There's a story about a guy named Bill who stopped in at his friend's little general store. The friend's name was Abby. And he was looking around his friend's store for a bottle of mustard. However, as he was looking around, he noticed that the shelves of the store were just completely loaded with salt. Bags and bags of salt. Well, his friend Abby said that he had some mustard, but that he'd have to go down to the cellar to find it. Well, Bill went down with him into the cellar, and to his surprise, there were even more bags of salt. Bags upon bags of salt. Everywhere he looked, there was salt. And Bill said, boy, you must really sell a lot of salt around here. To which Abby replied, nah, not a whole lot. I can't sell no salt. But the feller who sells me salt, boy, can he sell salt. Boy, can he sell salt. In other words, he was pretty persuasive. And he got a man who didn't need to buy salt to buy salt. Amen. And as we continue our godly character series tonight, I like to look at the character quality of persuasiveness. Being persuasive. Being persuasive helps others see what they need based on rational and compassionate reasoning of truth. And when directed correctly, it can benefit the well-being of others significantly and ultimately further the work of God. And that's our goal, is to further God's work, to glorify him and to see good things happen in the lives of others. How persuasive are we tonight? Maybe tonight you didn't think that you needed to be persuasive, but there's actually a lot the Bible has to say about how people persuaded others to live for God, or to turn to God. And we're gonna look at that here a little bit more tonight. We see one example here with Paul, who was a persuasive man, as you're gonna see in a little bit, And he directs the church at Corinth, those members there, to be the same way. Look at verse 11. 2 Corinthians 5. We persuade men. We persuade men. But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciousness. Again, it says at the beginning of this verse, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We're going to build upon that tonight as we talk about being persuasive, being persuasive. Let's pray first. Father, we thank you for tonight and the opportunity to be here. And Lord, I just pray that you would enable us, oh God, to be able to be able to understand the significance of this character quality so that we can practice it in a scriptural manner, in a proper manner, to further your glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, hopefully my PowerPoint catches up here in just a little bit, so I'll get to that once it decides to work with me here. But Webster defines persuasiveness as the ability to influence by argument, advice, or entreaty. It's to draw or incline the will to a determination by presenting motives to the mind, to convince by argument or reason offered, or to convince by reason suggested by reflection or deliberation, or by evidence presented in any manner to the mind. Words that would be somewhat synonymous with the word persuasive would be words like being influential or compelling or maybe convincing. A persuasive person is somebody who can rationally, thoughtfully, and compassionately help others find what they need and how to best get what they need. When Benjamin Franklin wished to interest the people of Philadelphia in streetlights, He didn't try to persuade them by just talking about it. What he did was he hung a beautiful lantern on a long bracket in front of his home. He kept the glass highly polished. Every evening at the approach of dusk, he carefully lit the wick. People saw the light from a distance, and when they walked in its light, found that it helped them to avoid sharp stones on the pavement. Others placed lights at their homes, and soon Philadelphia recognized the need for street lighting. That's called being persuasive. And he did it in a very classy way. He showed others what they needed and how they could get that need, just by his example and what he did. And plus, he talked about it as well. He was very good at that. Notice again, he did it in a compassionate way. He helped others see the great benefit of it. Too often, instead of using persuasiveness, the antithesis of persuasiveness is contentiousness, being contentious. We use contention sometimes to try to get people to change their minds about something. that we know maybe even is good, might even be truth, it might even be what we believe is helpful, but the way in which we are going about it is not being persuasive, we're being contentious. That means we're using negative emotions and negative words that do not come across as trying to help a person, but actually end up trying, what it ends up doing is communicating that person a sense of rejection, or a sense of, well, making them feel dumb. Or we might even go as far as feeling stupid, you know? Being contentious does not communicate what, God wants us to communicate, or at least not the way he wants us to communicate it. You know, sometimes we get a cantankerous attitude and use sharp words that do nothing but compel others to reject what we're trying to convince them of, even if it's a good thing. And contention does not show a person that we have concern for their well-being. If anything, many times