3ABN On the Road

Miracle On The Gaza Strip

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Steven Mirkovich

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000779


01:00 It's funny how the Lord gives us the opportunities
01:03 we never thought we'd quite have.
01:06 When we get into this business of preaching the Lord's word--
01:10 it's not a business really, I shouldn't use that word.
01:12 It's an inappropriate word for this work.
01:14 But when we get into this line, this calling,
01:17 this calling on our lives,
01:20 we don't ever even think about the situation
01:22 sometimes that the Lord is gonna place us in.
01:26 Today we are going to be studying
01:28 a passage in the Book of Acts.
01:29 In fact, we'll be studying a very unique passage,
01:33 something that we often look at.
01:35 And as we read through it, just sort of a cursory glance,
01:37 there are certain things that stick out.
01:39 I hope today that we'll find several lessons in this passage
01:44 that will help us better understand exactly the way
01:50 in which certain New Testament characters went about
01:53 their calling, their calling to preach.
01:59 But before we do that, before I jump
02:01 right into our passage today,
02:04 I'd like to take the opportunity to open with a word of prayer.
02:09 Awesome Father in Heaven,
02:12 each and every one of us pauses at this moment
02:17 thankful that You use us earthen vessels.
02:21 We pray now that Your spirit be present in a very special way.
02:26 Father, I pray that You right yourself into our very hearts.
02:32 Make this an opportunity to learn.
02:35 And we pray these things in the precious name
02:37 Jesus, amen.
02:40 I've been pastoring now for a little over 10 months.
02:44 And I told myself-- as soon as I entered my pastorate,
02:49 that I was going to take the opportunity
02:51 to teach while I preach.
02:53 In particular, to really take an opportunity to share things
02:57 that maybe, perhaps seem more
02:59 like a Wednesday night prayer meeting type
03:01 of a sermon or event.
03:03 You see, pastors know and I've soon found out
03:08 upon entering my ministry that when you ask people
03:10 to come out in the middle of the week,
03:12 you ask them to come out and to get trained up
03:15 and to really enjoy things, they sometimes don't come.
03:18 And you could be preaching to a few meager souls
03:22 when you instead want to be preaching to your whole church.
03:25 So I've taken it upon myself in just 10 short months
03:28 of ministry to preach as many training sermons as I can.
03:33 Today will be no different.
03:36 We're going to be going to the Book of Acts.
03:40 My church members are beginning to get
03:41 a little bit fed up with me, just a little bit.
03:44 You see, when I first came,
03:47 the very first sermon I preached was from Acts Chapter 1.
03:50 And I've preached about 25 or 26 different sermons.
03:55 You see, I preach each week in a different church.
03:57 So I only have to prepare two sermons a month.
03:59 And I am only now at Acts 12.
04:03 Ten months in I've preached through only
04:05 12 Chapters of the Book of Acts, 26 plus sermons.
04:09 And every Sabbath it's sort of a joke between us.
04:13 How much longer pastor is it gonna be?
04:16 So nonetheless, we're going to be jumping
04:19 into one of my favorite sermons
04:22 from this series and it's in Acts Chapter 8.
04:26 My sermon today is entitled "Miracle on the Gaza Strip."
04:30 Now how many of you know where the Gaza Strip is?
04:34 No doubt if you watch CNN for any length of time,
04:38 even just for a few days, perhaps even almost everyday,
04:42 it seems like, there's something
04:44 regarding this Gaza Strip place, huh?
04:47 It's kind of a sort of a hubbub of where things happen.
04:52 Seems to be-- it's kind of a central location
04:55 in the events on our globe today.
04:58 You see, it's sort of a hotly debated place
05:02 this Gaza Strip, between the Arabs and the Jews.
05:06 Many things happen on the Gaza Strip.
05:09 Lot of fighting happens there, surprised--territory.
05:13 And many of us, as Christians,
05:15 we pray for this situation out in the Middle East
05:17 and we want more than anything for this to come to an end.
05:20 We're tired of seeing all the fighting.
05:22 We're tired of everything that takes place on the Gaza Strip.
05:28 While there aren't very many miracles
05:29 perhaps taking place on the Gaza Strip today,
05:32 we turn to our Bibles in Acts Chapter 8
05:35 and we find a story that took place--
05:38 I want to use my preacher's imagination
05:40 here a little bit today.
05:41 And I believe that this whole event took place
05:45 right there at the Gaza Strip.
05:49 We're turning to Acts Chapter 8 in our Bibles.
05:53 Acts 8 Chapter beginning in verse 26.
05:56 We're gonna be looking at the story
05:58 of Philip and the eunuch.
06:01 Philip was a deacon.
06:03 In Acts Chapter 7, Steven and Philip
06:05 are featured prominently.
06:07 And now we're--chapter 6 and 7, they feature prominently.
06:12 And now we're really going to hone in on an event
06:14 here in Philip's life and in the eunuch's life
06:18 that serves to teach us many lessons.
06:22 I'm going to read right through our passage today Acts 8:26-40.
06:27 And then we're going to slow down and see
06:29 what the scriptures have to teach us today.
06:32 So that's 8-- Acts Chapter 8: 26.
06:38 My little heading here and my Bible says,
06:40 "Christ is preached to an Ethiopian."
06:44 Verse 26, "Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip,
06:47 saying, 'Arise and go towards the south along the road
06:50 which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' This is desert."
06:54 If you have your Bibles
06:55 you can even turn right in here to the maps,
06:58 if you have one of these nice Bibles.
06:59 And you can come right down here and in the south west corner
07:03 there's a little place here called Gaza.
07:05 This is that stretch right here,
07:07 that Gaza Strip that we're talking about.
07:11 From Jerusalem to Gaza.
07:13 The Bible says here, "This is dessert."
07:17 Put that on a shelf in your mind,
07:18 we'll come back to that.
07:19 This is an important thing-- I don't think
07:21 the Bible just minces words.
07:23 It doesn't record events or facts
07:25 just for the sake of doing it,
07:26 in order for Luke to be a good historian.
07:27 Now Luke was a good historian.
07:29 And that is the person who wrote the Book of Acts.
07:31 Luke was a good historian.
07:33 But he records this phrase "This is dessert"
07:37 for a very important reason.
07:39 And we need to be certain we're gonna come back to that.
07:41 But just put that on a little shelf in the back of your head,
07:44 we'll be returning to that shortly.
07:46 Verse 27, "So he arose and went.
07:49 And behold, a man of Ethiopia,
07:50 a eunuch of great authority
07:52 under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians,
07:55 who had charge of all her treasury,
07:56 and had come to Jerusalem to worship."
08:00 Verse 28, "Was returning and sitting in his chariot,
08:03 he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
08:05 Then the Spirit said to Philip,
08:06 'Go near and overtake this chariot.'
08:09 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading
08:11 the prophet Isaiah, and said,
08:12 'Do you understand what you are reading?'
