Hey, happy fall break, I guess, for most of us. I know we have several families out traveling for a fall break, but it’s good to be with you this evening. So this evening we’re doing something different. I’ve wanted for a while for us to talk about, and we talk about it a lot, but we can’t talk about it enough, the value of personal evangelism and what it means to be a light where you go. And, you know, as you think about your Christian walk and I think back about my Christian walk, you know, there’s a few people that really shape us. There’s a few people that really point us the way to Jesus. And so I’m grateful for my own dad. My dad is a pastor at a church down in Gardendale, Alabama. And he’s also the greatest personal evangelist I know who loves sharing Jesus. Jesus as he goes everywhere. So I asked him to come and just share with us about what it means and what it looks like to share the gospel and to be faithful to just make disciples of the nations through just preaching the gospel anywhere we go. So I’m so excited to hear my dad, whose name is Phil Cronin. So, yeah.

Hey, how’s it going? Good.

I am excited to talk to you about my favorite subject in all the Bible that I really think it’s probably. One of the largest deficits in the church today is the E word, which is almost like a potty word in our church circles. It’s evangelism. And it’s a scary word for most. Most people, because for years and years and years, our pastors have told us, OK, guys, let’s go out and share the gospel.

These are incredibly bright. I could get suntan.

And then it’s almost like sending out people in the military field and saying, OK, guys, go, go conquer that that other army. Then we know how to get the safety off the gun. We’ve almost done a disservice to our people because we’ve said, go get them, boys. But we didn’t really tell them how to go get them. And so tonight we’re going to talk very briefly about just a few passages about what the Bible says and commands for all of us. And I want to take away the the stigma that evangelism is for the preacher. It’s for the Chad’s. It’s for the Pastor Kevin’s. It’s for the whoever’s those big guys. But. But in real essence, it’s for you and me. It’s for the people who sit in the pews day in and day out who are hearing the word of God, who need to squeeze out of our sponge into a lost, dying, dirty, desperate world that needs good news. And, you know, it’s funny because speaking of good news, you know, most news, let’s face it, it’s bad, right? That’s because bad sells. I happen to be watching Fox News. I don’t watch a whole lot of news because I get depressed. I’m like, hey, forget that deal. So I was watching Fox News. Just a little clip of it the other day. This farmer guy. Did y’all see where they were trying to rob his farm? And he kept having these guys come up on his farm, take stuff. Well, these guys were taking the wheels off of his 18 wheeler. And so at gunpoint, he’s like, no, no, no. So he calls cops. And so, you know, they’re kind of here heralding him as a as a hero. And then the reporter, the blonde lady, I can’t think of her name. Real Christian lady. What’s your name? Put her on the spot. I don’t know. It’s one of the reporters. She’s obviously born again. And she baited him. And she said, so whatever the guy’s name, Bobby, what do you think is wrong in America? And how can we get things better?

He said, well, man, people just need to repent from their sins and turn away from what they’re doing wrong and turn to God. And in like 30 to 45 seconds, he quickly shared the gospel on national news. Now, he could say, well, yeah. Yeah, man, look at me. I’m Pistol Pete. I held off these robbers from. He could have taken all the glory instead. You know, hey, what do we do? What what’s our world’s broken? You can’t even have a farm. People stealing stuff off your farm. He said, hey, man, how about people just turn away from their sin and and just go to God? So I respected that man. I teared up. I was just like I was just couldn’t. I was telling Gene about I could almost I couldn’t talk because I was so enamored with the fact that this guy took his literally his 45 seconds in the limelight. And he did this. Look.

Look in the book of Acts where I think it was Peter and John. It’s funny because in Luke, Peter’s denying Christ three times. Oh, what me? Oh, what me? Third time he almost blasphemed. I’m telling you what me in Acts. They’re threatening to beat him, possibly killing. He says, hey, man, you beat me. You kill me. Whatever. I can’t but tell you what what I just saw. I’m going to talk with Jesus. I’m going to talk. My name is Jesus. Go all the way back to I think it was Jeremiah.

And Jeremiah is prophesying against the land. And they’re going to. So the religious leaders of that day, man, they want to take him and kill him. He said, man, do do with me what you want. Kill me. Do whatever he said. But now if you do, he said, my blood is going to be on your hands. It’s going to be on the hands of all the people of the land. And he said, I’m just telling you what God told me to tell you.

