and in his righteousness, and I see I deserve to be smashed under the weight of his judgment, and I deserve hell, yet Christ has spared me, and God would call me a child. He would want me to call him his father. All of a sudden, this God who is a judge, I fear him now because I see what I deserve from him. But I see the cross of Christ in which Christ himself took the judgment of the father so I could be a beloved child. So it’s only in Christ that I fear God, and I have a deep sense of reverence for who this God is. But at the same time, he’s given me a heart. I love him because he’s spared me, and he’s called me his own, and he’s taught me about who he is, and he’s filled me with the spirit of his son Jesus. So we can and should walk in the fear of the Lord to obey him, and we love him. We love him because he has first loved us. So I want to say evangelism grows out of a love for God who has graciously loved and restored us and called us to be message bearers, and because I love him, which is to say I see him clearly, I fear him as he is the one true God. I love serving his kingdom and being a part of that work. Do you love and fear God? Third thing, we share the gospel because we love people. We share the gospel because we love people.

Paul says we’re new creations in Jesus. The old’s passed away. The new has come. All this is from God. God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us a ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, and he says that we’re ambassadors for Christ. So, friends, you and I love people for the cause of Christ, not because you and I have enough love in us. And I want you to think about this. Do you have enough love for lost people in your heart? Do you have enough love for salvation? Do you have enough love for saved people in your heart? Big no on both of those. The only reason that you and I can love people at all is because Christ has shown us the love of God. And it’s the love of God that fills us. And it’s God is my source of love, that I’m a vessel through which he’s loving people through me. I don’t have enough for people. I don’t have enough for church people. I don’t have enough for non-church people. I wish I did, but I’m not Superman. I’m not Jesus. Jesus has enough love for all of us. So, friends, when I have really been impacted by the gospel, I would I would go as far as to say cruelty. It’s cruelty to hoard the truth of the gospel and keep it to myself and not love those who are enemies of God, even though I once was an enemy of God. So we’ve really been impacted by the gospel. Our hearts will be reshaped by the love of God to love people with a supernatural love to get to them the message that saves the message of the gospel. Here’s the fourth reason why we share the gospel. We share the gospel because we believe in the doctrine of hell. We believe in the doctrine of hell and judgment. I want to remind you of that passage that we ended on in Revelation this past this past week. It was a striking passage. It was a sobering passage. But it’s a picture of. It’s a very end. And we read that the kings of the earth and the great ones, generals, rich, powerful, slave free. They hid themselves in the caves in the mountains. They went to the rocks to fall on them, saying, fall on us, hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the land for the great day of their wrath has come. And who can stand?

Friends, do you believe in the doctrine of hell? Do you believe that when people perish, if they don’t know Christ, they don’t have a lesser quality life? Like there’s great A and there’s great B. You would prefer great A, but you got great B. No, the Bible says hell is a place of eternal suffering, eternal pain, eternal misery of a variety and a kind that you and I could not begin to fathom. And we’re told that it has no end. How can how can we? How can we believe in the doctrine of hell? Truly, how can we believe in a day of judgment and still keep the gospel to ourself? Hell should be one of our greatest motivations to speak the truth as it was for Jesus. Jesus talked about hell a lot.

The next reason why we should share the gospel is because we believe in the doctrine of heaven. We believe in the doctrine of heaven. We believe that joy and peace. And life await those who believe. We believe that someday God’s dwelling place will be with man. And the very end of Revelation tells us that God will make heaven and earth one. And he’ll wipe away every tear from our eyes. Friends, if we believe in the doctrine of heaven, we shouldn’t just want to get there ourselves. We should want to bring as many people with us if we really believe it. So, friends, you and I have so many biblical motivations, don’t we? Part of the problem, most of the problem is we don’t keep those biblical truths in front of us. Right. And we tend to live outside of them. And so then we tend to disobey. So that’s why we do it. Here’s why we don’t do it. We don’t do it because we fear man.