08:15 And he said, 'How can I, unless someone guides me?'
08:18 And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
08:21 The place in the Scripture which he read was this."
08:24 It's Isaiah 53 by the way.
08:26 "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter.
08:28 And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
08:30 So He opened not His mouth.
08:32 In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
08:34 and who will declare His generation
08:36 for His life is taken from the earth.
08:43 So the eunuch answered Philip and said,
08:45 'I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this,
08:48 of himself or of some other man?'
08:51 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture,
08:54 preached Jesus to him." Amen?
09:00 "Now as they went down the road, they came to some water.
09:04 And the eunuch said, 'See, here is water.
09:06 What hinders me from being baptized?'
09:08 Then Philip said, 'If you believe
09:09 with all your heart, you may.' And he answered and said,
09:11 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'
09:15 And so he commanded the chariot to stand still.
09:17 And both Philip and the eunuch went down
09:19 into the water, and he baptized him.
09:22 Now when they came up out of the water,
09:23 the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away,
09:25 so that the eunuch saw him no more
09:27 and he went his way rejoicing.
09:30 But Philip was found in Azotus.
09:32 And passing through, he preached in all the cities
09:35 till he came to Caesarea."
09:38 This is a powerful story.
09:41 My sermon today is entitled "Miracle on the Gaza Strip."
09:46 Upon a cursory reading, most of us would scan down
09:50 and we'd get to verse 39 and we'd say,
09:52 that's the miracle right there,
09:54 that's what the preacher talking about today.
09:55 Philip was just zapped away.
09:58 How many of you stars trek people?
10:00 Trekkies? You like the show Star Trek?
10:02 Well, I don't really like the show anymore.
10:05 But there was a time when I was much younger
10:07 that my mom and I used to watch Star Trek.
10:10 And I liked Star Trek: The Next Generation.
10:12 Well, anyways in all the Star Trek episodes
10:14 and movies and stuff,
10:16 there's this thing that they say,
10:18 "Beam me up, Scotty."
10:19 And I can't remember-- it's slipping my mind right now
10:21 what that machine was called but they would--
10:24 they'd appear and disappear and they'd be transported
10:27 throughout the universe just very simply from their ship.
10:31 And so as we're reading we come to verse 39 and we say,
10:34 "Now when they came up out of the water,
10:35 the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away."
10:38 He sort of beamed him away.
10:39 He beamed him to some other part.
10:42 And most of us will say, "Well, that's the miracle."
10:44 Philip didn't have to travel anywhere.
10:45 He didn't have to go anywhere. He just-- gone.
10:50 This morning-- today, I would rather mention
10:54 to say that-- in fact,
10:59 the miracle is not Philip here
11:01 just sort of disappearing into thin air
11:03 and appearing somewhere else. That was a miracle.
11:07 But there is a far greater miracle here
11:10 that the Lord is wanting us to see.
11:13 And so we're going to break this passage down
11:17 into what I believe are seven distinct steps
11:21 in reaching those around us for Christ.
11:26 I get it a lot and I'm asked all the time
11:29 and it was something I wanted to know.
11:31 When I entered college to study for the ministry
11:34 and took some evangelism training,
11:36 I wanted to know just what steps do I take
11:39 to get to the heart of an individual.
11:43 How do I know how to share my faith?
11:48 I think that this story lends itself well
11:50 to seven steps in witnessing.
11:53 Seven steps that we can take,
11:56 things that can be brought to our minds to help us
11:59 reach those that need to hear the gospel.
12:05 Verse 26 says, "Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip,
12:09 saying, "Arise and go towards the south
12:12 along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
12:15 They're on the Gaza Strip.
12:19 Lesson number 1, then is always be listening
12:22 to the Lord. Pretty simply.
12:27 Not very profound at this point. Christians know that.
12:31 We've been told that from when we're little
12:33 or from the moment we enter Church.
12:35 The moment we give our lives over to Christ we're told,
12:37 listen to the Lord, listen to His little biddings.
12:39 And we're constantly been told this.
12:42 And so many of us are struck in this,
12:44 this thinking that it needs to be an audible voice.
12:47 Now Philip was lucky,
12:48 this was an audible voice from the Spirit.
12:51 He could actually hear the spirit.
12:54 But I think there are times
12:56 when it's not going to just be an audible voice.
13:00 And I think perhaps the hardest thing
13:01 that we run into is the fact that--
13:04 we find ourselves in situations where we say,
13:06 "No way is the Lord gonna actually talk to me right now."
13:10 And that when I asked you to put that phrase
13:12 "This is dessert" in your minds.
13:16 A lot of times we find ourselves in a modern day dessert.
13:19 And this could be a variety of situations.
13:23 And we think to our self, "No way is the Lord gonna listen.
13:26 I don't need to be listening to the Lord right now.
13:27 I'm not gonna hear Him. He's not gonna
13:29 speak to me in this situation."
13:30 And so too could have Philip.
13:32 Philip could have said, "I'm in the middle of nowhere.
13:34 It's hot, it's steamy.
13:36 There's a sand storm. I'm traveling.
13:38 The Lord's not gonna speak to me."
13:40 And he could have been so busy,
13:41 so caught up that the Lord could have been
13:43 screaming in his face and he wouldn't have heard Him.
13:48 So well, it may not be an audible voice.
13:51 We may be in a situation that we think,
13:52 "How was the Lord going to reach me now?"
13:56 But we always need to be listening to the Lord.
13:59 Now how does this really take form?
14:02 I think a lot of times listening to the Lord is learning
14:05 to recognize a unique situation we might be in.
14:10 And there's a whole paradigm shift
14:12 that takes place in our minds
14:14 when we start to put principles of witnessing in order.
14:17 No longer am I just in line at the pharmacy
14:19 to get my antibiotics to make my sore-throat go away
14:23 or that bronchial infection I have go away.
14:27 No longer am I in line just buying my silk soymilk
14:29 to have breakfast in the morning.
14:32 No longer am I just strolling through the park
14:34 with my wife to get exercise.
14:38 These, all of these situations,
14:39 these dessert type situations become
14:41 opportunities for us to be listening to the Lord.
14:44 Maybe you spotted somebody.
14:47 Maybe it was 12 O'clock at night like it was recently for me,
14:50 I came down with a terrible fever.
14:52 I know right away when I get a fever.
14:53 My skin starts to hurt.
14:55 It's just-- I don't even want clothing on my body.
14:57 And I knew I was getting a fever and before I knew it
14:59 my ears were hurting and I was sick and my wife and I,
15:02 we went to the emergency. They did all sorts of tests.
15:05 And the doctor said, "You've got some infection."
15:07 And he sent me to CVS to get some antibiotics to get better.
15:12 And it was midnight and praise the Lord,
15:16 Walgreens or CVS one of those was open all night
15:19 and we walked in and there was a--
15:21 just a young lady pharmacist working there.