And. And they released him. It’s kind of cool. So these people were willing to risk just about anything, their life, their skin, their reputation, all for the glory of God. We’re just going to rip through a couple of these Bible verses really quick just to show the command, the demand for us to be able to share the gospel. But then we’re going to spend the remaining time talking about how to do it, because I think that’s more important than just knowing. But then we’re going to spend the remaining time talking about how to do it, because I think that’s more important than just knowing. But then we’re going to spend the remaining time talking about how to do it, because I think that’s more important than just knowing. Hey, yeah, I think all of us are like, I know I need to do that. I first got saved at the church where Gina was going. And immediately I got on the visitation team, the Thursday night visitation team. I was 20 years old knocking on doors.

Hey, do you know if you die tonight, you go to heaven or hell? So lamb, you know, and we did that. It’s like, man, this stuff don’t work. This is painful. I was a salesman. I still couldn’t. And I was like, this rejection just killed me, man.

So let’s read just a few of the commands real quick. Let’s go to Philippians chapter 3, verse 20. You don’t have to turn to that in your Bible if you want to just make notes, but these are very important. It says, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, first, let’s do things first. Put the first thing in front. If we, if you and I are not eagerly waiting. To get into heaven and be with God and Jesus, something’s broke. Would you agree with that? If we’re not, something’s broken. We’re too busy. We’re like the dog in the backyard. You ever seen the dog that chases his tail? Has anybody ever seen that? It was just me. We grew up in Kentucky. There was a lot of mistreated dogs there. So anyway, if we are not eagerly waiting to see heaven, to see God, to be with our brothers and sisters in heaven. Number one, there’s a broken, there’s a broken piece in the puzzle. We had a dog named Charlie. Charlie would eat one piece of the puzzle. Gina and Elaine and my youngest daughter would always do these puzzles around Christmas time. There’d be one missing. So frustrating.

If we’re not born again, it’s really hard for us to be able to share Jesus. So we got to get that right first. So if we’re not eagerly waiting, let’s do a checkup from the neck up and maybe from the neck down.

First Peter chapter two, verse nine. Verse nine. You are 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. So there’s a command for us to be able to proclaim his excellency.

Then in Luke 9, 23, he says, Then he said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself. And take up his cross daily and follow me.

Colossians chapter four, verses five and six. Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be seasoned with grace and with salt. What does salt do when you eat a lot of salt? Like a lot of salty Mexican food or salty potato chips. What happens? You get thirsty.

If your Christian talk is seasoned with salt, what are you going to do to a lost and dined world? Make them thirsty. For what kind of water?

The living water. That’s right. That you may know how you ought to answer each one. All right.

Let’s go. Second Corinthians 5, 11. But knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Now let’s stop there just for a really quick second. Knowing the terror of the Lord.

In America and really worldwide today, what do we do with Jesus and what do we do with God?

We form him. And we make idols that somewhat resemble. An image of a teddy bear, soft and fluffy, harmless and cute, right?

Not the terror of the Lord.

But knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are well known to God. And I also trust all well known in your conscience.

And one of my favorites is Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 18. And all of this is a gift from God who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. God gave us what?

The task of reconciling people to him. So you think in four or five, six verses right there, there’s enough charge, there’s enough command, there’s enough evidence. That you and I now have the responsibility of sharing the gospel. Would we all agree with that? It’s not the Chads and the Kevins and the Billy Grahams and the Franklins or whoever they are. It’s all of us, man. My mom used to say something when I was younger and I used to hate it until I got older and I realized she was right. My mama would say, and I had six brothers and sisters. I mean, from a big Catholic family. She said, many hands make light work. Meaning that we all had to get busy and clean up the house because she wasn’t going to do it. And she’s right. So if all of us would get together, I think we could make a dent in the world today. I think we had 28 people in my Sunday school class this morning. 24. 24 people in my Sunday school class. I don’t know how many we got in here. I’m not going to take the time to count. But let’s say we had 30 or more. And let’s say that 24 and our 30 plus people. If we started sharing the gospel relentlessly for the rest of our lives. Do you think there would be a change in the world that we live in today?

Do you think we’d find greater joy than what we’re experiencing right now? I’ll share this before we go into technique of how to do it. I’ve had a lot of great days in my life. I was raised. In a big Catholic family. Fairly white collar-ish. And so we never had need of anything. Other than discipline. More of it.