Jesus says, don’t fear the one who can only hurt the body. Fear the one that can throw body and soul into hell. There’s this terrible, there’s this terrible and I do mean terrible, toxic, poisonous sort of environment that you and I live in. And, oh, we just can’t offend people anymore. You just don’t want to be mislabeled. You just don’t you just don’t want to be thought of as poorly. You you want to be liked. You don’t want to be thought of as strange. You you don’t want to you don’t want to mess up other people’s personal space and make them feel uncomfortable. You don’t want to seem rude. And we we go along with this secular mindset as if that’s what’s actually best for people. We we don’t want physical backlash, which we almost would never experience in our context. We don’t want social backlash. But we have to be reminded of the apostle Paul, who says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus. Because Paul believed it was the power of God to save. How many times did Paul step on proverbial toes? How many times was Paul, you know, socially cast out for what he believed? How many times was Paul physically bruised and beaten and killed even for what he believes? Friends, we’ve got to undo the narrative that the world has us so bought into and say, I’m not ashamed of the gospel. And I don’t fear man. I fear God. And it’s before God. I will stand someday in judgment.

It’s the second reason I think we don’t do it is because I think we are royally selfish. I think as the church today in the West, we can buy into worldliness just as much as nonbelievers. We have time and we’ve got energy and we have our priorities and we have our wants. And we are able to craft. We have a life that’s busy doing all the right things, all the good things. And hey, sure, work is good. And yes, we all need to rest. But we’re able to so work our schedules that we’re so busy that we just don’t have time for the godly thing because we’re so busy doing all the good things. And we stay so busy. We look back over our shoulder and we realize we’ve lived a life where we’ve never sacrificed for the cause of Christ. The call of. The gospel, though, is what it’s a call to die to self. It’s a call to be uncomfortable. It’s a call to say no to my preferences. It’s it’s a call to say no, even a lot of times to the good things in life so that the godly things don’t get neglected.

The next reason I think we don’t share the gospel is because we forget the brevity of life, the shortness of life. James says life is like a mist. It’s here and it’s gone. I think we all we all live with that. The feeling of forever. Certainly when you’re younger, it’s like I’m just going to go on and I’m just going to go on. I’m just going to go on, you know, and this is not true. It’s not true. I was reading about some billionaire. He spends two million dollars a year. He’s got like these doctors that daily monitor his body. He does all these supplements, all these rigorous workouts, and he’s trying to actually reverse aging in his own body. Two million dollars a year. We’re so hungry. To stay young and to live forever. But I think if you could have a conversation with Methuselah, who lived 969 years, I think he would say, where did that last century go? I think it wouldn’t matter how long you live. It would just always feel like it’s gone because it’s just a truth that life is a vapor. And I would encourage you, if you’ve never read through Ecclesiastes, read through Ecclesiastes because that book lives in my mind so much. He just has this this gnawing, biting, just reality. It doesn’t matter the empire I build. It doesn’t matter the stuff I get. It doesn’t matter the things I enjoy. Everybody dies and somebody else inherits your stuff and you go away. It’s just a gnawing, biting reality that you can’t get away from. So, friends, if we were wise, we would know that life is so short and only what’s done for Christ will last, as the old saying goes.

Here’s the last reason I’m going to give you that. I think while we don’t share the gospel. We believe the lie that there are more qualified people than us. We think we are the wrong personality. We’re just the wrong type. And, you know, we just we can’t carry that low. I just I can’t save people. Right. That’s other people can do that. But I can’t. That’s not my thing. That’s not my thing. Well, actually, bonus here. I think the last reason we don’t is because we don’t really believe the end of the Bible. That book of Revelation we’re studying. I think I think it’s like wonderful, wonderful fiction. But if we believe this stuff, we would open our mouths. So, again, if we are disciples, we will obey, which means we will evangelize. We will find a way past all of our shortcomings, which are many. Our flaws, which are many. All of our blockades and good reasons why we don’t have the time, which are many. And all of our fears and hang ups, which are many. But the question becomes this. Are you not allowed to cherry pick Christianity? Are you not allowed to cherry pick Christianity and what Jesus tells us to do? That’s the question. Let me promise you, if that’s OK, evangelism is the first thing to go out the window because it asks so much of you.

But no, I can’t cherry pick the gospel because the gospel is that Christ, his blood. Covered my whole life. That was unworthy. And I must give up my whole life and all my preferences and desires in exchange for his eternal life. Even though that is a great cause of suffering now, I will inherit eternal life and joy with him in the age to come. I must, I must, if I am to follow Christ, receive the whole Christ, the whole gospel, because that’s the only one that there is. The gospel is this. The son of God had a mission. His mission was to defang the serpent by defeating death and sin. He did that on the cross as the God man. That was his identity. He calls all to repent, to believe upon him as their salvation. He defeated death. He was raised from the grave. And he says he is Lord. And he tells us. He tells us to go and tell people about him, that he came once for mercy, but he will come a second time for judgment. That is our gospel mandate. No ifs, ands or buts. No ifs, ands or buts.