15:24 And I wasn't feeling well. I had a fever.
15:28 I wanted to get home as soon as possible.
15:30 And a lot of times that's the kind of hubbub we're in.
15:32 We're in a situation, we just want to get home.
15:34 We just want to go to bed.
15:36 We want to get home with our family,
15:37 eat supper, prepare things, go to work.
15:39 We don't want to be ready to listen to the Lord.
15:43 And this lady started to talk to me.
15:45 In fact, she was way more talkative
15:47 than any pharmacist I had ever been near.
15:49 And I was thinking to myself,
15:51 "Lord, is there any opportunity here for me to say something?"
15:53 And anyways it came about that I got to share with her
15:56 that I was a pastor, I was a minister,
15:57 I was looking for, you know,
16:01 a way to just really get in there
16:02 and peak her interest.
16:04 I recognized that perhaps this is
16:06 one of those unique situations.
16:10 But it goes even further than that.
16:11 It doesn't just mean our day in and day out existence.
16:15 Again as a pastor, we have calendars, praise the Lord.
16:19 We have things to keep us line.
16:20 We know where we're gonna be in the coming days,
16:23 even sometimes coming months.
16:24 Even sometimes up to a half a year in advance
16:26 we know where we're gonna be for a certain occasion or event.
16:31 So I would venture to say today
16:33 that you need to take your calendar.
16:34 And not only spend time recognizing
16:37 what's gonna happen today, but be thinking in advance.
16:40 Maybe you've planned a fantastic getaway with your wife,
16:44 with your husband, with your family.
16:47 You're going to Austria, to the Austrian Alps
16:50 to go skiing in the heart of January
16:53 when the snow is falling and you're not even considering
16:56 that maybe there's an opportunity
16:58 for you to share the gospel.
17:00 I think the paradigm shift that Christians need today,
17:03 that all of us need today, if this work is going to get done,
17:06 is that we need to be even willing to think
17:08 that far in advance, that far into the future,
17:12 that perhaps just maybe we can take that opportunity
17:17 to sit beside somebody on the gondola up the mountain
17:19 and share a little bit about Jesus.
17:23 So not only do we recognize unique situations
17:25 and we're listening to the Lord day in and day out,
17:28 but also we need to be listening to the Lord,
17:29 is there going to be an opportunity
17:31 in the future here and be preparing for it, be ready.
17:34 Maybe you need to think of a sentence or two
17:36 or a story or two for that situation
17:38 that will help you share Jesus.
17:42 Ask the Lord, how can He use you?
17:46 How can He use me in the coming weeks from here,
17:48 tomorrow, or later this afternoon?
17:51 It's a matter of perspective.
17:53 We need to have a perspective that the situations
17:56 the Lord places us in can be situations to share Jesus.
18:00 Philip was in a desert.
18:03 There's not a whole lot of people on the desert.
18:05 There's not a whole lot of people to see there
18:07 or perhaps I know there's Benjamins and different people
18:10 that travel and stuff but, you know, this is a desert.
18:12 I think the Bible records just like that. "This is desert."
18:16 Because it's trying to clue us into the fact
18:18 that even in the desert people need to be won to the Lord.
18:25 Verse 27, "So he arose and went.
18:31 And behold, a man of Ethiopia,
18:32 a eunuch of great authority under Candace
18:34 the queen of the Ethiopians,
18:36 who had charge of all her treasury,
18:37 and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning.
18:41 And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
18:44 Then the Spirit said to Philip,
18:45 'Go near and overtake this chariot.'
18:48 So Philip ran to him."
18:51 I was sharing this as a devotional thought
18:54 at the ARISE Institute not too long ago.
18:58 And when I was done, a good pastor friend of mine there,
19:01 the Director David Asscherick he says,
19:02 "I've got a great two word title for this section of your talk."
19:06 And he says, "You need to call this section 'Soul Sprinting.'"
19:10 And I thought to myself that's perfect,
19:11 that's exactly what this is.
19:13 This is soul sprinting.
19:15 So it's not enough just to recognize
19:17 the situation that we find ourselves in.
19:20 It's not just enough to hear the Lord.
19:22 We need to-- the moment the Lord speaks to us,
19:24 the moment we recognize the situation,
19:26 we need to be willing to run to it.
19:28 We need to be willing,
19:29 to the best of our ability, to sprint.
19:31 Philip here didn't drag his feet.
19:33 He didn't say, "Oh, this is the desert.
19:34 I can see him from miles, I'll catch up to him.
19:38 I'll just take my time.
19:40 It will give me enough time
19:41 to figure out what I'm gonna say."
19:43 No. What did Philip do?
19:44 So Philip ran to Him.
19:48 Why is this so important?
19:51 We want to witness.
19:52 All of us want to be effective witnesses for Christ.
19:56 Why is it important to run?
20:00 I'll tell you why.
20:02 I'm gonna use my wife as an example.
20:04 She knows I'm going to share this with you.
20:06 I've asked her permission.
20:08 That's an important thing to do by the way,
20:10 to ask her permission sometimes.
20:12 Not all the stories are as nice and as pleasant as this one.
20:17 Nonetheless my wife was a secular kind
20:21 of strangely agnostic at believing in God,
20:24 not really sure of what God she believed in or how
20:27 and she was attending the University
20:28 of British Columbia in Canada, perhaps the second largest.
20:31 I think close to the second largest university
20:33 in all of Canada, next to the UFT.
20:35 60, 000 day students and she was just in the midst of this.
20:39 Going in, studying literature, studying philosophy,
20:43 and yet she began to think to herself--
20:48 I actually kind of believe in God
20:50 and I would even probably tell people
20:52 I'm a Christian if they asked me.
20:54 And yet I've never read the Bible
20:55 and she started to read the Bible.
20:57 She started to get ready.
20:58 Her appetite was whet.
21:01 She was ready to go. She wanted to hear.
21:07 And at that time, certain circumstances came about
21:10 and she was able then to go
21:12 and a pastor actually approached her--her parents--
21:14 I can't get into the whole story but there was
21:16 an opportunity for her to start going to church,
21:19 to start taking Bible studies,
21:21 because some other people would say,
21:22 "Hey, listen, I know this family,
21:24 this girl, they're just ready, they want to hear about it."
21:27 Now suppose I was that pastor and I would say,
21:30 "Oh, well, I'll get there.
21:32 You know, I've got a busy schedule.
21:33 I've got a lot of people to visit."
21:35 You put yourself in whatever situation it might be.
21:37 You've heard that.
21:39 You know those opportunities come and go.
21:42 What was the key here in all of this?
21:44 The key was that the spirit of God
21:46 was already working with my wife,
21:48 already working with her, preparing her,
21:51 waiting, and then the man servant--
21:53 the woman servant, somebody had to go and preach that message.
21:57 Philip recognized that when the Lord was calling him saying,
22:00 go and Philip says, "Okay, the spirit has been working,
22:03 the iron is hot, I need to strike now."
