to speak their faith based upon their
personality style and their way of going about
their lives.
So building a contagious church has good ideas
in it.
Now, if any of you don't know that you've got
to eat fish and pull a couple of bones
out of it, there's some bones in this one,
there's some bones in the one I mentioned
to you, write me a letter and say, Randy, not
everything in that book was helpful.
Well, duh.
The author of this is Mark Middleberg.
This is a second-generation evangelism training book.
The first one is called Contagious Christians.
There is a video training kit that they put out.
There's also a video training kit that I put
out that the Herald of Truth ministry offers.
It's four 30-minute sessions with people who
are not church-paid staff, in other words
it's criminal attorneys and it's nurses and
it's people like that, that I'm training
to make a list of people that they'd like to
see one to cry.
That video series, if I'm not mistaken, is
about $85 or something, but you can get it
from Herald of Truth, here's the Good news, you
can get it on approval.
That means you can watch it and show it and
then send it back and say you don't like it.
But just don't tell the people you write to
that you did that, no, I really believe that
it has some things to offer.
I have begged some of our better evangelism
trainers in the church to make video copies
of training.
Here's the two things we have to do to help
Christians share their faith, maybe three.
Number one, we're going to have to enhance
their understanding and their joy about their
own salvation.
Brethren, we do not believe in eternal
security, regardless of sinful life.
We don't believe that doctrine, but I am
worried that we've perpetrated a view of
eternal insecurity.
Not on purpose, but boy, you have Christians
who think they're lost one day and saved the
next day and all of that, they don't share
their faith because they don't have a faith
worth sharing.
That's not a criticism, it's an observation.
Got to enhance Christian's view of their
absolute security in the accomplishment of
Jesus Christ
on the cross and that they were buried with
their Lord in baptism and that they have participated
in the fruit of being justified by God.
When they walk in that light, the light of the
Lord Jesus Christ, until they see his face.
We're going to have to deepen the sense of
salvation and the joy at it.
Number two, in order to train Christians in
your congregation, you're going to have to
show them and tell them that this word can mean
something good instead of the stereotypes
they've heard about evangelism.
You're going to have to, in other words, tell
them that evangelism is for them.
They can do evangelism.
And then number three, you're going to have to
have fellowships that allow Christians
to go through some training opportunities.
I love what a brother told me and he's exactly
right at the break, do not announce an evangelism
training course or a class and forget that.
People hear that in a way that it doesn't
appeal to them.
Now we've got to, this is very strongly stated
but I believe it, we've got to rehabilitate
the name evangelism.
By that I mean we've got to help it mean
positive things instead of grabbing people at a time
they don't want to talk, making them listen to
something they don't want to hear right
now and making them act on it.
A lot of Christians believe evangelism is
coercion or evangelism is manipulation.
You can say they shouldn't feel that way but
let me tell you how to change their context.
Help them see evangelism in other ways and I
would say in biblical ways.
If you would study in your congregation the
first 10 chapters of Acts and the way in which
those believers shared Jesus Christ, whatever
it cost them, and I especially have ringing
in my ears that they left having been beaten
and told not to preach in his name and they
went out and they counted themselves worthy
because they could suffer for the sake of
the name Jesus.
I said in the first class that we're going to
have to get over this idea that anyone
who shares their faith on a regular basis
through the week is a religious fanatic.
Brethren, we need some religious, devoted,
focused followers of Jesus whether the world
calls them a fanatic or not.
I said in the first class we're going to have
to have leadership from elders and the
pulpit ministers.
I know that's not a popular thing to say but if
you don't go back elders and get your
preacher together and lock the door and tell
him you love him and tell him he's got a new
job description, that he is a player in
evangelistic outreach and he is a coach in Evangelistic
outreach, as are we shepherds, we will work
with you in leading out.
That's all easy to say and hard to do.
But isn't your heart heavy that very few people
have been baptized into Christ in the last
24 months?
How many of you have a heavy heart about that?
I would not attempt to relieve the heavy heart
except to say God is all sufficient.
What's missing?
He goes before us, he goes through us, his word
lingers after us.
What is missing?
Please tell me.
I don't know.
In the first hour I thought it had to do with
one long complicated word, w-I-l-l, that we
don't have the will to do it.
I want to say in this hour that we're going to
have to understand who's lost.