Everything was pretty good. And then one of my great days was my first girlfriend. Woohoo! Think about your great day. What was one of your best days? First girlfriend. And then you get tired of her. The second girlfriend. Yay! Okay? Then your first. Job. That is funny isn’t it? Then your first job. And then your first paycheck. Wow! And then when you get to tell that guy. I hate this job. I’m going to this other job. Because they’re going to pay me $2 more on the hour or whatever. But then your second job and your second paycheck. You’re like wow! This is great. And then the girl that you dated there for a while wants to be your wife. And then you end up marrying that girl. And then the day you get married. Big day. Big day. Great. Then your honeymoon. Great! And then a blessed day when you get to hold your baby.

And there’s some young kids in here. And you have to go back. But the first day that you held the baby. It breaks you. It does something wild to you. It’s amazing how you can be all uptight. Like oh my gosh. Because I’m like paranoid of doctors and hospitals. It’s honestly. It’s a phobia. I think they should outlaw them. And but. So I’m like. I’m a nervous nut. The very first time we. Our first kid. They separated us. I had to go downstairs and sign papers. I’m thinking oh my gosh. What if she has a baby without me? And I’m down there signing papers. So man I take off running after I get done signing the papers. And I’m blowing through doors. Well I hit one and the mag lock was on.

Wow! I’m down for the count.

But I remember. Here comes Crystal. Wow! Our first baby girl. And it was like. It was like a baby. A movie baby. Like clean. Beautiful curly hair. Didn’t look like. Ooh baby. Ooh. Do something with that. Beautiful. And then we had Chad.

And I’ve said. He had the umbilical cord wrapped around his head. And he was purple. His nose was like squished to his head. His little head coned out. And I thought. God. What. What did I do wrong?

His papa. Who looks dead up like him. Comes running down the hall. After he had been born. He hadn’t been there the whole time. And they look up and they see papa. Who I love. He’s my man. He’s like. My mentor. And they looked at papa. And they said. Your baby’s down there at the end of the hall. They didn’t. I mean. That. I mean there was that much. Look. So my first boy. And then we had our third girl. And those were good days of my life. Then we had our first grandbaby. I thought. Wow. This is. So you get all these great days. But let me tell you. The best day in my life. And that these. Even though those. And I don’t discount these days. The best day in my life. Is when I share the gospel with somebody. And they receive it.

And I see them get baptized. And then I talked to. One of those guys. This morning. He’s going to teach my Sunday school class. Next week.

That’s a pretty good day. Y’all. That’s. That’s happiness. And you know. Even when you share. The gospel. And you get the rejection. Like. Hey. This didn’t go. Like I planned. That’s still a great day. So let’s look at. Just some of the techniques. And things that we can do. That can help us. Get over this hurdle. Because what. What do you think. Is the one biggest reason. Why you and I don’t share a faith. One. This is why I showed up. Y’all thought.

Fear of man. Yes. My dad. Went in sales. He used to have a word. Called. Fud. Fear. Fear. Uncertainty. And doubt.

Fear. Is our biggest reason. So let me. Remove some of the fear. From us. Tonight. First. I’m going to. Tell you. My experience. Of how I came to Christ. By the way. I think one of the greatest ways. That you and I can share. Christ. Is not have this. Technique. And this sequence. Of things that I say. That’s going to get me into this. And then next thing I know. I’m closed the deal. And the guy gets saved. Let me tell you. How you and I. Can share. Jesus. And we don’t have to be an expert. Is just tell them about the day. You got saved. What were the events. Leading up to. You. Getting saved. Before you were saved. How. Who. Told you about Jesus. Why did you come to Jesus. What did that look like. And now what does life look like. After Jesus. I’m talking about 30. Not 30 minutes. Five minutes.

It’s called your personal testimony. That’s your. A number one. Ace in the hole. Why. Because it’s your proof. If you are born again. It’s your proof. That you know. Undeniably. Exist. That you can share with other people. Just tell your story.

That’s the easiest way. I’ll tell you how I did that. I dated a pretty little girl.

That I’d seen in high school. And we dated for a. Period of time. And every time we go out. On a date. She’d whip out this little black Bible. In her little. She drove a Mustang. I drove a Subaru. Whose car do you think we drove. In her Mustang. And she’d whip out this Bible. And she said well. You know. Because I was a Catholic. And I was. You know Catholics are right. And everybody else is going to hell. That’s just. That was my opinion as a Catholic. And she said well. The Bible says this.