Who do I share the gospel with?

Everyone. Anyone. In Jesus’ parable, they won’t come to the king’s feast. So he says. Go out in the highways and the byways. It’s pretty exhaustive. The highways is, I think, upstanding folk. Byways are not so upstanding folk. Go to everybody. That’s what that’s what Jesus has to do. So but that’s too general. I think of an answer for a sermon. So I think it starts with you. The gospel is something you need to preach to yourself daily. It’s not for lost people only. I need to hear the gospel because I’m a sinner. And I need to be reminded of the grace of God that saves me. My family needs to hear the gospel. And if I, as a father, am not talking about the gospel and, you know, different things in life, just how God, how the gospel speaks into the human dilemma with my children or certainly in disciplined situations. Shame on me, fellas. We’ve got to be speaking the gospel and the goodness of Jesus to our wives and to our children. All the time. You have rhythms of life. You’ve got co-workers and you have neighbors and you have extended family. You see at Easter and Christmas and Thanksgiving. And I bet that like me, you’ve got a lot of lost neighbors and co-workers and extended family. Well, I don’t have a lot of lost co-workers. They kind of be you. So I hope you’re not lost, whatever. But you know what I’m saying? Out in the world, we encounter folks who simply don’t know Christ. And I think it’s the beauty. It’s the beauty of community. I love how on Wednesday nights this semester, it’s given space to say, hey, this guy that I’ve been praying for for years to come to Christ, I had a little bit of a breakthrough. Hey, pray for me because I need to share this with my neighbor. Hey, this is going on and we can, as a community, we kind of have kind of these long-term, you know, mission, vision, gospel-centered things. We’re focusing on one another’s lives, what family, neighbors, co-workers, whatever. But then I think past your rhythms of life, and just the people you live next to, and people you work with, you see on a regular basis, you need to be a constant gospel witness and looking for those opportunities. I fully believe that the Scriptures and Jesus want you and I to be engaging strangers. Engaging strangers.

And, you know, you feel it in your gut when you’re supposed to do it because you don’t want to do it. And it’s just like that person at the gas station, or it’s that lady at the grocery store, or it’s whoever it is. You just feel led to say, hey, I don’t know what you’re walking through, but I want to let you know that Jesus loves you and He came to save sinners and share the gospel with them right there on the spot. We all have those opportunities. And again, to my shame, I’ll say sometimes I do it, but sometimes I’m like, nah, that’d be awkward. They don’t need that right now. Nah, that’s not the Holy Spirit telling me to do that. Right? We do that, but friends, do we get to say no to the Holy Spirit? No, we don’t get to say no to the Holy Spirit. We must engage, whether it’s people we know, whether it is those we meet, strangers in public. Yesterday, I was grateful, so grateful for the great turnout we had of men and women who came to do just that, to share the gospel with people, certainly on their way to hell.

It matters. It deeply matters that we have a passion for speaking the gospel in all of life. I want you to think about Sunday mornings, and this is not the mindset that I think we’ve had as American Christians for the last probably century. I want you to think about Sunday mornings as the minority venue for evangelism. It should be the minority venue. One, because people aren’t looking to the church gathering for answers to life anymore. They’re just not. People aren’t wondering, I wonder if I go to that church, if I’ll find life. They’re not. They’re not thinking that way. They’re looking everywhere else. So it’s not happening the way it used to happen. And two, I really don’t know if we read it biblically that was ever how it was supposed to happen. It was always through the scattering of the saints out into the highways and the byways by which the gospel is proclaimed. And again, we see that witness so much in the missionary work of Paul or whoever he has with him or just those beginning stages. Of the church in Acts.

Friends, I say this seriously. It’s not my job.

It’s our job. It’s our calling. It’s our joyful burden to proclaim the gospel together as a community of saints. And again, I do want to say that you should not feel like, OK, I got to go do it. No, you don’t have to so much do it. We go do it, right? Like yesterday, there’s so much encouragement going out in twos. Like it’s a work we do as a community as we’re praying for one another, encouraging one another, rebuking one another, right? Who doesn’t need a good rebuke every once in a while? Like, hey, quit watching TV and go share the gospel with someone. Stop just living in your insulated little life where it’s safe and it’s easy because we could play church all day long, couldn’t we? We could show up, hear some sermons and, you know, I can pray. I’m driving down the road and I can study the Bible and listen to a devotional every once in a while. Sure, I can do some of that stuff. But friends, are we are we breaking into the darkness and shining the light of Christ that we’ve been given that many would come to saving faith? I don’t want to play church. I want to with you be the church. I want to I want to be by God’s grace with you. A disciple, a follower of Jesus. I want to be a disciple of Jesus.