I think in this time of tolerance, that is the
spirit of the Western mind right now,
any viewpoint deserves equal playing out to any
other viewpoint, truth is all personal,
there's no objective truth out there that
everyone's responsible to bow their knee to.
We've got a climate that says anybody's
spirituality is as good as anybody else's spirituality.
I'll tell you what's happened with this, the
culture has number one redefined our religious
word, and we've got to take them back.
Culture has redefined spirituality, it's
redefined faith, it's redefined ultimate
meaning, it's
redefined the whole thing of, I said
spirituality didn't I?
I have another word, I had a long list of words
that the culture's stolen, and this
is in a new book I'm writing on God, and that
summarizes it, yes.
I'm writing a book on conducting spiritual
conversations, initiating spiritual conversations,
sustaining spiritual conversations, concluding
spiritual conversations.
I'm doing that not because I'm a great guy, but
because people who want to be trained
have told me they want that kind of help, they
want to be trained specifically.
You will notice, if you stay with me to three
sessions today, I'm not going to spend a lot
of time on the scriptures that tell us to share
our faith.
I'm going to assume you believe that.
The Lord Jesus came to seek and to save the
lost, right?
Luke 19:10, we can go through all the
scriptures and nod and say yes, yes, yes,
I have to say to you, something's wrong,
because we can do that, but then we stop.
I will tell you that churches at peace are the
only churches that can evangelize, churches
at peace.
If you've got people who are on a new agenda
and you've got an old agenda and they don't
respect each other and they're clashing, you're
not going to reach out to any lost person.
Won't work.
Does that mean we've got to believe all the
same things, Randy?
I didn't say that, but I'll tell you one thing.
You've got to believe the same gospel, and
you've got to have as your number one goal
being obedient to the glory of God and sharing
your faith versus fixing the church.
We've got a lot of people who want to fix the church.
I'm a member of the church, and I'd say I need
a lot of fixing, but I'll tell you what,
I don't need it from any of you.
I need you to set the example.
Show me how to walk like Jesus Christ.
You'll fix me if you'll do that.
Lead out an example.
Do we need songs on the overhead or songs in
the book?
Let's get over it.
Oh, they lost steam while we're saying, is it
overhead or is it book?
Oh, brother.
Woo, gets me excited.
I went to church to hold a meeting, and there
were two groups that were arguing about what
version I was going to preach the meeting out
of, and I said, brethren, Brethren, brethren,
give me both of them.
I'll preach the gospel.
You probably won't even know which one I'm using.
Pardon me.
In our training to share faith, let me tell you
some things we tell the Christians.
I want to give you a list of eight things that
people can do that are icebreakers in
starting conversations with people about God.
Now, this is the kind of training we do, very
specific training.
You can say, have you noticed that a growing
number of people are thinking about God?
Or you can say it another way.
Have you noticed this incredible interest in
spirituality that's going on?
That is a wonderful door-opening conversation simulator.
You say, well, what do I do next?
How about listen?
Number two, you can greet people with this
phrase, hasn't the Lord been good to you
and me, far above what we could ever ask or think?
You know how to reach rich people?
Tell them who gave them everything they had.
And tell them the great sin that they're stuck
in the middle of is the sin of not giving
attribution to the one true and living God who
gave it to them.
There is a book called, let me get the title
exactly right, How to Say the Gospel to the
Man Who Has Everything.
It's very hard to get him to start groveling
and feeling like he's a failure and all that
when in his life he's only a success.
He can point to a beautiful family, he can
point to a loving wife, he can point to a
career that went way beyond whatever he could
dream because he did work hard.
What's his sin?
He needs the cross, why does he need the cross?
Person made in the image of God, living every
day of his life without giving regard to the
one true and living God, not living his life in
response to the giver of all the gifts.
You can say to almost anybody, hasn't God been
good to you and me, try that one, hasn't
God been good to you and me?
Come on, wake up, hasn't God been good to you
and me?
Tell your neighbor that.
Brethren, that's evangelism training, but you
don't think that's evangelism training.
But evangelism is a mindset, it's a way of
living and talking and thinking, it is not
a method, it is not a program, it is life.
I don't know all about it, I'm learning, but
I'll tell you one thing, I talk to people
in this city about Jesus.
Now, most of you heard me two years ago in a
class here, I wrote a book called Every
Day Evangelism, How You Can Influence People
for Christ Where You Live.
I wrote it because I was doing it everywhere
but Abilene.