22:07 We can't drag our feet.
22:08 Too often we drag our feet and the situation is gone.
22:12 I've got many stories like this.
22:14 Door knocking, opportunities
22:15 we have to share and we drag our feet.
22:19 We're not wanting to really-- we're just kind of down trodden
22:25 and we're scared and we need to get past that, friends.
22:29 We need to be willing to run when the Lord speaks.
22:32 So step number 1, listen.
22:34 May not just be an auditable thing.
22:36 It may be the-- the Lord setting up
22:38 a situation and you're listening.
22:40 And then when you recognize that.
22:41 "Hey, the Lord has set this up for me,"
22:43 we need to run to it. We need to run to it.
22:49 Back to our Scriptures then.
22:52 Verse 30, "So Philip ran to him,
22:54 and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said,
22:57 'Do you understand what you are reading?'"
23:03 I call this next step, step number 3.
23:06 I call this "Asking leading questions."
23:11 So we run to the situation.
23:14 I've been trained in Canada by St John Ambulance.
23:17 It's kind of first aid care. You take a course.
23:19 I think we did in high school--
23:21 probably my little card there's run out already.
23:24 But during this time, during this training opportunity
23:27 I learned something that very important.
23:30 When you're coming into an emergency situation--
23:32 and by the way, is soul winning an emergency situation?
23:35 Do these people need to know? Could they die the next day?
23:38 Yeah, we just don't quite know what's involved.
23:41 We need to run to these situations.
23:43 Anyways, I learned that when there's an emergency situation,
23:47 you don't just run in and start throwing things around
23:49 and trying to help the person.
23:51 As you're running in, as you're approaching the situation,
23:53 you're taking a quick glance over everything that's around.
23:56 You're looking for other possible dangers.
23:59 Maybe it was an accident on the highway,
24:00 the car has been flipped over.
24:02 And there's gasoline leaking. It might explode.
24:04 All of these things need to enter your mind very quickly.
24:07 You need to do a cursory evaluation of the situation.
24:12 Asking leading questions in soul winning allows us
24:15 to take the time as we're approaching the situation
24:18 to really grasp what's going on here.
24:21 And let us put out feelers and see
24:23 what's going on in the person's mind.
24:26 Where have they been in the last little while?
24:31 I know I wanted one and I know many of you want one.
24:33 You know, that magic silver bullet
24:35 where you could just take dead aim
24:36 and just shoot one statement and it's finished.
24:38 And you know that one silver bullet,
24:40 that one statement, for sure it's gonna have them
24:43 just begging to know more about Jesus,
24:44 they'll be eating out of your hands.
24:46 Listen, that silver bullet,
24:48 that magic situation, it doesn't happen.
24:50 Each and every one of us is different.
24:52 This eunuch was different.
24:54 Philip ran to him and he asked him a question.
24:58 Do you understand what you're reading?
24:59 He's asking leading questions.
25:01 Why do we ask leading questions?
25:02 We ask leading questions because it opens
25:04 the floodgates to their heart.
25:07 It lets them open up to us
25:09 and we get to see a better picture,
25:11 a clearer picture of just
25:13 what situation they find themselves in.
25:16 Listen, there's abuse out there. There's drugs out there.
25:20 There's lost jobs, finances,
25:22 broken homes, broken families,
25:24 we just don't know what situation this person's in.
25:27 So when we recognize-- the Lords says go
25:29 and we've run to it, we ask a leading question.
25:33 And we ask things to start opening them up.
25:36 Because the more information we have the more ability
25:39 we're now going to have to reach out to them
25:42 and to really hone in and really be able
25:45 to develop this conversation as such as to know exactly
25:49 what to say to open up their spiritual lives, too.
25:58 We recognize the possibility of doing something for Jesus.
26:02 We take a quick evaluation of the situation.
26:06 We've asked questions and we're listening.
26:09 We're listening to these situations.
26:11 We need to know for sure what's going on here?
26:16 And as we've assessed the situation,
26:18 as we've noticed all the dangers,
26:21 we've noticed the things that might occupy their attention.
26:24 Maybe it's a television in their living room.
26:27 And you've taken this quick evaluation.
26:29 You're asking questions.
26:30 And they're more interested with what's going on in the TV
26:32 than with what you're asking, with what you're doing.
26:35 Then you simply ask them to shut off the distraction.
26:37 You have evaluated the situation.
26:39 You can turn off the dangers.
26:41 You can try and distract them from the dangers.
26:43 You can try and win their attention.
26:46 Philip here, he doesn't just do anything,
26:48 he asks leading questions.
26:52 And this then leads to the next very important point.
26:56 Only if we've asked questions-- now,
26:58 99 out of 100 times by the way I should say,
27:00 it takes the form of a question.
27:01 Sometimes it will be a statement.
27:03 It could be a joke.
27:04 But most effective thing is a question.
27:07 You know, ask them a question.
27:08 Get them talking about themselves.
27:09 And why is this so important?
27:11 It leads to point number 4.
27:13 And we find this right here in this passage.
27:18 "He asked the question, 'do you--'" verse 30,
27:20 "'Do you understand what you are reading?'
27:23 And he said to me, 'How can I, unless someone guides me?'
27:27 And he asked Philip to come up and to sit with him."
27:31 Then we read that section and we jump
27:33 down to verse 34 and it says,
27:34 "So the eunuch answered Philip and said,
27:36 'I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this,
27:39 of himself or of some other man?'
27:41 Then Philip opened his mouth,
27:42 and beginning at this Scripture."
27:46 All of this asking questions part,
27:48 all of this figuring out where they're at.
27:50 Why are we doing it?
27:51 Because we need to start where they're at.
27:54 I don't know how many times I've been tempted,
27:57 you know, to just take this opportunity and--
28:00 I know what's been important to me
28:02 and what won me to the Lord
28:05 and I want to go that direction and I want to be certain
28:07 that I win them with what won me,
28:09 but that's not gonna work all the time.
28:13 We need to be willing to start where they're at.
28:18 You may if you want to call that contextualization,
28:23 making sure that we're in the right context.
28:27 We don't want to start with something
28:29 that's not gonna peak their interest.
28:32 We don't want to start with an illustration or something
28:34 or some event or something
28:36 that we think is gonna be effective.
28:37 We want to know we're being effective.
28:39 And what does Philip do here?
28:40 He doesn't say, "Oh, you're reading Isaiah,
28:42 that's too hard to understand.
28:43 Let's not go to Isaiah 53.
28:44 Let's go to john 3:16 first.
28:48 You know, let's go to John-- you know what,
28:50 I think Isaiah 53 it's a little bit difficult for you." No.
28:53 did Philip change where he was headed?
28:55 No, he says beginning and this scripture,
28:58 we need to meet them where they're at.
29:01 So if they're-- you know, crazy heavy metal
29:06 long-haired punk rocker kind of dude,
29:08 you know, we don't need to wait till they change.