it's used to try to get them to stop doing something that annoys us, right? You know, you think about when we're being contentious with somebody about something that maybe they do need to fix and they maybe do, you know what's better for them, but if we do it with the wrong spirit, a contentious spirit, what it shows to them is that the only thing that I care about is that you would stop bugging me with whatever that thing is that I'm trying to help you with, quote unquote. And hence, what does a person feel? Rejection, right? They feel rejection, or they feel dumb, they feel humiliated, they feel embarrassed. And it's like, it doesn't go well. And sometimes it's like two magnets, you know, if you ever see two magnets that come together, they repel each other. They push people, push them off. Instead of using, persuasion will unite them. Contention will, push them away. So it's important that we learn how to be properly persuasive, according to what the Word of God says, so that we can know how to compellingly and compassionately speak to others, so that they will at least consider what we're telling them. Because usually, if we're giving them, especially the truths of God's Word, and I'll get into this in a moment, that what we're telling them is greatly significant to the benefit of their own life. So today, as we consider this character quality, let's see how significant it is for the cause of Christ so that we grow in our ability to be persuasive people. First off, let's talk about the significance. You know, God's desire for every born-again Christian is that we are a witness or a living testimony of his truth to other people. If you are saved here tonight, God's desire for you is to be a bright and shining light in this world by the way you talk, the way you act, the way you behave, by what you do, what you communicate. God wants us all to be that living testimony. And we all have our struggles, don't we? And we all falter. But overall, I mean, that's the general direction we all should be going. Somebody put it this way, persuasiveness is communicating truth to a person's spirit through sound reasoning and convincing him to follow the ways of God. And that's one of the ways in which we can be a proper testimony or living witness before others. Persuasiveness is communicating truth, God's truth, to a person's spirit through sound reasoning and convincing him or her to follow the ways of God. We give people a good reason why they should listen to God versus reject Him. Again, remember, being persuasive is really us trying to help others see what they need and showing them how to find it. And that's never more important than when you're talking about the eternal things of the Word of God. It's significantly important that we are persuasive in that regards. You know, our text here, Paul says, knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. What's the terror of the Lord? Well, the Bible says that those who have not been saved will face the wrath of God one day and will stand in judgment for every sin that they've ever committed. And you think about that great white throne judgment mentioned in Revelation 20, verses 11 through 15. I don't want to be before that throne. And I thank God I'm not going to be thanks to getting saved here some years ago and many of you in the same boat. And we understand the reality of that truth based on our belief in what the scripture says. And knowing that truth, We go out and persuade people, say, hey, look, you got to take a look what the Bible says about getting to heaven, because if you don't accept what the Bible says about getting to heaven, you're not going to be able to go there. And we go about trying to persuade men or women, as it might be, to accept God's plan of salvation. Maybe another Christian. We are trying to persuade them to live the Christian life and be an encouragement to them because you want to see them benefit. You want to see them fruitful. And we're trying to persuade men because the Christian, well, guess what? They'll stand before God too. Now, they won't lose their salvation. But evidently, according to the scriptures, we see that the Christian will lose rewards and will suffer loss And evidently, according to Jesus, that loss seems to be pretty significant. And they'll one day give an account for their lives. Romans 14 talks about this. Hence, you know, we want to persuade God's people to be faithful. We want to persuade God's people to stay by the stuff and to do right and go forth. We want to persuade them that way. Why? Because we know the terror of the Lord. We know what everything's coming down to. We know we're all going to stand before God. Hence, we persuade men with that truth. Be prepared for eternity. Be prepared for eternity. Be prepared for eternity. Are you preparing for eternity right now? Whether it's getting saved or serving with your whole heart so that one day you can stand before the Lord and you can hear that, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You know, if you and I died right this second, which by the way, I'm not trying to sound morbid, could be a reality for anybody. We are one breath, one heartbeat away from eternity at all times. I don't wish that on anybody, but I'm just saying that's the reality. But