I would get home from the seminar, home from a
visit somewhere else, and I didn't speak
his name here to people who didn't know him.
And that's wrong.
I won't tell you to preach or something, don't
preach on evangelism if you're not involved.
Just forget it.
Brother Andy, I'm an administrator, I know the
text, I'm a good Hebrew scholar, I don't
think you have to be a wild, crazy, verbal
evangelist, but if you're not thinking about
any lost people as you walk through this world,
how in the world do you have a platform from
which you can tell me to think about them?
I don't understand it if you don't involve yourself.
To the people who serve you, in hotels, to
those who clean your room, in pharmacies,
to those who fill your prescriptions, clerks in
stores, there's a wonderful line that is
true and they haven't heard it in a long time.
You are very special to God.
Turn to your neighbor and say that please.
Now how many of you feel so totally
intimidated, you don't like a teacher trying to
do this?
I want to tell you something, this is what
members of the church tell me they want.
They want to know in broken down, simple ways
how they can get a mindset toward evangelism
and practice it.
A lady came to me not too long ago, I wanted to
talk about her face because she dropped
out of church when she was eight years old.
She was now almost 40 and I said, if you don't
mind me asking, why did you come to me?
She said because I work up here at Farm Market
600 in the FINA store and you've always been
nice to me.
That's what she said.
I was losing air myself.
Thank you.
I've only heard that from one person, but isn't
that a great thing to have reinforced
a heart that wants to evangelize?
I came to see you because you've always been
nice to me.
Wow, I didn't baptize her that day, but I do
have her on my list and we are interacting.
She's had several times of visits in my office.
Number four, oh by the way on this hotels and
stuff, I don't know where you're staying,
but if the people that are serving you are not
at the end of the week thankful ACU had
electorship, you had something to do with it.
And I just want to beg you to become a more
generous tipper.
I want to beg you to leave the lady who cleans
your hotel room $2 and a note every morning
and a note, thank you for cleaning my room.
I want you to know I appreciate it.
God bless you.
There are people in Abilene who work in the
service industry who hate it when electorship comes.
I have heard people say that we're the
chintiest people.
I don't know if that's true, brother, and
perceptions sometimes are truth to people.
So I don't know.
You can decide whether or not you're going to
create a climate that is conducive and
favorable to the presentation of Jesus Christ.
Number four, you can give someone a Gospel of
John or you can give someone a little white
paperback book called A Case for Christ.
That's a wonderful little book written by a man
named Lee Strobel, just come out with
a second one called A Case for Faith.
This is a man who worked at the Chicago Tribune
who was converted from a totally heathen life
to a faith in Jesus Christ.
And he writes about it.
And what struck me about these two little
paperbacks is that people who want to share
their faith in the congregation where this is
used are given these in 10 quantity shrink
packs so that Christians carry in their cards
things that could instantly be given as pre-evangelism
Now all of you do that, don't you?
We used to.
We really did.
I want your preachers and your elders to get
you familiar with good literature that the
brethren have written so that you can get them
and own them and have them as availability
for pre-evangelism and even evangelism.
Pre-evangelism is helping create the climate.
The book is called A Case for Christ, and then
the other one is called A Case for Faith,
his follow-up book.
Those are good, they may not be the ones you
want to use.
This Easter, there's going to be a little
paperback book, a little tiny one, called
He Did This Just for You.
And it's a condensation of a book called He
Chose the Nail, which is written by a former
missionary to Brazil of Churches of Christ, who
is the pulpit minister in a church in
San Antonio.
I have no interest in quarreling about his
religious beliefs.
I want to tell you something, though.
They're going to distribute a half million of
those leading up to Easter.
And I would ask you the question, if you don't
like what they're doing, what are you doing?
You've got to think about that.
Number five, talking to someone who
occasionally attends some kind of church, but
who has not
committed to the gospel, here's a good thing to you.
I'm finding that my heart is seeking to know
God more and more.
Is this happening to you?
You say, Randy, that's not a good one, because
it's a yes or no answer.
It's an outstanding question, because you will
connect with seekers.
If they say yes, then you're on the same page.
Go further.
If they say no, then it may be for someone else
another day with this person.
Number six, close friends, family members.
They'd be awkward to talk to them, but a lady
went to a funeral not long ago with all of
her family, and she asked me, could we pray,
because half of them aren't Christians.
I said, yes.
She said, especially my uncle, he's precious to me.