Ooh. Okay. Well I was smart enough as a Catholic. I’m like. I’m not going to argue with the Bible. That makes. That makes perfectly good sense. And so we had enough of these Bible. Bible conversations. Matter of fact. I remember one night. Going home at Friday or Saturday night. Talking to my mom and dad. I said. Hey. I said. I know we believe this. But Gina had a Bible in her car. And she said this. And I remember looking at my dad. I said. Well dad. What do you think? And my dad. At that point. My dad said a lot of smart things. He was really funny. My dad said the smartest thing. I’d ever heard him say. And this is what it was. He looked me in the eye. He says. I don’t know boy. What do you think?

And at age 20. I was. I’m perplexed. Now I’m like. Oh no. You mean I’m supposed to think for myself? I had never done that.

Gina committed a big sin. She married me. I actually hadn’t been born again. At the point that she and I. Got married. We’re laying in bed one night. And we’re having another Bible discussion.

The Bible discussions weren’t my thing. But I remember the point in question. That she asked me that night. That brought me to Christ. And here it is.

My name’s Phil. But my mother and my wife. Call me Phillip. When it’s serious.

And she said. Phillip. If you were to die tonight. Are you 100% sure. That you’d go to heaven?

I started blubbering. Like a baby. And this is what I said. No.

And then she followed up with a one-two punch. And then she said. Phillip. Would you like to know. If you could go to heaven. Tonight. Yes. And we knelt right there beside the bed. And Gina led me in the sinner’s prayer. Dear Lord forgive me. I know I’m a filthy sinner. Please come to my heart. A couple days from there. I was baptized at a little Baptist church. Didn’t know what I was doing. But I know I got baptized. Next thing I know. I’m singing in a choir. I don’t sing. That was funny. I remember the guy sitting beside me. He used to date her. That was awkward. And Tony Aleph. And Tony was a really good singer. And I remember him. In choir practice one day. He put his finger in his ear. Because I was on that side. While I was like. Am I busting your harmony pal? So anyway. Either way. I got the wife. So alright. So. They put me. Next thing I know. I’m helping the youth pastor teach us. I don’t even know how many books are in the Bible. And I’m helping teach Sunday school. What kind of crazy crackpot church is this? They had Discipleship 101 down. Way before they even wrote a discipleship book. Get people involved.

But what was the question that got me there? Phillip. If you were to die tonight. Are you 100% sure you’d go to heaven? Okay. So that’s what I want us to concentrate on. I don’t know what year it was. And she didn’t take that training. But there was a. Called Evangelism Explosion. EE. And so everybody that was in church back then. In the Protestant churches. You took EE because you wanted to know how to win people. But if you get anything out of EE. Or if you get anything out of tonight’s talk. Could you memorize that one question? One question. The one question is. If you die tonight. Are you 100% sure you’d go to heaven?

Now, none of us in here are Bible scholars. I’m not even a Bible scholar. I know Chad graduated from Moody and whatever. A few of us may have a degree or two.

But you don’t have to be a Bible scholar. Matter of fact, I read in the books of Acts this morning. I think it was chapter 4, chapter 5. It said that Peter and John. They took notice of the high council. Took notice of them because they were unlearned and uneducated men.

But all of us in here. Can learn. Hey, if you die tonight. Are you 100% sure you’d go to heaven? I’m up on a ladder one time in a rental property. In Louisville, Kentucky. And I thought I was by myself. And next thing I know. There’s a gentleman behind me. And it’s not a great neighborhood. And it startled me. Hey man, is this place for rent?

And I forgot what I told him. But I said, no man, I think it’s already rented. I’m just paying it to get the new family in here or something. And so as he was walking out of the door. The Holy Spirit knocked on my door. He said, hey, dummy. I don’t think the Holy Spirit said dummy. But he said, hey man. This guy here. Hey, how you doing? You’re kind of cute. He said, that guy right there needs Jesus. I said, and I said, oh my gosh. What am I doing? I’m allowing possibilities to slip through my fingers. And so what I did. You’re so cute. I’m taking you home with me.

I said, hey, sir. I said, this is a crazy question.

But God forbid you died tonight. Are you 100% sure that you’d go to heaven? And he turned around and answered me. Which ensued into about a 45 minute conversation. His wife and his however many kids in his SUV out there. Were out there waiting for 45 minutes. While he had a gospel conversation with me in a rental house. Had roaches crawling all around us. That’s pretty cool. Now. I like that question more than all of them. There’s a million ways. A million techniques to get to the sharing the gospel. But it’s so simple. And it cuts through. Hey, matter of fact, this is what I hate. Don’t use this. If this is what you use. Get it out of your vocabulary. Unless it’s working for you. I bet it’s not.

Hey, man. You go to church anywhere.