29:10 We need to meet them where they're at.
29:12 We need to figure out a way.
29:13 We need to ask leading questions.
29:14 We need to know what gonna work?
29:16 Not everything is gonna work.
29:17 Not everybody has a spiritual appetite yet.
29:20 Philip got off easy here.
29:22 The guy was reading his Bible.
29:24 Now most of us are not in that situation
29:26 to just stumble across somebody reading their Bible.
29:30 That's not the way it works.
29:33 We would all love it that way, wouldn't we?
29:36 That's not the way it works.
29:37 People are in all sorts of different situations in life
29:40 and we ask those leading questions.
29:42 And when we realize where they are at,
29:46 then we can take the opportunity to meet them there.
29:50 So step number 4 is to meet them where they're at.
29:51 Step number 1, listen to God.
29:53 Step number 2, run when you hear Him.
29:56 Step number 3, ask leading questions.
29:58 Step number 4, meet them where they're at.
30:00 Once those questions have done their work
30:02 and you've really heard what they have to tell you,
30:04 meet them where they're at.
30:05 Begin with that scripture, so to speak.
30:10 And this then takes us to step number 5.
30:15 I'm gonna spend some time on this one. Step number 5.
30:22 Reading again, let's read verse 34 and 35 together.
30:25 "So the eunuch answered Philip and said,
30:27 'I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this,
30:32 of himself or of some other man?'"
30:36 Take note of that.
30:38 "Then Philip opened his mouth,
30:41 and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him."
30:48 You see, dear friends, when these situations come,
30:52 people are spiritually hungry. They want to know.
30:58 There's this-- you've heard it said before,
31:00 this God shaped hole that's empty in everyone's life.
31:05 They don't have it filled.
31:06 They can try and fill it with all sorts of things.
31:10 They can fill it with relationships.
31:12 They can fill it with money.
31:14 They can fill it with whatever they may
31:16 want to fill it with at that time.
31:19 But it's God shaped and it doesn't fill it just right.
31:25 You see, what do you say?
31:27 Is this--is the prophet speaking of himself or some other man?
31:33 Then Philip opened his mouth beginning at the scripture,
31:36 preached Jesus to him.
31:39 Now we're sometimes tempted to preach
31:40 the second coming and the signs of the times.
31:43 And we're just itching to preach the Sabbath.
31:47 Or we're just itching to preach something
31:49 that we just know, oh, the prophecies,
31:51 the mark of the beast, and all of those things,
31:54 sure they inform our picture of Jesus,
31:56 amen? They do.
31:58 Those things are important things.
32:01 But we need to get to the root of the matter.
32:04 They've got things missing in their lives.
32:07 But the most important thing missing in their life is Jesus.
32:11 This huge hole in their heart filled
32:13 with all sorts of nonsense,
32:15 all sorts of things that just are never gonna work.
32:18 So you need Jesus.
32:22 Favorite author of mine inspired
32:26 and inspiring wrote the following.
32:30 We're gonna read through this a couple of times
32:32 because it's just such a powerful quote.
32:34 Perhaps one of the most powerful quotes I've ever read.
32:41 This author recognized it. Philip recognized it.
32:44 You and I need to recognize this.
32:50 From the Seventh-day Adventist Bible commentary
32:52 volume 6, page 1113.
32:57 The author writes "Hanging upon the cross
33:01 Christ was the gospel."
33:05 She goes to say, "Now we have a message,
33:08 Behold the Lamb of God,
33:10 which taketh away the sins of the world.
33:12 Will not our church members keep their eyes
33:15 fixed on a crucified and risen Saviour,
33:17 in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered?
33:20 This is our message, our argument, our doctrine,
33:25 our warning to the impenitent,
33:27 our encouragement for the sorrowing,
33:29 the hope for every believer.
33:32 If we can awaken an interest in men's minds
33:34 that will cause them to fix their eyes on Christ,
33:37 we may step aside, and ask them
33:40 only to continue to fix their eyes upon the Lamb of God.
33:43 They thus receive their lesson."
33:52 Slowing down now.
33:54 I read it through so you could get
33:56 the totality, the oomph behind it.
33:59 Let's slow down and see just what was she saying.
34:01 "Hanging upon the cross
34:05 Christ was the gospel."
34:14 Now, I don't condone watching movies.
34:19 And I think for the most part they're a big waste of time.
34:23 But I just couldn't keep myself.
34:25 I mean, it was a phenomenon,
34:28 this "Passion of the Christ" movie.
34:30 Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ."
34:33 And I just-- I had to see it.
34:36 I had to know what everybody was talking about.
34:37 I needed to know what are the interviews were about.
34:39 What are the magazine cover articles were about.
34:41 I needed to know.
34:43 And so I watched this film, "The Passion of the Christ,"
34:47 fully aware of all the problems along with it.
34:51 And I recognize those problems and as I said,
34:54 for the most part, you know, hands off sort of an approach.
35:01 But I watched this.
35:04 And you know, that situation
35:08 when Christ was put on that cross,
35:12 there's something about that-- hanging upon the cross
35:16 "Christ was the Gospel."
35:21 Melted my heart, even a Christian,
35:24 Christian of many years at the time,
35:26 one that had given his life to Christ,
35:28 that was working, walking with Christ,
35:30 it melted my heart again.
35:34 "Now we have a message, Behold the Lamb of God,
35:38 which taketh away the sins of the world.
35:41 Will not our church members keep their eyes
35:45 fixed on a crucified and risen Saviour,
35:47 in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered?"
35:51 You see that, that God shaped hole in their hearts,
35:54 that need for something transcended,
35:56 something beyond that, something to worship,
35:58 something to believe, something to love,
36:00 to hold on to, something that grounds them,
36:02 something that gives them a reality in the midst
36:05 of all of this mayhem that's around us.
36:13 "In whom their hopes of eternal life are centered?
36:17 This is our message,
36:22 our argument, our doctrine,
36:27 our warning to the impenitent,
36:31 our encouragement for the sorrowing,
36:35 the hope for every believer."
36:36 You see how, how wide that is?
36:38 She doesn't leave anybody else.
36:40 Those that want to argue with you,
36:41 I don't agree with this, I don't agree with that,
36:43 they always want to argue, you know those arguing types?
36:46 She says, "Jesus hanging up
36:48 on the cross, that's your argument."
36:51 Those that want to know-- just,
36:53 just what do you believe? What's your message?
36:55 What do you stand for as a church?
36:56 She says, "This is our message,
36:58 hanging upon the cross, our doctrine."
37:03 Sometimes we want to take them through 28 Bible studies.
37:06 Oh, and again as I said those 28 Bible studies,
37:08 those will inform their picture. They're all parts of it.
37:13 At the very heart of it, at the very root of it
37:15 it is Christ hanging upon the cross.
37:18 Without that meaningless second coming,
37:21 meaningless Sabbath, meaningless all of those things.