I said, yes.
What do you want to do?
I said, I want to talk to him about Jesus after
the funeral.
I said, I'll be praying for you.
She said, what do I say to him?
I said, I don't know, but a big part of it's
already there, you want to.
And we've got 20 people praying for her, that
she'll know what to say, that God will help her.
You all may not like that, but I love it when
somebody's thinking about it, looking for it.
We've got to create that kind of heart in our
congregational life.
Number seven, if you're chatting with someone
who's upbeat and happy, you can always say
what we say to those who are materially rich,
I'm so happy for you.
God gives such good gifts, doesn't he?
Scripture even says it this way, every good,
imperfect gift comes down from the Father.
Are you giving him credit for what he's giving you?
Put it down.
Are you giving him credit?
Who are you to ask them that?
You're trying to position yourself to give them
an invitation of not just a lifetime,
but an invitation throughout eternity.
Look what John says in the first chapter, he
came to his own, his own did not receive him.
To as many as received him, he gave the power
to become children of God.
But to as many as received him, there were
those who didn't, there were those who did.
That's still the way it is in today's life.
Number eight, to people who are feeling
overwhelmed by life, they're burdened by a troublesome
marriage, they have a difficult job, they have
a problem with a child, you can say,
I can't begin to understand how hard this is
for you.
But I know this, God wants to give you strength
and wisdom.
Have you asked him?
If they say no, you could say, if there's a
convenient time we could talk about how
to have more strength from God, I would really
count it a privilege.
By the way, I believe Christians ought to have
cards, but I'm a little different from
some of you.
I think Christians ought to have a card that
lets people get in touch with them.
Now we've got these other cards and I like
them, but what about cards that let people
get in touch with you?
Well they can brother Randy, tell them to come
to church, they'll see me.
I agree with that, but what about just first, you?
There's something a wonderful thing you can do,
if you'd like to talk about this, here's
my phone number.
By the way, you always solve the gender kind of
challenges, perhaps you want to be careful
where you meet people and all that kind of
thing, I'll tell you how to solve all that.
If a man is trying to share with a woman the
gospel or a woman with a man, here's the rule
of thumb that works pretty well, use public
places, only public places.
Always tell your spouse beforehand and don't
get off in a corner, even in the public place.
Just get in a place that you can talk.
Some of us don't want to do that, but it's not
because we're talking to a woman or talking
to a man, it's because we're not talking.
So I recommend that you have personal cards
that have your name addressed, email and all that.
Number ten, no number nine, I'm sorry, number
nine, to those who are troubled about relationships
that don't work, and this is everybody, okay,
biggest field you could have.
You could say, aren't relationships the ones
you really care about, hard to deal with when
things are hard.
You'd like to talk about it, I'd be happy to
share something that's really helped me.
What did I say?
I said there's more to the story if you'd like
to investigate.
By the way, in 1989 when we were in Russia, and
the students in the university, we got
to talk to them, the greatest thing that worked
with those students was when we said, have
you read his story for yourself?
And if you haven't, would you be intellectually
honest enough to read his story for yourself
and decide?
They'd never been told that.
They had their reasons for atheism, but almost
none of them had ever read Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John.
I'm going to tell you a little secret, folks
over here haven't read it either.
Some of us don't believe in giving scripture
portions, repent.
There are some beautiful scripture portions
that you can give people today, the Book of Luke.
Get a catalog from the American Bible Society,
get a catalog from the International Bible Society.
You'll be surprised at the fantastic packaging
of just the word, and you ought to get it.
Number ten, in conversation with a friend who's
not a Christian, there may come a time
when you say this, Bob, I really thank you for
our friendship.
It means so much to me.
Next to Jesus' friendship, you're the most
special friend.
I'd like to talk to you about his friendship
for you.
If you'd let me, give me a time, I always say,
think about it.
And when we're together, I may ask you again,
oh, we don't want to put pressure on people.
No, we don't.
Oh, we don't want to manipulate people. No.
How about inviting people?
All of y'all are in agreement.
There is a principle that I believe in that
some do and some don't.
It's got a fancy name.
It's called presenient grace.
It was thought up by John Wesley, I'm told.
John Wesley is the man who's given credit for
founding Methodism, the Methodist Church.
But bear with me a moment.
Here's what he said.
When you talk to people, God's already been there.
He gave them life.
He gives them sustenance every day.
You don't bring God to them.