I ask just a few folks who went with us yesterday if they wouldn’t mind just maybe sharing just a little bit of their just experience and how things went for them just as an encouragement to you. So Richard and Caitlin and Sarah, if y’all wouldn’t mind just coming up here and I’ll just give you a chance just to share a little bit and I appreciate their courage to do it. I don’t know. No one likes to be asked by the pastor to do anything

in front of people. So I really just ask you to do it. ask them to share because again just the whole point here is it’s not for professionals it’s just for folks right it’s just for all of us to share the gospel so anyways with that being said y’all can just share for a little bit no no order here i’ll let you go first um so i was just gonna pretty much say that my feelings going into it yesterday were that i’m an introvert and um i have a lot of anxiety about talking to people that i don’t really know so it was very difficult for me to just go up and talk to people but after i talked to a few people i realized that um the main thing that i learned yesterday is that i make it out to be a much more difficult thing in my head than it actually is and i build it up to be this very scary thing um and think about all the ways that it could go wrong and what if somebody says this to me and what if somebody says that to me but it really never all the things i was afraid that would happen really never happened so um it just made me realize how much easier it is that i make it out to be in my mind um and i had a lot of conversations with people that were already believers which made me realize too that even if i’m not talking to people that um need to necessarily hear the gospel for the first time or are opposed to the gospel and need to hear a new perspective on it it’s still really encouraging to talk to current believers who love jesus and just talk to them about the things that we love about jesus and the things that jesus is doing in people’s lives that i’m unaware of most of the time because i don’t interact with them because they aren’t in our church so um it was scary but it was good and it was good to get out of my comfort zone um and i was thankful that chad and jordan pushed me to talk to people by myself even though most of the time i went with uh either jordan or chad but i went to one up went up to one person by myself and afterwards i was like oh my god i’m not going to talk to them because they’re not it wasn’t that bad so awesome thank you um hi i’m caitlin spidell i just started coming here with my husband and son in january um yesterday was my first time doing anything like that before um and i was extremely stressed about it on the drive up there like i was just thinking like it was like adrenaline of like you know job interview this is horrible i’m never doing this again like and then i started thinking like i just picture in my head of like i’m probably going to only possess serial killers and this is going to be horrible so i was like i if i have if i walk in with this attitude i’m just going to tank so i was like i was just praying god please let me have fun so i will actually do this again please let you know just give me courage and boldness but mostly please just let me somehow enjoy this um and he did he really he really did he did answer my prayer i i had a lot of fun it was a beautiful park i had never actually hung out in that park before i know that’s weird um um and the first time i was like oh my god i’m going to do this um and i was like oh my god i’m going to do this um and i was like oh my god i’m going to do this um i asked i did exactly what richard said to do and i thought it was a good like you don’t have to be a smooth operator you don’t have to have a good segue just kind of say hey you know i’m here with my friends in the park and we’re just talking to people about jesus i wanted to ask you what do you believe about jesus and the first girl i talked to said i don’t believe anything about jesus and i was like well this is the that was the best answer because now i can tell what i believe about jesus so and i asked her and she listened to me even though her son was trying to jump in the pond with the fish and and i was like oh my god i’m going to do this again and i was like oh my god but she really did hear me out and i got to you know invite her and that was good um the next people uh were like two moms with strollers i was like i’m going to talk with them um and they were not wanting to talk to me as soon as i said the word jesus the first lady just made a face like like how dare she and then the next lady was like i’m just gonna go like okay um but that was the worst they got that’s not even close to serial killer stuff i mean in case anyone was worried about that um like me um but it was it was just fun people were cool i need to learn more about catholicism because a couple people were catholics um um but it was a good learning experience nothing bad happened you don’t have to approach the scariest person you see um and it was fun and i appreciate the um opportunity so this is uh way more nervous for me than just talking to people one-on-one but i felt led to share this with you uh so i might take an extra minute or two more than what you asked me to but um um whenever i started uh sharing the gospel back in 2015 and um a guy came to our church and he worked at the mission and he uh basically i started spending time with him and going to a mission and seeing what they do and all and then he was like i go out on the street and i share the gospel and i’m like really show me and so that was the first time i ever even pondered that i think really um that that was uh something to do but he took me out there and this this man was bold i’m talking about a bold fella and um i remember i want to give you a couple of little stories one time we were walking by a bus stop and there’s probably 10 15 people there and he just stops and just starts sharing the gospel like john the baptist you know what i mean like that and then we’re in for the french quarter and everybody’s bustling around you got tarot readers over here with their uh stuff set up bands playing and then the band stops and this man just raises his finger and says jesus is lord i mean super loud and it was like probably like five seconds it was just an unnatural silence like the lord just stopped all this rustle and bustle of the french quarter for a moment to stand in awe and then it just kind of went back to uh people just like nothing ever