if you died right now, would you be happy with your service for God? Would you be happy with what you've done for God up to this point? Would you feel like, God, I gave you everything I got, or would it be like, oh boy, I didn't expect this right now? Are you prepared to meet God? If you died right now, are you assured that you'll go to heaven? Are you assured that that heaven's going to be your home? I don't know. I don't know. Well, it's time for you to seek out the Lord and get that straightened out. Because time's ticking. And hence, we we knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. If we know what's happening, what's coming down the road, we need to go out and try to persuade people to turn from their ways. and to persuade Christians, you gotta live for the Lord. You gotta do right. You gotta keep on the firing line. You gotta start investing in others instead of yourself. Christians that are falling by the wayside, the number one reason is because they're stuck on themselves half the time. It's all about me. It's not all about you. And you'll never be happy until you learn it's not all about you. But we persuade, we know, therefore, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. You know, Paul knew that truth vividly. And Paul went around trying to tell others about Jesus. and trying to tell others to live for God. He spent his whole life trying to do that. Look at Acts chapter number 13. Acts chapter number 13. We're going to be looking at a lot of verses in the book of Acts tonight. But notice the phraseology in these verses. It says in Acts 13, verse 43, Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas. who, speaking to them, noticed, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. Paul and Barnabas persuaded them. These are people, I believe, that had gotten saved. And he persuaded them to keep going for God, and to keep going and doing the right thing, and to continue in that grace to do right. Look at Acts 18. And in verse four, and Paul says, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. Paul was persuading every single Sabbath day he would get up into that pulpit there in that Jewish synagogue and he would speak about Jesus Christ and he would give verse after verse and reference after reference how Jesus was the Messiah to convince these Jews and these Greeks to turn from their ways to him. to Jesus Christ. And the Bible uses the word he persuaded again. Look at Acts 19, verse 8. It says here, and he, Paul, again, went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. Now look at Acts 28 and verse 23, another verse right at the end of the book of Acts. Here he's in Rome and he's in a place now where people are coming to him. and notice what it says here in verse 23, Acts 28. And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. In other words, he spent day and night just talking to people about Jesus Christ, giving them every reason from the first five books of the Bible to the prophets, to everything that he could come up with, And he pointed out from scripture point to scripture point to scripture point to scripture point how Jesus was the Messiah. That was despite some believing and some not. Verse 24, and some believed the things which were spoken and some believed not, but he still persuaded. He did everything he could within his power to persuade. And in our text, back in 2 Corinthians 5, Paul was trying to get these Corinth Christians to persuade people like he did about the eternal truths they had received and responded to, particularly, of course, about salvation. And that's why it's critical that we learn how to share the gospel. How to share the gospel message. If God gave you an opportunity tomorrow, or even before the end of this night, to be able to share the gospel message, would you be able to do it, and would you feel comfortable doing it? If you've been saved, you should be able to do that. If not, I don't mean, I'm not trying to be mean, but shame on you, to be honest with you. That's not, most of you have been saved here quite a while. You should be able to do that. If you can't, then it means you gotta learn how to do that. And really, it's been taught from the pulpit here a number of times. You should be able to do that. If you can't do that, then you can't do the most basic function of the Christian life. Be a witness. You can't do it. I'm not saying you gotta know every argument, but at least you should be able to explain to somebody repentance, faith, You know, salvation, assurance of salvation. I mean, these are, I mean, you should have had that explained to you when you went through salvation. Those are critical. If we can't do it, then we're never going to grow. We've got to be able to do that kind of stuff. Because God wants to use you and I to reach your neighbor, and reach your family members, and reach those people that you know, people he puts into your life. You and I are a mute witness if we can't talk to others about Jesus Christ. and not just be able to talk to them about the gospel, but share God's truths in a convincing, yet gracious manner, right? Look at Colossians 4, 6. It says, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. You know, God wants us to use graciousness as best we can, particularly when