He's there, but they don't acknowledge him.
It's called presenient grace, it means that God
has been active in a person's life.
Do any of you understand this?
You've taken people and yet something key had
happened before that, where God had been
at work.
Some of y'all are doing this.
I said bear with me.
There are God's moments in people's lives.
Sometimes when they've been knocked to their
knees, I saw it once in a young husband who
became a father and he was standing at the
window looking at his child, and there was
a wonderful moment to talk to him about God
because he hadn't been interested before.
There's five situations in which people might
be having a moment of openness because of God.
There may be 50,000, but I'm going to give you five.
Number one is amazing rescues.
Amazing rescues.
There was a man in Scotland I talked to who had
accidentally stepped off the curve the
wrong way and was looking at traffic and got
hit by a car.
In the weeks that followed his recovery, he was
amazed that God had saved him from death.
You don't think that's something to use as a
vehicle into his heart?
When he's finally claiming God did something,
why don't you follow up on it?
It is a God moment.
Anybody understand that?
All right, a couple of you lost your frown,
let's see if we can go further.
Sometimes the God moment is wholly a traction
where they've just had the wind taken out
of them from something spectacular that God
made happen to a friend of mine who flew over Maui.
Because I was just amazed at what God had done
in Hawaii to create it.
He hadn't been talking a lot about God, and by
the way, it happened one time to a gentleman
who said to me, Mr. Stewart amazes me.
He is such a godly man.
Here this heathen was, here's this heathen who
was taken back by a holy light.
You think that ever happened?
I guarantee you it didn't happen, I guarantee
you it
didn't happen.
It comes from hard work.
And they know it.
Americans who are really so tied to success, on
occasion something is given to them or
comes to them that they know is great.
And you're there to say the giver's name is God.
And he gave you something better than that, his
one and only son, Jesus.
There's a God moment of revealed truth, and
here's what I mean by that.
There are people who've been raised in church a
bit, they know a little bit of the Bible,
they get into a circumstance where something
they learned in Sunday school comes back to
their mind.
And they just are kind of amazed, they're not
religious people now, they're not committed
to church people now, but something came back.
What does that say about God's word?
It is eternal.
You can't stomp it out, armies have tried to do
so, emperors have tried to do so, you
know about that.
Well God's word got planted in their heart, and
a situation in life came up to where that
word came back to them, most surprising thing
in the world to them.
It's at that point that we can give an invitation.
God brought that truth back to you, didn't he?
Where'd you learn that?
Oh, I guess I learned it in Sunday school.
When's the last time you were in church?
Oh, I guess it was before I joined the army.
Well, you know what?
Everybody would love to see you there now,
especially God.
By the way, you've got to be proud of your
church if you don't invite anybody to it.
I said that, didn't I?
Some of y'all said, oh no, gotta overcome that one.
Number five, valuable adversity.
And I've worked in this more than any other
field, perhaps, because of people who've been
hurt by illnesses and heart attacks and whatever.
The best time to talk to them is after they're
home from the hospital, and to go in and say,
God gave you your life.
Brother, isn't it time for you and God to
become friends?
Isn't it time?
I did a radio program three or four years ago
called Caring Touch, and it was only in
New York City.
So we did a follow-up seminar to those who were
listening to it, and the Manhattan Church
was filled with people, all kinds of people.
And I was just stunned.
The topic was how to become God's friend, and
they wanted to know.
You know what we've done?
We've decided that evil people don't really
want to come, and we don't really want them
to come, and so just let them alone.
And I would just urge you to say that that is
blatant, clearest crystal disobedience.
That is blatant, clearest crystal disobedience.
For you to decide they're going to hell, and so what?
Let's give a few of those.
Jane Fonda, oh man, let's reach her.
Man, she went to Vietnam, talked against the
war, and she was ugly, and, nah.
Well let's get that old guy that owns the
Atlanta Braves, Ted Turner.
He's the one that said Christians all are
emotional cripples.
Oh man, I wouldn't want to talk to him. Really?
Let's get, well, he was a former president.
Brethren, we're going to have to start loving
those we think are the worst, and what's going
to help us do it is remembering that we were sorry.
We were sorry.
What's the title of the second one?
Read it to me.
Second class?
It says apostolic churches moving from
membership to an inviting authentic faith family.
How many of you elders visit with new
Christians and say, welcome to the 5th Street Church
of Christ.