37:25 They're meaningless unless that event had taken place.
37:28 Hanging upon the cross,
37:30 Christ was the gospel.
37:33 She says, "If we can awaken an interest in men's minds
37:37 that will cause them to fix their eyes upon Christ,
37:40 we may step aside."
37:43 That's what we all really want to do, right?
37:45 I don't want to be the one convincing them.
37:47 I don't want to be the one constantly spoon feeding them
37:50 their spiritual life, their spiritual food,
37:53 their spiritual desires.
37:55 I don't want to be the one doing that.
37:57 I'm just a man. I make mistakes.
37:59 I may not prepare the right meal for them that day.
38:03 If we can fix their eyes on Christ we can step aside.
38:06 That's what we all want to do.
38:08 We want to be effective soul winners for Christ.
38:11 We want to do our part,
38:12 but the moment we can't we want to step aside.
38:15 We want to--and this story bears that out by the way,
38:18 we're gonna get to that at the end.
38:19 Philip has just vanished. He stepped aside.
38:23 The eunuch's eyes had been focused on Christ.
38:26 He preached Jesus to him.
38:29 The eunuch got a lesson from Jesus.
38:32 He got to hear Jesus.
38:33 He got to smell and to taste Jesus
38:35 and Philip was able to just disappear.
38:37 You think, "Well, wait a minute.
38:38 Doesn't he need to disciple him?
38:39 Doesn't he need to nurture him?"
38:41 Yeah, yeah, all those things are there.
38:42 The eunuch was gonna find a place to have
38:44 all those things happen but really he could just step aside.
38:48 Christ was now the lesson giver.
38:53 "We may step aside and ask them
38:55 only to continue to fix their eyes upon the Lamb of God.
38:59 They thus receive their lesson."
39:04 Throughout the Bible we find this.
39:07 We find this same approach preach Jesus,
39:09 preach Jesus, preach Jesus.
39:11 Now you may be thinking to yourself,
39:13 "Hang on a second, the word there is preacher.
39:15 I'm not a preacher. I can't preach.
39:18 I can't even stand up.
39:19 I don't know how you're standing up right now
39:21 and preaching the word of God.
39:22 I'm too nervous to preach."
39:25 Now it's interesting that the Bible you chose
39:29 to translate the word preach here
39:31 it actually comes from a Greek word,
39:36 which means where we get the word evangelism from.
39:39 Now the traditional word in the Greek
39:41 for preaching is (foreign word)
39:43 means to proclaim, to tell, to share,
39:45 and it doesn't mean a public speech.
39:48 That's not the definition that when Paul
39:50 and others will preach or evangelize--
39:53 (foreign words) They weren't saying stand up front
39:56 in front a group of a lot of people and preach,
39:59 a public, you know, sermon type event.
40:02 No, that's not what they had in mind.
40:05 When they said preach or evangelize
40:08 they had this right here, one on one.
40:11 You think Philip jumped off the chariot and said,
40:15 "Hang on a second, pulled out his Bible,
40:17 put in a pulpit and started to preach?
40:19 No. That's not what we're talking about here.
40:22 Preaching can be just the very simple
40:24 sharing one on one of what Christ has done for you.
40:30 What is He meant to you?
40:32 What do you know about the Scriptures?
40:33 Oh, you say, "I don't know my Bible well enough."
40:35 You know enough to share Jesus from the Bible.
40:41 The woman [ preached Jesus.
40:45 All throughout the Bible we find these situations.
40:49 It simply means to communicate God to that individual.
40:54 That's what it means.
40:58 We go to Christ first then.
41:03 A favorite illustration of mine
41:07 is the illustration of the pizza delivery boy.
41:11 I'm borrowing this by the way and you know
41:13 if you ever see this who I'm borrowing it
41:14 from speaker or individual.
41:16 I didn't ask you if I could borrow this illustration
41:18 but I'm gonna borrow it nonetheless.
41:21 I love pizza. I think it's good.
41:26 I've even really learned to like soy cheese pizza.
41:30 But here's the thing, it's no good
41:33 to just have a pizza shop with a good pizza in there.
41:37 There's no good to even have the best Italian pizza maker.
41:40 You know, tossing his pizza dough into the air
41:44 and putting all the fixings, feta cheese on there nicely.
41:48 You know, and to have good smelling pizza.
41:52 And then just to have it stay in the store.
41:55 No. You need a delivery boy.
41:58 You need a delivery girl.
42:00 You need somebody to get in their car with that,
42:03 you know, sleeve that keeps them warm
42:05 and then to drive across town
42:08 and get to that individual and deliver the pizza.
42:11 Now it's no good for Jesus just 2000 years ago
42:14 to have been upon a cross to die for our sins
42:16 and then never to have anybody deliver that message.
42:19 That happened 2000 years ago.
42:21 We need delivery boys and girls,
42:23 delivery men and women.
42:25 We need people to take a look at that pizza,
42:26 that--the aroma of Christ upon the cross,
42:30 of what it's meant to life and to deliver the pizza.
42:36 Christ is only beneficial to someone
42:38 if he has been delivered.
42:40 And I know we all have fulltime jobs.
42:43 But the least you can do is to be a part time
42:46 delivery boy or girl, delivery man or woman.
42:52 Moving along then, that was point number 5,
42:57 preach Jesus Christ, the moment you can
42:59 preach Jesus, the moment.
43:01 Don't wait, don't drag your feet, preach Jesus.
43:05 Step number 6 then.
43:08 We must learn to recognize conviction.
43:13 Verse 36, Acts Chapter 8:36.
43:16 "Now as they went down the road,
43:18 they came to some water.
43:19 And the eunuch said, 'See, here is water.
43:20 What hinders me from being baptized?'"
43:23 They've obviously gotten to this point in their Bible study.
43:27 Now again Philip here, he got off easy, scot-free.
43:30 I'm gonna walkup to Philip in heaven one day
43:31 and I'm gonna say, "Listen, man,
43:33 I learned a lot from your story but you got off scot-free."
43:36 This is an easy way to tell conviction.
43:39 When somebody asks you, "When can I be baptized?"
43:41 And they're just waiting to get dunked.
43:42 And then you just know that their life
43:44 needs to be given over 100% to Christ.
43:46 They're the lucky ones.
43:47 Now that is a sign of conviction,
43:49 no doubt about it.
43:50 That's a positive sign of conviction.
43:52 The person wants to give their life in baptism to Christ.
43:55 But we need to be wiling to sit silent at times
44:01 and let the Holy Sprit speak and then watch.
44:05 You need to be a studier of people.
44:07 I love to observe people.
44:09 One of my favorite pastimes is to go into a mall
44:13 and sit down on a bench and just watch people go by.
44:17 Watch their faces, watch what they're doing
44:18 and you know now it's very intriguing
44:20 is all these people with these Bluetooth earpieces
44:23 and they just think that they're
44:24 the most important people in the world.