it's communicating the truths of God's word. And there's nothing more critical than knowing the plan of salvation. That is so important. Every Christian should be able to do that. Every Christian should be able to communicate their testimony to somebody, how God saved them, and how they in turn, the person they're talking to about their testimony, God can save them. Should be able to do that. Obviously, it's more than just the sales pitch. But we do need to know how we can share God's truth with others in a way that at least makes them think. You know, if we use harshness, rudeness, pride in the form of self-righteousness, we repel people from God. We will. And we don't want to do that. There was a missionary by the name of Eric Little. He's well known because he had been an Olympic runner. And there's a story behind him. But his race, I believe, was the 100-meter dash. But in the Paris Olympics years ago, they were going to run the 100-meter dash on Sunday. And it was his conviction. not to run on Sundays. And he stuck to it. And he ended up running the 400 and doing even better because God honored him on that. He went on to be a missionary over in China. But he made a good statement one time. He said, we are all missionaries. Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ or we repel them from Christ. Although, it's very cut and dry. We either are bringing people nearer to Jesus Christ or we're repelling them. Which one are we doing? The question is, what are we doing with our words, attitudes, and actions? Are we being persuasive in that regards? Secondly, we see the secrets. So what is the secret to persuasiveness? It comes back to understanding two motivations within the heart of every individual. When we're talking to people about a need, they need to know, number one, what will they gain from it if they do it? Or number two, what will they lose if they don't do it? That's basically the motivation of every person. What do I gain by doing it, and what do I lose if I don't do it? These questions must be answered that will, of course, drive a person to a decision. And if we're persuasive, hopefully the right decision, right? What will help us then be persuasive? How can we be an effective person when communicating gospel truth or biblical truth as it might be? Well, in order to do that, number one, we have to keep our conscience clear. We have to keep our conscience clear. Paul stated that he strove to keep a conscience clear with both God and men. If you go back to Acts 24 and verse 16, we see Paul speaking here. He says, and herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. He did everything he could to make sure he kept his heart right with God, and tried to keep his relationships right with men. Now, men may have not kept their relationships right with Paul, but Paul tried to keep everything right with others, the best that he could, I believe. You know, if we don't have a clear conscience, we won't be able to convince others about God's truths, because we'll end up being a living contradiction. Number two, we need to rely on the authority of the scriptures themselves. The basis of our argument is the validity of the word of God. The basis of all of our arguments, particularly when we're talking about spiritual things, is the validity of the word of God. God's Word is eternal truth and is the basis for all the Scriptures, or a basis for, again, all those arguments. A good example is Apollos. Go over to Acts 18, verse number 28. Here, Apollos, a very eloquent man who understood a lot of Scripture, was very persuasive, and he used the Scriptures as the basis of his arguments. Look at Acts 18 verse 28, and when he was disposed to pass into Akiai, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him, who when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace. Speaking of Apollos, for he mightily convinced, or persuaded if you would, the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. He used the scriptures. He banked his arguments upon the validity of the scriptures. And persuasiveness is based on the authority behind it. And God's word gives us all the authority we need. Hence, we must be students of the word and to learn how to skillfully use it. And the more we study it, the more we become acquainted with it, the better we can bring things out. And God will use that as a means of helping our persuasiveness. Being able to prove to people, hey, this is why we believe what we believe. This is what God's Word says. And that's why we stick to it. You know, that's why we go through a lot of Bible verses. I try to go through as much Bible verses as I can in an average message. Trying to persuade the audience to heed what the message is about. Basing it on the authority of the Scriptures. That's the way it should always be. Because there's no validity or there's no authority in my voice or my position outside of what the scriptures say. There's none. But in the scriptures we have all authority because it's bedrock truth that's never been broken. We have to learn to skillfully use the Word of God, and that takes time, that takes effort, but worth all of it, if we're gonna be persuasive. Number three, our personal testimony. Paul used his personal testimony in an effort to communicate the