And this morning, as you see from our slide, we're going to be considering the building blocks of evangelistic prayer. And I joke when I say, when I preach on prayer or evangelism, because prayer or evangelism are one of those two topics where as soon as somebody even just says they're preaching on prayer or evangelism, you're already convicted. And I could just sit down already and the message is done. We all could walk away going, yeah, I need to be more prayerful. and I need to be more evangelistic. So this morning we're actually covering both of those things, that we ought to be prayerful about evangelism. And I think this morning it will be helpful, it's helpful for myself and I hope helpful for our church family to consider four principles. We're gonna consider our command, our consideration, our Christ, and our call when it comes to being evangelistically prayerful. And so we are gonna begin with the command that's given to us as believers. But first I want to open up in prayer. Gracious Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you for the reminder of the snow. Though snow can be a hindrance at times, Lord, it conveys to us a beautiful truth that though our sins be a scarlet, they'll be cleansed as white as snow. And as the snow covers that dirt and all the different colors and turns our area into a blanket of white. Lord, you have cleansed us through your blood, through the shedding of your blood upon the cross. Father, we come and gather together rejoicing in the forgiveness that is found in Christ. We come hopefully convicted and desiring of faithfully sharing the gospel, this good news with those around us that they too can have their sins washed away. And Lord, we come recognizing also weakness in our prayer lives, how often we can neglect devoting ourselves to prayer, and yet what a wonderful privilege prayer is. Would you help us to recognize that more and more each day? We pray these things through our Lord and Savior's name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Very often you can consider someone's life by the way they die or by the final words that they give. And our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, after he died and rose from the grave, he spent time with his disciples and appearing to different individuals and groups. And right at the end, and before he ascends into heaven, he gathers together his disciples. And he gives what we commonly know as the Great Commission. And this is what I want us to consider as the first, you could say, building block of having evangelistic prayer. would be this, a recognition, healthy recognition of our command given by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It says in verse 16 of Matthew chapter 28, but the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And I want to consider a few things in regards to our command found here in Matthew chapter 28. And we've covered a few of these things in Romans chapter 10, fairly recently, but not all of you were present for that, and not all of you remember that. So I want to consider a few of these truths again. Number one, true evangelism is not merely sharing the gospel with somebody, and then leading them to pray the sinner's prayer, as many people would call it, and then saying, have a great life, and never seeing them again. That is not actually what Christ commanded us to do. as we see here in the Great Commission. Now, evangelizing someone or sharing the gospel with somebody is definitely preaching the gospel to them. And maybe if it seems the right moment, inviting them to call upon the name of the Lord as their Lord and Savior, I would say 90% of the time, if the Lord is drawing them to himself and working in their heart for salvation, they're going to ask, how do I call upon the name of the Lord, right? After Peter's sermon and acts, He finishes preaching, and the people cried out, what shall we do? They were the ones responding, asking what to do. They were seeking salvation through the work of God. But it is not merely that. It is not merely seeing someone call upon the name of the Lord. But then here, it's to see them become disciples and follow after Christ. It's to see them baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And then I would say, to continue in the church learning that which God has commanded through his word. So the very last words of Christ before his ascension were commanding his followers simply to make disciples, see them baptized, and see them continue to learn. This is true evangelism. And now you may be wondering, what does this necessarily have to do with building blocks of evangelistic prayer? Well, if you don't understand what true evangelism is, then you can't truly pray for a healthy evangelistic life, right? So what we must consider first is the command from our Lord and Savior, and it all stems from this, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to who? To our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Corinthians, I can't think of the exact reference at this moment, but it talks about us being ambassadors for Christ and that God is making his appeal through us for the sake of Christ. And in our day and age and in our culture, people will very often look at us and feel offended when we share the gospel. And they say, what authority do you have to come to me and tell me how I ought to live, how I ought to believe? I've been raised in my own culture. I've been raised by my own family. And I have my own set of beliefs. And what works for me can work for me. And what works for you works for you. They have a complete misunderstanding of what we're doing and maybe you have a complete misunderstanding of what you're doing. You're not simply going and teaching them what you believe. You're not going and teaching them the culture that you grew up in or a Western religion. No, not at all. You're actually going on behalf of God Almighty, their creator. allowing him to make an appeal through you as you share the gospel of Jesus Christ with individuals, that they would repent and come to know Christ as Lord and Savior. God has designed that he would use us to make an appeal to the lost. So this is our command. But we can hear this command, and we've probably heard it many, many times, each of us. And yet, very quickly, we can forget. And again, as I pointed out at the beginning of the sermon, evangelism is one of those topics where as soon as somebody starts preaching or just says that they're preaching on it, you feel convicted, right? You can think of all the times, all the opportunities you passed up. So what is our consideration? How do we feel a motivation to consistently have lives of evangelism? And that's why I want to turn over to Romans chapter 10. In Romans chapter 10, we are posed with some questions by the Apostle Paul. And it is vital that we answer these questions in our heart. Romans 10, as I've recently preached it and you have recently listened to it preached, it is full of wonderful truth and hope. Paul states that salvation is near to us, in our mouths, in our hearts, close by. It is believing in your heart, confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that you will be saved, that Scripture says whoever believes in him will not be disappointed, that God keeps his promises, that God is Lord of all, there's no favorites, that God accepts both Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, men, women. He is the same Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. And then culminating in this succinct statement in verse 13, for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved, period. But then he asks a question in verse 14, following up these incredible truths. He says, how then are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? But how are they to preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. See, the seriousness of the great commandment, the great commission is posed here. There are millions of lost headed to hell around us. And they, of course, cannot believe unless they first hear of Jesus. And they can't hear of Jesus unless you tell them. We live in a county that is greatly unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We live in a city that is full of millions of people, yet is one of the loneliest places on earth. We live in a needy, unreached area. Very typically, depending on where you work, depending on your route to work, whether it be through the train or bus, you are surrounded by lost people every single day. And statistically speaking, you are the only believer where you work. So what is the consideration? How do we take this command seriously? we take it seriously asking ourselves this question every day. As you work, and there's somebody beside you as you commute, and there's somebody sitting next to you, ask yourself this question. Ask yourself the question that Paul asked here in Romans 10 by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Can this person call upon the name of the Lord? Well, they can only call upon the name of the Lord if they've heard the name of the Lord. And now we're not talking about just a general hearing of the name of Christ, all right? If you were to ask most people in our community, have you ever heard the name of Jesus, they would say what? Well, yeah, of course they have. Of course they have. To many, he was a false prophet, all right? To many, he was a schemer, a tricker, trying to fulfill Old Testament prophecy for others. added onto their list of merits before God Almighty for salvation. There are others who would consider him a good prophet, but not the Son of God. As I pointed out when we were in Romans 10, Paul has a desire to see the Israelites saved, and they knew God. They knew scripture, as he points out in the very beginning of chapter 10. Look there with me if you would. He says, I testify about them, speaking of Israel and his desire for them to be saved, that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So yes, the Israelites knew the name of God. They knew that there was a Messiah coming, or maybe had come, but they were not familiar with the actual gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, too, really anywhere you go in America, yes, there may be people who know the name of Jesus. And statistically speaking, most people would know the name of Jesus, but none of them, very few of them, would be able to actually tell you what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. And that is deeply saddening. America is full of churches. thousands upon thousands, who live in a place where I can go to a pastor's conference and there are thousands of pastors joined together who preach the word of God. And yet there are millions of people who have never actually heard the true gospel of Jesus Christ all around us. How can they believe on him whom they have not heard of? And how will they hear of him unless we tell them of him. You may be, and statistically speaking, again, you most likely are the only individual in your workplace who knows the true gospel of Jesus Christ and can share it with those around you. Not only that, God has placed you specifically and for a purpose for a reason in that location that you are. Whether it be in the neighborhood that you are in, whether it be in the family that you are in, or whether it be in the workplace that you are in. God has specifically placed you there. The argument and excuse can always be made, there's probably somebody better fitted for this, to do this than I am. There's probably somebody more knowledgeable than I am. And the list could go on and on and on and on. But God didn't place that person there, he placed you. there. He placed you there for a reason and a purpose, and it is this, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be the light in a dark place. So, we've considered our command, we've considered what we must consider, our consideration, and third, I want us to consider our Christ. So, turn back with me to Mark. Mark chapter 1. Mark is a unique gospel in that he quickly moves from thing to thing. You'll hear over and over again in Mark, immediately they went here, immediately they went there. But in Mark 1, verse 35, we see this. Despite Christ having an incredibly busy ministry and immediately moving from place to place, we see this pause. And in verse 35, we see this in the early morning while it was still dark. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, God in flesh, got up and he left the house and he went away to a secluded place and he was praying there. Simon and his companions searched for him. They found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you. He said to them, let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for. I don't think it can be super, super imposed on the text. But I think as we look at the context, we could very much say this, most likely Jesus's prayer was in connection with what he was about to do. And what was he about to do? He said, let us go somewhere else to towns nearby so that he could, what? Preach. For that is what he came for. You see, our Lord and Savior, God in human flesh, he was prayerful. He was prayerful before he went and preached. And what did we just consider? How will individuals believe on him whom they've not heard? And how will they hear unless you go and you preach? And what is this type of preaching? What is this? It's the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Go therefore, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded in his word. And if Christ, God in human flesh, woke up early and devoted himself to prayer before he went and preached, How much more, infinitely more, must we call upon God through our Savior to strengthen, enable, give wisdom, and give opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ? If you think that you can just merely wake up and go and have a strong, solid gospel conversation with somebody aside from God's strengthening and enablement and His grace and His mercy, take heed if any man thinks he stands, lest he fall. You have forgotten the very foundation of the gospel, which is this, one only believes as God the Father draws him to the Son. You cannot save somebody. You cannot convince somebody to trust in Christ. You are called merely to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and God does the saving work. Therefore, you ought to even be praying more than you share the gospel. For the only hope of you sharing the gospel is that God would be at work as you proclaim it. If Jesus himself, our Savior, devoted himself to prayer before he went and preached, Again, how much more should we devote ourselves to prayer? Let's consider our call as a church as a whole. So turn going forward to Colossians. And this will go hand in hand with what we just read. It gives us another aspect of it, a little bit deeper into it. Our call as we consider the building blocks of evangelistic prayer. In Colossians 4, we have very clear command in regards to our prayer lives. In verse 2, he says, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. I think this gives us a very foundation. What is the key thing that we ought to be thankful for in the very foundation of our thankfulness? It is our salvation in Jesus Christ. Everything else stems from that. How can we be thankful for trials? Well, because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And it is through Christ Jesus that we stand in this grace, Romans 5 says. And therefore, we can count trials as joy, knowing that God is working something in us through these trials. How can we have joy when a loved one dies? It's trust and rest in the gospel of Jesus Christ that God does not disappoint. But if they've trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior, they are in heaven. They're with the Savior. How can we have joy through any other aspect of life? It all stems down to the very foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the center. Everything hinges upon the gospel. So as we are praying, How are we to keep ourselves alert in prayer? How are we to not grow weary in prayer? How are we to continue going to the Lord in prayer? It's having an attitude of thanksgiving, and this thanksgiving finds its very foundation upon one thing and one thing alone, the gospel of Jesus Christ. But then he doesn't stop there. He says in verse three, he says, praying at the same time for us as well. So don't just go to the Lord thankful. for the gospel of Jesus Christ, but go to the Lord in prayer, praying for us that God will open to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned, that I may make it clear in the way that I ought to proclaim it. And again, going from the argument of the greater to the lesser, if Jesus prayed before he went and preached, how much more should we pray before we go and preach? If the apostle Paul prayed for others to pray that he would know how to share the gospel, how much more do we need others praying for us that we might know how to proclaim the gospel? Guys, this is the guy who wrote Romans. Right? This is the guy who wrote Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians. This is the guy that the Lord has used probably to bring more people to Christ than anybody else on the entire planet. His teachings and his writings. And yet he is coming in Colossians and he's writing a letter to a church and he's saying, pray for me. Pray for me. Pray for me and my comrades. Pray for us to have an open door for the word. What is this word that he's talking about? That they would proclaim what? The mystery of Christ. In other words, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that he may make it clear in the way that he ought to proclaim it. If you think you're all set in your abilities and your knowledge of proclaiming the gospel and evangelizing the lost, you are sadly, sadly mistaken. If the man who wrote the book of Romans desires for people to pray for him, how much more do we need people to be praying for us? Our prayers are to be full of thankfulness and gratitude unto the Lord for his goodness and saving grace to us. But at the same time, our prayers should be full of pleading for the lost around us and for others as they seek to share