Don’t do that. Because guess what? If they don’t go to church. What have you just done? You just kind of put them in an awkward position. Well, no, man. I hate church people. Or, you know, nobody’s ever invited me for. If you do anything, invite them to church. My evangelism technique when I was a newer Christian. My wife sings. She’s amazing. My son sing. He’s amazing. My daughter-in-law sings. She’s amazing. So.

My evangelism technique would be. I’d wait for her to be able to sing on one Sunday. And then I’d go. I’ll ask all my friends or my family or whoever. I’d say. Gina’s singing this Sunday at church. And I’d go. Do you want to come and hear her?

That was it. That’s all I had. Now. Okay. Atta boy. At least you tried. Right? So. You got to do something. And something’s better than nothing. But I would say. That’s probably not the most effective realm of that. Now, I think inviting people to church is important. But. I think what you can do is cut through all the garbage. All the confusion. And here. Even if you couldn’t follow up with anything intelligent after that question. What happens when you ask that person about dying and going to heaven or hell? What happened?

Anybody?

Huh? I have asked the hardest question. And I’ve cut through all the fat. I’ve come to the juicy stuff. With all the protein and meat in it. Okay. And I have just taken them out of a busy world. That the devil has scrambled their brains. He’s like a dog out in the backyard chasing his tail. And because, you know, the devil’s that way. He’s almost like my pastor when he plays basketball. He’s really dishonest when he plays. He should get saved when he plays ball. But he. When somebody from the other team has the ball. This is what my pastor will do. Here, here, here, here. I’ve seen people from the other side of the team pass him the ball. And they’re like. Oh, my gosh. I can’t. And, of course, Kevin takes it. And, oh. That’s what the devil is doing to people in the world. He’s doing that to us, too, by the way. But when you ask that question, guess what you do? You shut the devil up. You bring them and face them with eternity. Even if it’s for a moment.

Not too many church members are doing that. Hey, man. Crazy question. You may not even be prepared to answer this. Okay. What? Hey, God forbid. You were to die tonight.

And you stood before God in heaven. And God’s looking at you eye to eye. I like to make it a little bit more personal. And God said. And hopefully by that time I know the person’s name. I said, and Jimmy, why should I let you into my heaven? And then at that point, you shut up. My dad says, if you keep talking, you will never make the sale. You have to let the customer talk at some point. The lost person is our customer.

And you want to hear what he’s got to say. Because I don’t know what perspective he’s coming from. It will help you to know what to say and what not to say. But you’ve just faced this person with eternity. Even if it’s for a moment.

I like it. You know why I like that question?

Because I’m saved. And that’s the question that got me there. It faced me with eternity. And I’m like, I don’t know. And do you know what? Most people that you ask that question to, even if they’re in your church, they may not know. And so it’s very important that we get these people face to face with eternity.

All right. I’ll give you some more ways to do it. Now that takes a little bit of guts. I’ll be honest with you to do that. But it doesn’t matter what you do in evangelism. Let me tell you what the devil does to you when you want to approach somebody or talk to somebody. It could be a family, a loved one. It could be a friend. It could be a neighbor. It could be a stranger out in public. I find it easier to talk to strangers in public than it does my own family. So find your niche, y’all.

These little cards are cool ways to share the gospel. This particular website here, I brought a couple of hundred of these. Peace with God. It’s actually peacewithgod.net. But they made a change. So I made a change. So we did our own QR code, copied off of a place in the United Kingdom. But it’s called peacewithgod.org.uk. And so basically, there’s four little videos on that QR code. There’s a QR code on the back of the deal here. And then there’s also a website on here saying goingfather.net. That particular website is helpful even for me. I’m a pastor. I’ve been a pastor now for almost 20 years. And I still, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in church. You’re still going to have questions. You won’t know everything. You’re going to forget sometimes more than you know. But this is a great little website that if you share it, they’re going to take this home and possibly see four videos that are about four minutes long that will confront them with the gospel. I hate it. We live in a digital world. But it works. This website literally gets millions of hits. It’s pretty solid stuff. It’s an old Billy Graham website, Franklin Graham website. And so this is how I give these out. If it’s a follow-up on a conversation, then maybe I didn’t get to go where I needed to go. I actually give these to new members at our church because I want all of our members to see what this is.

But if they’ll go home and watch this, they’ll see the gospel. And how I present this is, I’ll ask a loaded question. What did Jesus do most in his ministry when he was talking to? What did Jesus do most in his ministry when he was talking to people in the community?