truth about salvation to King Agrippa, and if you go to Acts 26, verse 28, we see King Agrippa make a very famous statement, one that was turned into a song, Acts 26 verse 28, then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Paul gave a compelling argument. Talked about how God changed his life from the inside out. And Paul had quite a testimony. He couldn't argue with the change in his life. And it got to Agrippa to the point where he almost got persuaded, but he didn't. But the whole point was Paul was doing everything he could, and I believe back with the Spirit's power to persuade this man to turn to Christ. But when it comes to convincing others, our lives are more persuasive than our words. When it comes to the things of God, people have to hear and see how God has benefited us before they will be convinced to give him a try. If people see it hasn't helped us, they won't be convinced otherwise. We won't be able to persuade them. That's why it's so important we strive to keep a good testimony before others, lest we become a stumbling block to them. And it's important we tell others about how God has changed us and helped us. Our words combined with our actions are meant to work together to persuade others to say, so that people say, you know, there's something that that person has that I need. It's not because we're special, it's because it's the God in us that's special. And that's what we're trying to do. But our personal testimony makes such a big difference. Number four, we need to appeal to the conscience. One thing I've learned is that I can't use worldly arguments to argue somebody into salvation or even argue somebody to live righteously. as much as I need to appeal to the conscience. You know, one of the most appealing questions you can ever ask somebody that has a direct shot on the conscience or the heart is this question. If you died today, are you 100% sure you would go to heaven? I remember when that question was asked me years ago, and that spoke to my conscience, because I was forced to seriously consider my eternity for the first time, where I truly stood there. And when that gentleman asked me that question that one time, It really, I don't know, I don't want to use the word shook me, but it really kind of like, well, I've never really thought about that before. But boy, don't I need to. Because I couldn't say yes, but what person in their right mind wants to say no and say, oh, yeah, I'm on the road to hell. Nobody does. But when we're trying to persuade people, we've got to use questions that are compassionately given to make folks think. Or even questions about their purpose in life. How do you think he got here? I don't know, the teacher said that I had evolved from a monkey. Okay, well, if you're just an evolved person that you just happen to be at a good time of the evolution process, if you will. So you're just saying you're just pretty much an accident. That your life really has no purpose other than the gratification of yourself. A lot of people don't think about that kind of stuff. But it's good to give people those kinds of questions. How'd you get here? Where are you going when you die? What's your life's purpose? What's the purpose of your existence? People really need to think about that kind of stuff. They somewhat do. You can ask them their purpose, and, oh, it's to do this or do that. How's it doing for you? Are you fulfilled? Many people aren't, if they're honest. Some will say, oh yeah, absolutely. But deep down, You know, there's fears, there's things down there. If you can get to know people, they'll open up more. I've had people opened up to me on the doorsteps. People I didn't even know, they don't know me. I just ask them some of those questions and they'll just, you know, never thought about that before. They'll start talking to me about, How, yeah, years ago I used to go to church, but I don't anymore because this reason, that reason, whatever. You know, I've had a lot of interesting conversations over the years. And I believe that God allows me to go there. And even if, I guess, they don't show up in church, that's between them and God. But at least I can be faithful doing that. But when we're trying to be persuasive, it's good to touch the conscience. Try to touch it, at least, in some regards. And if you get to know them, if you get to know a person better, especially if you know somebody that you know well, maybe it's a relative or a friend or whatever, we can even begin to ask some personal questions, in a way, if we have that kind of relationship with others, about past failures that lead them to consider their ways. How do you feel about those past choices? I mean, again, you have to have a good relationship with somebody to go there, to be able to do that. But I mean, getting in there and saying, hey, there is a better way. There is a better way. Number five, I've kind of mentioned already a little bit, but I wanna expound a little more about the fact that we, the secret to being persuasive is the use of gracious words again. We saw Colossians 4, 6, Ecclesiastes 10, 12 says, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow up himself. The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, gracious. The reason we're trying to persuade somebody