44:26 They got the little Bluetooth earpiece on
44:27 and you can never stop them,
44:29 they're just trudging through that mall and you think,
44:31 "Man, do they have an appointment with the president?"
44:34 Like do they have an appointment with the Queen of England?
44:37 Like who do they have an appointment with?
44:39 They're in such a rush to get through the mall.
44:41 Anyways they look so important
44:42 with that little Bluetooth earpiece.
44:44 Anyways that's just something I've noticed recently.
44:48 But we need to learn to recognize conviction
44:49 and that means studying people. Don't kid yourself.
44:53 Philip as he said something truthful,
44:55 he'd kind of peak over around the corner of his eyes
44:58 at the eunuch and he'd be like
44:59 trying to look for signs of conviction.
45:02 He's trying to see-- did he twitch funny?
45:04 Did his face grimace?
45:06 Did he sigh? Did he roll his eyes?
45:10 So we need to be looking for conviction.
45:14 Now there's positive ones, joy, sharing with others,
45:18 their personal application of what you've taught them.
45:21 Have they got a tear in their eyes,
45:23 the positive crying by the way?
45:24 They can't stay away from you.
45:26 You're sharing with them, they're a co-worker,
45:28 you've had that experience.
45:30 And that co-worker just-- they just don't leave your side
45:31 they want to know more and you say,
45:33 what do you still doing there?
45:34 You know, they just don't run away.
45:36 And every time they're calling you upon the phone,
45:37 when's your next Bible study?
45:38 Those are positive signs of conviction.
45:40 Lighting up of the face.
45:42 You can just see they're being brightened by the gospel.
45:45 They become friendly. They ask more questions.
45:47 They study on their own.
45:49 You see positive attitude changes.
45:50 They used to be sour faced and upset and angry
45:54 and furrowed eyebrow and they were upset.
45:56 And now you see positive attitude changes.
45:58 You see them opening up, starting to flourish.
46:01 These are positive changes.
46:05 And basically all the opposite of those things
46:07 can be negative signs of conviction.
46:10 People don't always respond positively
46:12 to what the Holy Spirit is doing in their hearts.
46:17 Sometimes takes the other direction
46:20 and they're crying uncontrollably.
46:23 They reject you. They say, "I don't want it."
46:25 They close up their Bible,
46:27 "Get out of my house,
46:28 get away."
46:30 And they reject. They start to argue
46:31 "but it can't be--"
46:33 And they start to argue with you.
46:37 They avoid you.
46:38 You try and call them,
46:39 "Are we gonna have another Bible study?
46:41 Are we--" And they'll never return--no phone calls returned.
46:44 It's just always going to voice mail.
46:46 They get angry with you. They resist you.
46:47 They object.
46:49 Those are signs of conviction as well
46:50 because they recognize
46:52 that the cross has a claim on their life.
46:58 So we need to recognize these signs of convictions
47:00 and not give up, not lose hope.
47:02 The positive ones, keep on going.
47:04 The iron is hot.
47:05 The negative ones, you may have to back off a little bit,
47:07 but you don't want to back off so far.
47:09 You want to continue to press.
47:12 Not pressure, press.
47:15 You don't want to like sit out front of their door and,
47:19 you know, you don't leave 10 messages a day
47:21 but you want them to know
47:22 that you're still thinking about them,
47:24 maybe a week's gone by you can dial up your phone and say,
47:25 "Hey, I've been praying for you.
47:27 I know this is hard.
47:29 I know this isn't easy.
47:31 Listen, I myself went through much
47:33 of what you're going through.
47:35 I know what it's like.
47:36 It seems like it's so different and it's seems like,
47:38 no they can't be so."
47:40 And you can leave a message with them.
47:41 You can work with that conviction.
47:46 And step number 7.
47:49 Step number 7, I cannot tell you
47:50 how important step number 7 is.
47:52 So let's review very quickly.
47:54 Step number 1, listen to god,
47:55 recognize the situation, look at your calendar
47:58 and look for future situations, recognize them.
48:01 Listen to God. Listen to what He's setting up in your life.
48:04 Don't think that He doesn't have a hand
48:06 in what your schedule looks like
48:08 and where you're gonna be
48:10 and what you're gonna do and what you're not gonna do.
48:11 He's got His hand in it.
48:14 Then run to the situation.
48:17 Run to it. Don't drag your feet.
48:18 Don't say, "Oh, God, I'm not really ready for this."
48:21 Run to it. Philip ran.
48:22 You need to run. We need to run.
48:24 I need to run.
48:25 Ask leading questions. Remember to evaluate.
48:27 But don't forget the first aid, the first aid story.
48:30 You evaluate very quickly and those questions
48:31 help you to evaluate.
48:35 And then meet them where they're at.
48:36 Don't start somewhere else.
48:38 Don't start where you think they need to be.
48:40 Start where they're at.
48:41 Beginning with this scripture. Remember what Philip did?
48:43 Beginning with that scripture.
48:45 Step number 5, the moment you can preach Christ.
48:48 Don't preach anything else, peach Christ.
48:54 Number 6 is, recognize conviction.
48:57 It was easy for--easy for our friend Philip here.
49:00 The eunuch asked, "I want to be baptized,
49:02 what's stopping me?
49:03 What's stopping-- this needs to happen.
49:05 Look, there's water there.
49:06 What stopping me, I want to be baptized."
49:09 We need to recognize conviction.
49:12 And finally number 7,
49:14 we must facilitate a decision.
49:19 This is the hardest part.
49:21 No doubt about it, the hardest part.
49:24 This is where we back off
49:27 because we don't to step on peoples toes.
49:29 This has been the biggest struggle in my ministry,
49:33 the biggest struggle in many people's ministries,
49:34 bringing people to decision.
49:38 We need to facilitate a decision.
49:39 We can't bring them to the point of acting
49:41 and then not let them act.
49:43 That's cruelty.
49:46 Like they just say, "Oh, don't preach a powerful sermon
49:48 and then not have an appeal."
49:49 Basically, facilitating a decision
49:51 is the appeal process.
49:57 So we don't want to bring a person
49:58 to the point of decision and then not provide a way
50:01 for which they can make that decision.
50:03 For which they can go forward with that decision.
50:10 Maybe you've gone through the first six steps now
50:13 and you recognize--
50:14 and not all situations are gonna be same.
50:16 Now listen, this decision might not be to be baptized.
50:19 That's not the decision we're talking about.
50:20 Now, that's ultimately where we want to get with people.
50:22 We want them to fully be devoted disciples,
50:25 followers, transformed in Christ,
50:27 that's what we want.
50:28 The spirits gonna do that.
50:29 We're gonna lead them in that direction.
50:31 But not every decision that I'm talking
50:32 about is that decision.
50:36 Maybe it's, you know,
50:41 super play station playing,
50:43 16 year old kid just got his license
50:45 but you had an opportunity
50:46 to sit down and talk with him.