but we went out and shared the gospel and i probably jumped in pretty quick because you know i can talk uh fairly decently but um but anyway after that i said i started uh i was leading a uh a small group at my church and i started i started planning it i just started planning it because i’m like i want to show them how to do it how easy it is you know and we just started doing it every other week and uh did a lot of different stuff going down to bourbon street going door to door

and um i say all that to say um and i want to go back to this guy he wasn’t uh he wasn’t a saint by any means i don’t stand in awe of him he’s my brother i love him to death but the man actually struggles with heroin addiction and yet he had a boldness for christ to um you know go out there constantly and share and he still struggles with that and uh but i think he you know he continues to strive for the lord and and and and come off and and unfortunately relapse but be in prayer for him but but anyway anyway that ought to say like we i you know in fact i started planning it because it’s scary i started planning the events for these people because it’s scary and i would i would wouldn’t go if it wasn’t for them right if it wasn’t for me planning it because i’m the one who planned it so if i don’t show up you know i mean it’s basically a way to make myself get up and go and even then i’m so many times i’m like it might rain tomorrow it might rain tomorrow and

it might rain tomorrow and it might rain tomorrow and it might rain tomorrow and it might rain tomorrow but there’s a certain tension no matter how many times i’ve done it i’ve done it hundreds of times gone out to the street and shared the gospel people and there’s a certain tension and then all of a sudden i get this one conversation or these two conversations and there’s this feeling like you can’t get from anything else in the world you know it’s like and i don’t go out there because of the feeling in fact i try and run because i’m i’m nervous about it but man it’s a certain feeling that i never felt before and it’s a certain feeling that i never felt before and from anything else and sharing the gospel in the past couple of weeks um well the past two times we’ve went out since we started back we ended up um a lot of people are a little bit more standoffish and most of the folks that like it would be like half the people were either said they were saved and i think genuinely probably half of those people were actually saved and the other ones weren’t and then other people you know um there was just this kind of pushback like no i’m good or just like you couldn’t really get into a groove and and we had a few uh conversations that were short and i don’t want to discount them where i might have had a 40 second gospel presentation or encourage somebody to get back into church or things like that but i was like man that just i just can’t have this conversation i want to share the gospel for real or have a conversation back and forth about why this person’s an atheist and how maybe i can convince them a little bit and then share the gospel i want i want this and and so me and cameron was out yesterday and we was out there and we were talking about the gospel and we were out there for probably you know it was a it was 122 and we’re supposed to be going back to our rally point at 130 and i’m like i’m gonna go we’re gonna go find one more person i’m gonna get one more shot and so we went around and we ended up on the bridge and there was just two teenagers there and and as i was on this bridge it just made me think about the time they were casting for the fish and jesus said cast to the other side like i didn’t give up you know i just said i’m gonna go find one more person even though i could have just said it’s only eight minutes and it’s gonna take me eight minutes to walk back to our rally point but we went over there and um i said hey there where i like normally uh started the conversation and they were really not super you know into it necessarily but um i started asking them some questions and and as i presented the gospel to them i was asking questions in between some real practical questions like if you had somebody you loved that got shot everybody wants god to be a merciful god right but if you had a family member who was shot in the j he walked into the court and the judge said hey you’re good i’m gonna have mercy on you you wouldn’t like that would you and so that was one example i gave that really stuck home to these uh teenagers that really got their ears perking but i just shared the gospel for probably eight minutes and they just listened and just a couple times answered the questions that i posed to them and just like tentatively listened and i was able to give a you know a solid you know not just a quick 30 second but a solid gospel presentation me and cameron and man i was walking away and i said thanks for your time and we was walking away and cameron said you got your one conversation and i was like yep but he didn’t know my whole body was tingling at the time though i was just like man it was through the roof and i just left just so thankful that the lord gave somebody that would hear his word and i thank him they gave me the words to speak and um it’s just such a blessing and it’s just such a blessing and it’s just such a blessing and it’s just such a thing and like i said it’s going to be that tension every time you go out but if you do if you’re obedient and you just say lord it’s all in your hands i’m just going to start this conversation and wherever it goes it goes give me the words to say i guarantee you by the end of the hour and a half you’ll say you’ve never uh nothing in this world can give you the joy you get from from that so i just want to encourage on that and just um uh and i just was so like like pastor chad said just so amazed and encouraged by everybody who showed up and it just gives me strength and courage to go out and do it as well so that’s it thanks cool can we give a round of applause thank you all for speaking