about something should be to help them see the great benefit they'll have in listening and heeding to what we say. And our words and the spirit that they perceive behind them will communicate whether we truly care about them or not. The spirit in which we communicate It really makes a difference. And it's how the listener perceives, not what we say we're trying to be. And that's important that we understand that. Now, I understand sometimes you can be gracious and it still doesn't go well, but hey, look, We've got to remember it's the spirit behind what we communicate. If you're like me, you've made that mistake. But my goal is to get better at it. Because when we don't use gracious words and we use harsh words, it really communicates, again, rejection. Rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection. Even if it's truth. I'll give him truth, bless God. Yeah. Stuck him, right? I'm sure we've all stuck him every once in a while. But that, we've gotta try our best not to do that. Truth not delivered with love will repel. Love without truth is nauseating. Truth with love. we'll get the job done. And it may be sometimes we lose the persuasive argument just simply because the way we're communicating is anything but gracious. And our listeners are hearing us be self-righteous when they themselves could point out many flaws within us. Graciousness. You know, Jesus, when he got out of the, out of the wilderness, you know, he was in the wilderness before he started his ministry for 40 days. He came back to his hometown of Nazareth. I've been to Nazareth a few times. And there he was, he went into a synagogue. If you remember the story. And he got up and he preached his first message, so to say, in his new ministry. And there's something that is said about that message in Luke 4.22. It says here, and all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? Gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. He was very gracious. He was very persuasive. And despite that, at the end of the story, they still wanted to throw him headlong over. But he escaped that and went on. But he used gracious words when he was communicating the truth of the Word of God. Because he wanted to communicate, through the way he said things, that he did truly care about their eternity. He cared about their spiritual understanding. He wanted them to turn to him. And they end up turning their back on him, but he still used the right kind of words, right? Contentious words never communicate concern as much as they do, again, rejection. Rejection. And if there is somebody in our life that is rejecting the truth we're giving them, maybe we need to step back and look at the way I'm communicating that truth. Because sometimes that's the problem. Sometimes that's the big time problem. And sometimes it is their rebellion too. But maybe it wouldn't hurt to step back and take a look. Okay, am I being more contentious? Am I trying to get them to stop because I'm being annoyed? Or the way they're acting is hurting my image to other people? You want to know the secret to persuasiveness is graciousness. Out of all the other ones, I think this is probably the biggest secret behind it. How can I have gracious words? Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Because the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. Variance and all these negative, angry things. Right? Hey, look, if we want to persuade for God's cause, these five things will help us as we craft our words so that we effectively rationalize with others their need to respond to what we're trying to communicate to them. the secrets. Thirdly, let's talk about the success. When we are persuasive in our speech, we can be successful, be a successful servant for God's sake. Paul is a great example. His persuasion amounted to many people getting saved and serving the Lord. In fact, go to Acts 19. This was the testimony of the heathen in this case. Acts 19, And verse 26, as a result of Paul's persuasions, says here, Moreover, you see in here that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath, notice, persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with hands. Paul persuaded. He persuaded. Paul could do that because he genuinely cared about the eternal well-being of others and used convincing arguments from the scriptures, coupled with a sanctified, spirit-filled life. And when people perceive that what we are trying to persuade them to do is in their best interest, and it comes across from a genuine heart of concern, we'll play a part in seeing them respond to God. much like Paul did, which will abound the spiritual fruits to our account, which is only a benefit to us in the end. Again, a contentious spirit never accomplishes that. It never does. Say why? Because at the core of that contentious spirit is anger and pride. And James 1.20 rings true. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And through personal experience, I know that just doesn't work as much as we may even feel justified at times. It just never accomplishes what we think it will in the end. May God help us tonight to grow in our ability to compassionately, rationally, and thoughtfully be people who God can use to persuade others to follow the ways of God. And when we do, everyone wins.