50:48 Maybe you're a teacher in a school.
50:50 And you know how-- hey, listen,
50:51 this guy is far from ready to be
50:52 just totally giving his life over.
50:54 But you've done enough
50:56 and they now have a serious enquiry,
50:58 serious questions into Christianity.
50:59 They think well, maybe there's something there.
51:02 And you can sense that if a position--
51:04 if an opportunity was provided they would go forward,
51:06 they would study, they would want to.
51:08 You can sense that there's a bit of hunger.
51:12 So maybe there's just a serious enquiry
51:13 into Christianity.
51:15 You need to provide a means
51:17 by which they can check it up.
51:18 That means buying them a good book.
51:20 You know, introductory book to Christianity.
51:22 Steps to Christ something like that.
51:23 And you need to give it to them
51:24 and encourage them to read it,
51:26 check up if they've read it.
51:27 You need to provide.
51:29 You need to facilitate a decision.
51:30 You cannot say, "Oh, Christianity is interesting,
51:31 Christianity is great, Jesus is great,
51:33 He's died for your sins,"
51:34 and then just leave them on their own.
51:39 That's criminal. You cannot do that.
51:41 We cannot do that.
51:43 What if Philip had said, "Hey, hang on second here.
51:45 You want to be baptized?" And he just said,
51:48 "Oh, well, I'm not so sure, the water is cold
51:50 and there's a bit of current
51:53 and I'm not so sure I want to--" No.
51:57 Conviction was there, the opportunity was there
51:59 and he facilitated the decision and he said,
52:00 "Yeah, let's stop."
52:02 Commanded the chariot to stop,
52:03 baptized the guy.
52:08 Verse 38, "So he commanded the chariot to stand still.
52:11 And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water,
52:13 and he baptized him."
52:19 Maybe the person is beyond questioning
52:22 just the validity of Christianity
52:23 and they know that the Bible is true,
52:25 but they have just never studied it.
52:26 May be you've gotten to the point now where they say,
52:28 that person seems to have
52:30 a pretty good understanding of the Bible.
52:34 And you have this opportunity
52:37 now to give them Bible studies.
52:41 You need to take out that calendar,
52:44 take out that PalmPilot, laptop computer,
52:48 whatever it is you keep your schedule on.
52:50 And you need to say, "Hey, listen,
52:52 I can make this time available in my schedule
52:55 to give you a Bible studies."
52:56 Don't pass it off to the pastor,
52:58 the pastor's got enough Bible studies.
53:01 You need to give those Bible studies.
53:02 You've brought them to this point.
53:04 Why wouldn't you want at least fellowship now
53:06 with what you've done? You've done all the work.
53:08 Why pass off the best part to somebody else?
53:11 Maybe there's a Bible working.
53:12 Oh, yeah, this person is just ready
53:14 to study the Bible.
53:15 No, no, take out your own calendar,
53:17 your own scheduling book
53:18 and figure out when you have 45 minutes,
53:21 an hour to give them a Bible study.
53:23 Facilitate a decision.
53:25 Don't bring them to the point of decision.
53:26 Don't tell them the Bible is gonna answer all their problem.
53:28 The Bible has got answer to this,
53:30 the Bible, the Bible, the Bible and then
53:31 not teach them the Bible.
53:33 Take it out of your schedule.
53:37 Maybe this person knows about the Bible.
53:39 Maybe they were a Christian at one point,
53:41 but they're just not coming to church anymore,
53:43 but you've brought them to the point
53:44 where they're just about ready to go to church.
53:47 You need to facilitate that decision.
53:49 Tell them you're gonna pick them up Sabbath morning.
53:51 Tell them you're gonna pick them up
53:53 just before church.
53:55 And if they say, "Oh, ah--"
53:57 You know, I'll give you a little secret.
53:58 The best way to make sure they come to church is
54:00 not just to make an appointment for church,
54:02 but to make an appointment for after church
54:04 as well and say, "Oh, come to church with me
54:05 and then we'll go home and we'll have a nice lunch."
54:08 It's harder for people to say,
54:10 no to an invitation where they're going to eat
54:12 with you and they know that you want to spend time
54:13 with them than simply to say no to church.
54:16 So you say, you come to church with me
54:17 and then we'll go home and we'll have lunch.
54:19 We'll making it a big day of it.
54:20 It's much harder for them to say no.
54:22 so you need to make sure that you facilitate that decision.
54:25 If they want to come to church,
54:26 make it possible for them to come to church.
54:31 And maybe it's the greatest joy of all.
54:34 Maybe you've brought them to the point
54:35 in their life when they can make a decision for Christ.
54:40 Maybe you've been studying with them.
54:42 You've been seeing this transformation
54:44 and you've just presented salvation to them.
54:47 That hanging upon the Christ, Christ is the gospel.
54:52 Not only was He the gospel for everybody else,
54:55 but He was the gospel for them
54:57 and they're ready to give their hearts to Jesus.
55:00 They're just waiting to give their hearts to Jesus.
55:04 You do not want to flounder here, friends.
55:07 Learn the sinner's prayer,
55:09 ask them, invite them to kneel with you
55:11 and then you say a part of the prayer
55:14 and they'll repeat after you
55:15 and you lead them through repentance.
55:18 You lead them through the putting away of sin
55:20 and accepting of Jesus into their hearts,
55:22 so that transformation can begin.
55:26 That's what we all want.
55:28 We don't want to be somebody everybody follows.
55:31 We don't want to just know the Bible
55:32 for the sake of knowing the Bible
55:34 to win the argument.
55:36 We want to know the Bible,
55:37 we want to do these things
55:38 so that they can know Jesus for themselves.
55:45 They're many decisions that people will make
55:48 during these opportunities
55:51 and we need to be prepared always
55:54 to provide that opportunity.
55:59 The Lord has placed us there.
56:00 2 Corinthians says that, we are ambassadors
56:04 with a message of reconciliation.
56:07 The Lord is asking us
56:08 as Christians to listen to Him, listen.
56:13 Run when He asks us to run. It's not so hard.
56:15 We're not so out of shape spiritually
56:17 that we cannot run.
56:20 And then learn a question or two
56:21 that you can lead that person down the right road.
56:23 You can evaluate the situation.
56:25 You can be better prepared.
56:28 Meet them where they're at.
56:30 Don't wait till they've got to a point
56:31 where you now feel you can deal with them.
56:33 Meet them where they're at.
56:34 And if you can't meet them where they're at,
56:36 find somebody who can.
56:39 And the moment you get an opportunity
56:41 preach Jesus to them.
56:42 He's the one that can fill that hole.
56:44 Nobody else, you can fill it.
56:47 Recognize the conviction in their hearts.
56:49 Don't let them run too far.
56:54 And finally, facilitate a decision.
57:00 Help them, dear friend, to know Jesus for themselves.
57:06 It's the greatest joy anyone of us could ever have.


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Revised 2014-12-17