Think about how did he initiate conversations a lot of the time? It was with a question, not a statement. Questions are great. And so this is what I’ll ask somebody. I’ll say, hey, come down here to Cameron. Hey, Cameron, do you all ever watch movies online or check out videos online? Nine out of ten times, slap, slap, slap. I do. And then I’ll say, well, hey, take that card. And there’s four. There’s four little videos on there. They’re about three minutes long. I said, check them out and let me know if you like them. If you like them, give me a thumbs up. And then I’ll put like a little goofy smile on my face. Let’s look goofy for Jesus, y’all. And then I’ll back up and say, hey, now, if you don’t like them, give us a thumbs down. I’ll make a pouty face. And normally what they’ll do is they’ll laugh a little bit. I’ve kind of made a friend real quick in about 30 seconds. I just donated 30 seconds of my day. I didn’t have the gospel conversation maybe I wanted to. But. But Joker’s going to take this home. He’s going to put it in his pocket. She may put it in her purse. It might be today or it could be six months from now. They’re going to pull out and say, what is this? It’s a QR code. What are they going to do with it? They’re going to watch it. They’re going to be presented with a very classy gospel presentation. This website literally gets millions of hits every year. And thousands of people click the button saying, I want to receive Christ as my Savior. It sounds too simple, doesn’t it? Let me tell you that. What’s not the simple thing. It’s when I can get you to hand this card out to other people. You know why? You ever been on a bridge? When we were young kids, we had a cabin down in a lake at Kentucky. And we would get on a bridge and we’d jump off the bridge. It’s fun. But the initial step, you may stand there for 15 minutes and it gets worse. But sometimes you just step up and go. And it’s great. It’s just it’s so exhilarating. And then you hit the bottom and you think, wow, I’m alive still. But if I can get you to hand these out, you and I can see more and more people come to Jesus Christ. The yellow one is in Spanish. Let me tell you that while that works even better. Are there any Spanish people in Huntsville?

Yeah, there’s they’re everywhere. I married one. You got one for a pastor. OK, so. So here’s the deal. Here’s the deal. You see a guy in Home Depot. Are you man? You’re. You go to some restaurant and you say, hey, man, you speak Espanol. Yeah, you put the little rip on there like you speak Spanish. I’ve been married to a Spanish teacher for 38 years. You know how much Spanish I know? Nada. That’s what I know. Nada. So the Spanish guy say, see, I speak Espanol. I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t speak Spanish. I said, hey, but you ever watch videos in Spanish? See. So, hey, check out my videos. Give me a thumbs up if you like them. Scooby, smile for Jesus. If you don’t like them, give me a thumbs down. Howdy face for Jesus. You just made a friend. They’ll laugh. They’ll smile. Sure, you might be the goofball at Lowe’s or at the restaurant or whatever. But guess what? You’re going to walk away. You just left the thumbprint of Jesus on that dude. How many times have we passed people by and we’re leaving no thumbprint? We’re just letting the world grasp.

They’re gnarly, big, nasty, fingernail, clawy hands around the throats of men and women and boys and girls. And literally that he chokes on them so hard that they’re turning blue. Kind of like when Chad was a baby. Turning blue. And they’re gasping for air. And the devil’s so mean, he keeps the thumb on the larynx where they can’t speak. They just got barely enough oxygen to live, but not really know what they’re doing.

When you and I ask a question like, hey man, crazy question. May not be prepared to answer this.

God forbid you died tonight. You went to heaven. God’s looking at you eye to eye. And he says, Chad, why should I let you in my heaven? Now, I know that’s a crazy question. But if God said that to you, what would you say? Shut up. You’ve just brought the man face to face with eternity with a true living God. Who can free him from his sins. What? In less than 30 seconds. Why would we not do that? Every day. Not like, well, you know, it’s Saturday. We’re going to go out and hand out gospel tracts. Yeah, great. Let’s do that. And we should. But when you wake up in the morning, like, oh man, this hurts. That hurts. I get the kids to school. I got to go to work. That guy’s a jerk. All the things going on. That’s real life. Is it not?

God, who are you going to put me in front of today? God, help me keep my eyes open. God, please don’t let me pass up another opportunity. God, I don’t want any blood on my hands. Please, God. Wash me. Don’t let me be guilty. Help me show life to a dying world. Let me, God, be the one that coddles and carries life. Life and hope into the arms of a desperate dying world.

See how easy that is?