We want you to know that this church has a lot
to give to you, and we want you to know
that we expect a lot from you.
We expect a lot from your stewardship.
We want you to be a good steward of your money.
We want you to give as worship to God.
We want you to decide, we'll help you if you
want us to.
We want to help you learn to reach out with
your faith.
We expect you to be eager to receive training.
Brethren, I want to tell you something.
We've got one of the lowest demand churches
that exist.
You can be a member of the Church of Christ and
come on Sunday morning, and we'll leave
you alone.
We'll let you come.
We'll shake your hands.
We'll feel in our hearts we wish you were more involved.
We won't come sit down with you.
We won't sit there and tell you we love you too
much to let you be casual.
When I talk like this, somebody usually raises
their hands and says, you're talking about
getting back to the Boston Movement, aren't you? No.
I'd like to talk about getting back to the New
Testament church.
We're each supplying their part, and God will
glorify us.
We're asking for too little.
Anybody want to comment on that one?
Thank you, all right.
When I was writing this book, Why I'm a Member
of the Church of Christ, I was reading a lot
of materials and I was just shaken by my
experiences of low demand in churches I've been
a part of.
We've got churches that are what some are
calling recovery churches, people who are
recovering from legalism to grace, and they're
just thrilled to death that they've discovered
amazing grace.
I want to ask you an honest and sincere question.
Why does amazing grace create lazy people?
Has anybody got the answer to that?
We're just going to stand here and glow that we
don't have to earn our way to Heaven.
We are so thrilled that we can't do it and
God's done it all and we're just going to glow.
Sing more praise songs, but we don't do
anything about it.
Now I'm not trying to energize legally.
I would recommend liberating and energizing
those who are saved by grace.
Have I meddled and muddled enough?
So I want to give you some practical
suggestions in our last period today.
Apostolic churches.
There's a secret that isn't being talked about.
We have some preachers who are very
disappointed in the church.
And we have some elders who are very
disappointed in preachers.
And we have some members who are very
disappointed with both elders and preachers.
And it's the big secret, it's the big elephant
over in the corner, and it'll stifle and
keep evangelism from ever happening because
we're living in spiritual coexistence.
So perhaps the biggest need in a church like
that is a prayer for revival and the falling
on our knees in repentance.
And you know what?
Some people say that's a good thing.
We ought to have it.
They ought to lead and fall on their knees first.
You be first.
Would you?
You be first.
You and your mate fall on your knees and repent
and say, God, in some way, use me to help
this church mend their differences so that we
can reach out.
Top churches ought to reflect the harmony and
the unity of the Godhead, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Where is that unity?
That's what I'm calling apostolic churches.
Meaning from membership, which I'm calling
casual connection, to an authentic faith family
that invites people.
Here are the specifics.
If your church does not have at least one event
a year that is for outsiders that is
evangelistic in nature, don't come to me or
anybody else and say, well, we just can't
have gospel meetings anymore.
They don't work.
What can you have?
And what are you having?
I want to commend a church in town that's doing
such a wonderful job, the Hillcrest
Church of Christ, over here on Ambler.
They have an event every month that is meant to
connect with outsiders, to teach and share
important truths, and to move further if the
people are open.
They do things for people who are single again.
They do things for people whose marriages need
to get up on a higher plane built on God.
They do things for people who are grieving.
They do things, they've got outreaches that
require energy and budget to you and your church.
Do you all have anything?
Well, brother, back then we opened the door
every Sunday morning.
And on our sign it says, if you're spiritually
hungry, here are the times you can be fed.
And I don't disagree with that, but let me just
ask you, are they coming?
Are they coming?
If they're not coming, then you need more times
where you interface with the community.
This is really serious.
I hope you've talked to your elders about it.
I hope you've talked to your minister about it.
We've got to get back in the connecting business.
Before God can reclaim hearts, it is my
judgment from reading scripture that people
have to
hear good news.
God wants people to hear good news, and that's
how he brings hearts.
Well, Randy, you just kind of made us feel bad there.
Okay, here's the last two that will make you
feel good.
These will make you feel good.
I love what Brother Harry said last night near
the end because he said, you know, God's
Holy Spirit is working in the church today.
Do you like to hear that?
Brother, disillusioned, discouraged people
hardly do anything.
When I was playing basketball, and don't laugh,
I did, I was £100 lighter.
Don't ask my weight.
I was fast as a speeding white man, which is
basically very slow.