the gospel with the lost and for ourselves. that it wouldn't just be those who we are praying for, but us too, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have a clear commandment from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, go and make disciples. How can individuals become disciples? They must hear a gospel of Jesus Christ and believe upon him. How can they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ by you proclaiming it to them. Therefore, bathe yourself in prayer. Spend time with the Lord. Read the Gospels, and as you read through the Gospels, be on your knees praying over them. Have a list of individuals that are in your life that you're in consistent contact with who don't trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior, and pray through that list. Pray that there would be individuals that you can add to that list by intentionally living a life that brings you into contact with the lost. Take up a good hobby that would allow you to rub shoulders with people you don't know who are lost. Frequent one coffee shop and get to know the barista. When you're in the checkout line at the grocery store, don't look for the shortest line. Look for that one person who has done the cashier before. and get to know that person, and have small talk with them. Maybe by the fifth or sixth time, they start to recognize you, and it opens a door for gospel conversation. Be intentional in the way that you live. Be praying for those types of opportunities. You know what will happen if you're praying for those types of opportunities? You'll actually take them. If you've been praying for something to happen when God enables it to happen, Typically, you're much more likely to take it because you've been asking for it and you've been expecting it. But not only that, be praying that God would give you wisdom. And be praying as a church that God would give each of us wisdom. What would the Bible church look like if each day we are not merely praying for each other's health, If we were not merely praying for each other's jobs or searching for a job and so on and so on, those are wonderful things to pray for. But what if the main desire and the main heartbeat of our church's prayer life was this? That God would use us. God would use each other. God would use the person sitting next to me and myself. to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to somebody that's lost and that he would do a saving work in their heart. We have been averaging 50 to 60 people on a Sunday. What if just this next year each of us just shared the gospel enough times and the Lord sovereignly and graciously worked that each of us saw one person come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior? the church would be over 100. And then in two years, the church would be 200. And then in three years, the church would be 400. And that's just going off of one single person in 52 weeks, 365 days. The Lord can do far more abundantly above all that we could ask or think, according to his grace. There are story after story throughout history of individuals who devoted themselves to praying. And the Lord did incredible things. Think of George Mueller. Example, given he's starting orphanages and there were times where he sat down and they had no food for the orphanage. He didn't know exactly what to do, but he said, well, We'll do our first step that we always do in prayer. We're gonna sit down and pray. And he begins praying. And as he's praying, there's a knock on the door and there's a milkman and his wheel fell off. And he can't carry his milk and he's right in front of the orphanage. And they bring in a bunch of milk for the kids. And then they find out this baker could not sleep. So the only thing the baker decided to do, he didn't have television back then or his smartphone to browse. So he got up and he started baking, and he had all this extra bread. He brought it in and provided it, because a man prayed, and the Lord graciously worked. You hear of the incredible preaching ministry of a man named Charles Spurgeon. Underneath the pulpit of Charles Spurgeon, there are men, every time he preached, praying that the Lord would use him and work through him as he preached the Word of God. Charles Spurgeon wasn't some incredible preacher because he was some incredible preacher. Charles Spurgeon was used greatly because people devoted themselves to praying for his preaching. The Lord works through prayer. How can he work through prayer? Because he is kind, he is gracious, and he is in control. Again, we as a church family would believe in God's sovereignty and his mercy and his grace, that he is the one in control. And many would argue that that pushes us away from evangelism and pushes us away from prayer. They'll unbiblically argue, well, if God has ordained it, then we can't change it. If God has ordained it, it's just going to be what happens. It's the very opposite, brothers and sisters. Because our God is in control, we leave things in his hands and we pray. Because God can save, we go out and share the gospel. And it's a healthy biblical recognition that he is the one who does it, and therefore we pray, and therefore we evangelize. We devote ourselves to this, to evangelistically praying for the lost as a church family. Would we grow this year? One of my biggest desires for the Bible Church would be this, to see the Bible Church grow in its prayer life, and particularly to its prayer life with evangelism. We live in a dark, dark place, but when you live in a dark, dark place, it's an opportunity for the light to shine bright. Father, would you help our church to grow? Would you make us men and women of prayer? Would you make us men and women who have a strong, zealous desire to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us? Lord, you are the one who gives empowerment to those who evangelize. And Lord, you are the one who gives saving grace to those who are evangelized. Lord, we pray that you would do that great and mighty work this year through us for your honor and glory in Jesus name. Amen.