Ray Comfort is a, I guess, a mentor, a digital mentor in my life. I’ve never had a conversation with a man, I don’t think. Sent me a little love note one time. I bought a bunch of stuff and he sent me, hey, thanks. Sent me a ball cap. Nice guy. But Ray Comfort has a very unusual, technical technique in sharing the gospel with men and women.

The other card that I brought is a movie card. It says movie, gift card. It’s got popcorn, Coke, movie reels on it. It says fullyfreefilms.com, exit, evolution versus God, genius, 180, Noah. Let me show you how I work this card. Now, it’s a little bit more complicated than the last card. Hey, you ever watch movies online? Uh-huh. Hey, man, check out these movies. Let me know if you like them. Give me a thumbs up if you like them. Give me a smile for Jesus. If you don’t like them, give me a thumbs down. Party face for Jesus. Make a friend. Gina and I were out last Christmas, I think it was. And I gave one of these cards to a lady. It was one of the employees at Home Depot in, that way in Birmingham.

The lady followed me out of the store. And she said, hey, some cards. Crazy things have been going on in my life. And she said, there’s something with you trying to share the gospel with me. And that ensued to about a 45-minute conversation. Gina went out in the car, patiently waited. I got to share the gospel with this lady for 45 minutes. So this doesn’t have to be the end all. It can be, but it can be a conversation starter.

And then to try to make it more interesting, well, and this is the truth too. The one movie here in the middle is called Audacity. They took a jab, one of the movies. The movies cover all different types of subjects, but basically they do the same thing. This particular movie, they took kind of their jab at trying to speak against the transgender, gay, lesbian deal. And so it’s a mediocre movie. It’s not great. So this is what I tell people. Hey, man, the movies are all really good. See that one in the middle? It’s just okay. They missed.

But check out the rest. There’s about 15 movies on there. And they’re like, oh, okay. Matter of fact. Mike, down here at Bison Coffee Shop, Gene and I just got a coffee. And right as I was getting ready to leave, I said, hey, he has a tag on. I said, hey, Mike, do you ever watch movies online? Oh, yeah. I said, hey, check out these movies. And hey, let me know. It’s a guy in Huntington Beach, California. So they’re really good. I said, oh, by the way, the one in the middle, Audacity. Yeah, it’s not that great, but check out the other movie. I think you’ll really enjoy it. Hey, thanks, man. I mean, Mike’s all tattooed up, big fro and all that kind of stuff. And he puts the card. He puts the card in his pocket, and I walk out with my latte. 30 seconds or less, y’all. We just shared the gospel with somebody. Do y’all think that works, or do you think I’m just like some hot-headed pastor up here not knowing what I’m talking about? What do you think, huh? This junk really works. Here’s the thing.

We’re about out of time. Five o’clock. Five o’clock.

Let me give you.

One Bible verse.

Well, before the Bible verse, let me give you the quote for D.L. Moody.

We got the one quote for D.L. Moody. I’ll throw you a curve. I don’t know if we’ve got that one up. Yeah, I like this. He says, it is clear you don’t like my way of doing evangelism. You raise some good points. Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism, but I like my way of doing it. Better than you. Better than your way of not doing it. If you go back and study all the little quotes that Moody had, they’re amazing. It’s really application of life, religion, church, God. It’s amazing stuff.

I guess maybe this is one of the driving forces for all of us to do evangelism. Revelations chapter 20, verse 15. I know you guys have been studying Revelation for quite some time.

And Revelations 20, verse 15 says this. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. We’ve all but taken hell out of churches, y’all. Hell is almost a thing of the past.

Even church members want to live like the world and think they’re going to heaven.

Jesus quoting multiple times, he said, Heaven isn’t for the people who hear what I say. He said, Heaven’s not for the people who say what I say. Heaven is for people who do what I say. He said, Be ye doers of the word. The best way that you can love anybody and be a doer of the word is to share Christ with them. He said, Be ye doers of the word. Ray Comfort, who shares every day of his life, two and three and four and five times, he’s the guy with the movie card.

He says every time. Now, he’s 60-something. He’s probably approaching 70. He said, Every time I approach somebody, I get butterflies in my stomach.

It doesn’t get any easier.

How’s that for encouragement? Blah. But you know what? It’s still satisfying. It’s still going to be the best day in your life. There’s nothing that will compare to it. And reality says if you don’t do it, you and I are going to be in direct disobedience of God.

And that’s bad enough.

But then there’s men and women and cute curly-headed little girls like that. If their name isn’t in the book of life, they’re going to be cast into the lake of fire.