I went to David Lipscomb University on a
basketball scholarship, and I learned at the collegiate
level that it doesn't matter how good
individually the players are if they will not
play with
mutual respect for each other and play as a team.
What's happening right now in the NBA, there's
a player called Allen Iverson with the Philadelphia
Warriors, 76ers, and he averaged 40 points a game.
And in a hotel not long ago, I was flipping to
ESPN, and they were playing somebody, and
I watched how it was working.
Allen Iverson was working so hard out there
scoring all those points, and the other four
players were watching him.
They're not going to get very far in the playoffs.
We're not going to get very far if we're not a team.
That means that husbands have to trust their
wives, and wives have to trust their husbands.
And that means your table at your home has to
become evangelistic.
You've got to invite people in to eat at your home.
But in four times a year, once each quarter,
put lost people's bottoms in your chairs and
their feet under your table, and let their
heart be there and hear warmth and friendship
and positive statements.
We've got to connect with lost people.
How many of you still believe there's a hell?
Don't hear about it much anymore.
It's still there, isn't it?
How many of us believe there's judgment?
How many of us love the thought of Heaven?
Don't you want to invite others to come?
When I was so sick in 1973, I got a lot of
letters from all over the United States, and
I read them just like they were water to a
thirsty man, because I was very sick.
And I got a little one-page letter from a
little girl up in Kentucky outside of Lascaux,
and she said something like, Dear Randy, I'm
sorry to hear that you're sick.
I'm praying for you.
You may remember me.
You baptized me.
You taught me, and you baptized me on a
Saturday night at the Baptistry of the
so-and-so, Church
of Christ.
And I look like this, and my mother looks like
this, and my brother looks like this.
Maybe you remember us.
Thank you so much for what you did.
I thought, well, maybe I did something good in
my life.
When we get down to the end of our lives,
there's three big questions we ask.
Number one, did our life matter?
Number two, what's going to happen to the
special people in our lives?
Are they going to be all right?
And number three, is God my friend?
Is He going to receive my soul?
Is He going to hold me in His everlasting arms?
Not reject me, but is He going to receive me?
Is He my friend?
Let's go to number one.
Did my life count?
I'm going to ask you to do something very
different today.
First of all, if you haven't signed your name
and address, we need to pass those around,
because at 331, give a gift book to those
who've got their names on the roll, names
and addresses.
Let's ask ourselves this today.
I'm really concerned.
Before the week's out, would you write a letter
to somebody asking them to receive the love
of Jesus and let you help them do that?
Or would you sit down with one of your kids
that's kind of not been involved and sit down
with them and say, I just want to look you in
the eye, Honey.
I just want to tell you, I'll wait as long as
it takes, but I want to tell you today,
Jesus loves you and He wants you to be with Him
for all the time to come.
Honey, would you do it?
Would you commit to Him?
You see what happens in evangelism training,
I'm going to tell you the honest truth.
The more classes we go to that we don't act on,
the more the crust around our heart gets
thicker and thicker and thicker.
And we hear good things and we tell the source,
that was wonderful.
And we go out and do nothing.
I've sat where you are so many times and I'll
sit where you are in other classes during
this lecture.
What couldn't we just say before the end of the
week, we'll try to invite somebody to
Jesus Christ.
Well, Randy, you haven't trained us enough, I
don't really know what to say.
Pardon me for saying this, but you have been
training us.
What you may not have gotten that I might not
be giving you, but I pray that God could
give you is confidence that He works through you.
My son was in a flood in Houston, my son wasn't
going to church, great young man, he lived
in a house trailer.
He was in North Houston when the big flood
happened down there.
He said, Dad, you ought to see these trailers
when they get filled up with water to about
an inch from the ceiling.
You ought to see what they do.
They abandon you, Dad.
They just fall apart.
And there goes your shoes, and there goes your
pants, and there goes your shirt.
To Dad, it's kind of a sickening experience.
I went over to Savannah, Tennessee and was
preaching at a church and I told the preacher
Jim Cambly.
Any of you know him?
I said, Jim, my son's in Houston and he's lost
everything he had.
I want you to pray for him.
I want you and your sweet wife Shirley to pray
for Mark.
He said, Randy, we will.
That night before I got up to preach, he came
and he brought me an envelope.
He said, Shirley and I have written Mark a letter.
Would you get it to him?