thank you all so much and again i just wanted just to see those are faces you know those are just normal people doing supernatural things because jesus has asked them to and they responded in obedience in the power of the spirit so thank you ladies thank you richard uh for sharing that’s super super encouraging um i know it’s getting late and we could talk about this from a lot of different angles but i just kind of wanted to end on this um you know as we hear that we go okay that’s scary i see everybody else is scared too it’s not weird there’s no there’s no professionals right there’s no religious professionals um but i need help and i want to get better at it um richard’s going to have just an organized time at least once a quarter we’re thinking about where we’ll meet on a sunday after we’ll do different things about what if i come what if i encounter this situation or or how do i answer this kind of question or even i think a lot of us maybe uh need to practice in like what does it look like to even just do a gospel presentation and share and i know uh i know sue ann’s had a lot of experience doing that overseas it’s really not too different from what we do in the states just being able to share your own story and share you know how the gospel’s impacted you so we want to we want to keep equipping and training and just keep it hot and alive in our culture one more thing i want to kind of throw at you to do is um i’ve bought a number of tracks and i probably don’t even like the word tracks um you know i grew up going to a small christian school and like you go to you know uh frish’s big boy i don’t know if you know what that is it’s like a diner kind of restaurant they don’t have them down here but there’d be like a track on the table and be like you’re going to hell with like a devil pointing at you you know and that was a track um that that’s not what this is i probably let’s use the word like brochure or pamphlet do all roads lead to god how can i trust the bible they’re just informational things so they’re not to be used instead of sharing the gospel they’re supplemental to sharing the gospel so again the the lady at the gas station or whatever um you don’t have time to talk to her forever but you let her know you love her you let her know you know about jesus and hey if you would be interested here’s a little booklet brochure pamphlet about who jesus is can i can i ask you just to read this and hey our church is a church and we’re going to be sharing the gospel thank you to kate for labeling all these our address our our website is on the back if they wanted to know more so i would encourage you grab a couple of these each sunday and make it a rhythm of life to just again not like slide this somewhere and run away but if you engage with someone just say hey this is who jesus is i’d love to i’d love to just give you this little uh brochure pamphlet you pick your synonym about how you can just learn more about who jesus is and just kind of do that as a rhythm of life i think when you keep these on you it kind of reminds you as well to be faithful to do that you know as you go not just when we get together at big spring park it can be both end so these will be um out there with some other ones we have i’d encourage you to take take two or three just challenge yourself to to try it out this week um with some of these uh with some of these new tracks that we have okay so we’ll stop there um again i love you guys um it’s exciting in the way that we’re doing it and i just want to say words of richard tingling to uh to share the gospel and do it in fellowship uh with with brothers and sisters in christ so by god’s grace let’s continue to faithfully proclaim the gospel okay it is a gospel mandate for us as we follow christ together so let’s pray father we thank you for this time where we can see so clearly from your word that you are our salvation but you employ us to go about the work of sharing the news of that salvation and god you are our salvation you do your work through uh jars of clay like us you fill us and you pour us out to expand your kingdom lord so all of our fears and all the things that we’re unsure about god you are faithful to um you are faithful to use us lord so just empower us for obedience oh god empower us for obedience for selflessness for a great love for the gospel a great love for um the lost a great joy and desire to reach the gospel and to reach the gospel and to reach the gospel and to reach heaven uh with many who have heard um from our gospel witness lord so that’s our that’s our prayer and only you can do that um this morning or evening we’re going to take communion together