Does that splash cold water in my face? It does.

And so, we have to have the compassion, the desire, the foresight to realize if I don’t tell this person, somebody else might tell me. They might not.

They may not get on a website. They may not hear somebody preach a sermon. They may not be invited to a church. They may not have been raised up in a church family. Maybe they were and they hated their church family. Maybe they hated their church family for just causes. But in either case, I know that I need to share the gospel because I don’t want to see that person in the lake of fire.

So that’s why you and I, have to have practical means, tools in our tool belt, words in our mouth, and a heart and a compassion from Christ that will help us lead men and women, boys and girls, to the very throne of Christ.

One last tool.

Ray has several great… There’s actually a track named this. I hate to use track. How about that pamphlet? There’s a pamphlet named, Faith is for Weak People. By the way, that catches the lost people’s eye. I’m like, you’re right. Faith is for them losing Christians because who’s dumb enough to believe that garbage? You know, I’m a scientist and, you know, atheism makes way more sense than that. They’ll pick up that track and they’ll read it and that one only has 10 objections, 10 most common objections to the gospel. This particular book by Ray Comfort says that it has 20 objections to the gospel. What are the most common, the most common objections to the gospel? If you and I are more prepared, like we know what these 20 objections are, when we get hit with it, guess what?

For example, like, well, man, all the worlds in the world, you know, was caused by religion and God and all you Christians have caused more death than even Hitler. Yeah. That’s, you know, that’s the conversation I’ve had with somebody before. I’m like, well, no, actually only, uh, less than 7% of the wars in the world as of 2004 were religious wars. And so, yeah, you’re wrong. 93% were, were common every day, just greed and, and, and, and ugliness. It was because of sin and the fall of man. So if we know that the, the, the, the answers to this, then it’s easier for us to be able to have the confidence that we need to approach people because like my big fear when I used to witness to people is like, what if I, what if I tell them the wrong answer? If I don’t know the answer, it’s okay not to have the answer. You can just say, I don’t know. But this one, one thing I know, Hey, back in 77, I was a lost guy. And man, I lived this kind of lifestyle. God told me I needed to get saved. I trusted in Jesus Christ who died on the cross. And I know based on what the Bible, the Lord has told me in my heart, man, God raised him from, from the dead. And when I placed my faith in him, he forgave me of everything I ever did. I was baptized and now God’s changed my life. And I have such peace and joy now. It’s, it’s really unexplainable. I would love for you to have that too. End of conversation, have a nice life. That’s all you gotta do. It’s, it’s pretty simple. Here’s another little pamphlet called Why Christianity? It talks about several different religions. And then it also talks about why does Christianity make more sense than all those other different religions? So those are just tools. It’s livingwaters.com. It’s the website. I left about 500 cards back there. So man, fill up your purses, fill up your wallets. If you think you want to try this, if nothing else, I would love for you. We, we had the, we’ve got it queued up. We could play it for you, but we’re out of time. But if go home tonight and watch those four videos, they’re four minutes a piece on the Billy Graham card, the little blue card. Watch those. Get on the Ray Comfort videos. Watch some of the movies. Listen to one of his staple messages, hell’s best kid. He kept secret talking about how many lost people are actually in the church. And that’s why we’re not sharing the gospel because we don’t have the gospel ourselves.

If we will equip, what does the Bible say? That we should be able to rightly divide the word of God. Why? Not so we can say, hey, look, gold star in Sunday school. I memorized all 20 verses. No, we should be able to rightly divide the word of God so that we can give an answer to those who are curious and who have question.

Let me encourage you tonight, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ask God for that passion and then take your time to study the material, to equip yourself with tools and questions that will initiate Godly conversations that will lead to a nation and possibly a world. And if nothing else, one cute. little curly-headed girl that may come to Jesus Christ. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, God, we just pray, like Peter and John, as they were cast in prison and then they were released and then they went back, God, to the other disciples and they all grabbed hands. And yet, God, we imagine that they were as bold as they could have ever been. But yet they kneeled and said, they think, God of the heavens, who gave us Jesus, who died on the cross in fulfillment of the scriptures and was raised on the third day, God, give us the boldness to proclaim your name time and time again. So God, like Peter, like John, give us the boldness to do not what you’ve asked us to do, but what you’ve asked us to do. And so, let’s pray. To do what you’ve commanded us to do. And then we will see joy, great joy, great plans, great purposes. And hopefully, God, even a nation or a town or just an individual who finds real life. And we pray that. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Preacher: Phil Cronin