I got it to Mark, and I have a check in there
saying, Mark, your dad was with us, he told
us what a fine young man you are, he told us
you lost everything.
We want you to know that you've got Christian
brothers and sisters over here in Savannah,
Tennessee, who are hurting for you right now.
And two of them's names are Jim and Shirley Cambly.
And we want you to take this check and get
something you need.
And we won't forget you.
I got it to Mark several weeks past.
He calls me on the phone and he says, Dad, I
want to tell you something amazing.
Here's what they said in that letter, they sent
me a check, Dad, oh my, church is important,
isn't it?
They started going back to church.
Jim and Shirley didn't think they did something
great, they just did something loving.
I think they did something great.
And so I will say to you, act on something you
have heard today, because what you think
is little can change a soul for eternity.
A lady was in a training session, she said, my
son lives in California, I said, write
him a letter today, right now.
She said, will you help me?
I said, I don't know how to write him, but I'll
read your letter and I'll see if there's
anything barbish in it that might perhaps
discourage him.
He wrote the letter, I read it, it was better
than I could have ever dreamed of writing.
He sent it.
She said, you know, I don't know if this will
do anything.
I said, here's what I want you to promise,
here's my name and address, and I want you
to tell me if God uses that and does something great.
Now you know where I'm going with this, don't you?
He pulled up his mother and he said, Mother, I
didn't know that you and Jesus cared that
much for me.
I'm going to change, Mother, and I'm going to
change right now, but I need somebody out
here to help me change.
Can you get me some Christian out here to help
me change?
Riverside, California.
We got him to something, we got him to God, and
he's walking in Christ.
All letters don't do much.
Satan, shut up.
You're lying to it.
C.S. Lewis wrote screw tape letters.
They were imaginary conversations between the
devil and his henchmen, his minions, his servants.
Recently, a gentleman wrote a new version of
his own devil letters, and he had one letter
on evangelism, and I want to tell you what it said.
It said, Oh, those Christians, they're our enemies.
But you can stymie them if you want to, because
in evangelism, there's ways to stop them
that are pretty simple.
Number one, tell them they can do it later.
Just tell them that they've got a lot of stuff
to do, and they can do this later.
Number two, tell them it's not as bad as they
think in the person's life.
Number three, tell them that it doesn't matter.
God doesn't really want them to do it anyway,
and he said it works every time.
Well, that's a man's imagination.
I understand that.
We need motivation, brethren, but it would be
wonderful if next Sunday one of the elders
went to the podium and said, I'm here to speak
for the rest of the elders.
We've been in meetings and prayers for the last
couple of days, and I'd like to tell
you something.
Number one, we are committed that this church
be evangelistic, and we invite all of you
to join with us in that commitment, because
we're not going to do it today and forget
it tomorrow.
We're going to look at every program in this
church from the point of view of how much
effect it will have to reach outsiders with the gospel.
This is a true story.
After the man read the statement and the
service was over, some of the members came to him
weeping in tears and said, that's what we were
waiting on.
We wanted you shepherds to tell us that that's
what this church is about. Wow.
They shouldn't have been waiting.
I know we can say that, but they were.
If you would like, please look on the Heroic
Truth webpage.
We have a number of these lists of practical
suggestions for how people can share their faith.
It's under a little subtitle called
Conversations on Evangelism.
We also have a little website aspect that says
Why Jesus, and it has some things underneath
Why Jesus to help your people talk about Jesus.
Heroic Truth's ministry is committed,
recommitted and recommitted now, to both
providing the
tools the best we can for evangelism, broadcast
evangelism, print evangelism, and also equipping
God's church in evangelism.
That's what we're about.
That's why we're here.
Brethren, if I knew better how to do it, I
would tell you.
Here's what I want to say in closing.
I grew up in Tennessee, and my grandfather was
a school principal.
At the age of 51, he married my grandmother.
She was 35.
They had six children, and the last one was my mother.
My grandfather had a say.
He was an orchard grower.
He grew all kinds of fruit, and he ran a
school, a one-room schoolhouse.
He had a say.
We may not do it the best way.
We may not do it in the best time.
We may not even know how to do it, but by God,
we're going to do it.
That was not a profanity.
It was, but by God, we're going to do it.
Can we pray that way about us individually
being evangelistic?
Can we do that?
One of you who is one of God's preachers, would
you raise your hand, lead us in closing prayer?
Who would do that?
Pray for us, please.