All right, this is session four, the last session of this Discovering Spiritual Maturity. So we began by talking about the habit of fellowship. And I just wanna say one introductory word. So Randy and I talked about this a long time ago, and he's been in other churches, and I've been in other churches, and known of many. And so one of the things that happens in a church is that Satan brings some people in to divide the fellowship and get us in different groups and so forth. And 1 Corinthians 11 said, you know, I heard that there must be divisions among you, schisms. And he said, and I'm paraphrasing, I'm inclined to believe it. So God does this so that the dokimoi, the approved, may be manifest. And evil men have crept in unaware in Jude verse 3. And Acts chapter 20, wolves will come in even among your own flock, but even among the elders. There's no immunity being an elder that you can't get taken by Satan. Without church discipline, these people remain in the flock. You say, well, what's the harm of that? Well, the biggest harm is the fellowship is broken. And so when Randy and I are in conversations about this, when the fellowship is not what it's supposed to be, it affects every area of the church, period. And much of your energy is directed towards that rather than the things it ought to be. So if you ever notice anything, if you've been here through church discipline, if there's this division, there's these schisms, there's things going on, it's kind of draining and distracting, when you have church discipline, it's over. The fellowship's there. We get 100% focused on what we ought to be. You see, people get it backwards. They think, well, we need to focus more on this and not on that. No, no, get that out, and then you won't focus there, and all your energy will go back. So everything, when Randy and I would talk about this, we see everything is hinging on the fellowship in the church. That's what allows us to do what we do. And when that's breached, that is Satan's way of crippling us in focusing on and being what God wants to be. So this is really important. So it begins, the first PowerPoint there, what is fellowship? Fellowship, and the word is koinonia, and it means communion, partnership, to share in something. In the New Testament, it speaks of a believer's relationship with Jesus. So our fellowship, our communion, with Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1.9, God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship, into communion with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, if you skip down to where it says second, or I guess the PowerPoint will show you this, second, fellowship among Christians speaks of our relationships with other believers. So we have fellowship with Christ speaks of our relationship with Christ, but fellowship with, and our relationship speaks about other believers. So all fellowship among Christians is based upon the fellowship that we have through Christ. In other words, you can't have fellowship with someone, a person that doesn't have fellowship with Christ. You may have a relationship, you may be blood kin, you may have both like to do some of the same thing, but you cannot have fellowship. So this is portrayed clearly in 1 John 1, 3. What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So you can have fellowship with us because we have fellowship with the Son and the Father, you see. So MacArthur sums this up quite well. Anybody in fellowship with Jesus Christ is also in fellowship with anybody else in fellowship with Jesus Christ. This is our common ground. So that's what we're talking about, the fellowship, the common ground that we have, that binds us together. It is not social. It is not economic. or intellectual, or cosmetic, or anything else superficial. Our common ground is that we possess a common eternal life and are children of the same family, that's it. So we may have, this is why a church can be made up of, and most ordinarily is, different ages, male and female. different backgrounds, different educational levels, different upbringings, different customs. Just, I mean, we're just a hodgepodge. That's all it is. If you, when we listen to one another share something about their testimony or their life or something, we're all just kind of amazed. Because here that person sits and yet we're so different. So it's not what binds us is that we like to hunt together or fish together or shop together or we have these common things we like to do. It is our commonality in Jesus Christ. And that has to be maintained in our mind. So some of the closest relationships you might have, you have nothing in common as far as what you enjoy going to do, activities. One of you likes to go to the movies, the other one doesn't. But it's this bond in Christ. So a church can be such a socioeconomic, educational, age, marital status, racial, male-female mix, and yet we can walk in Christ. When we fellowship with other believers, we are sharing our spiritual life. So if you notice, socializing is sharing common things of human life. That's what socializing is. earthly life. Nothing wrong with it, but that's what it is. Whereas fellowship involves sharing of spiritual life. You see the difference? And therefore, you cannot, it's not that it's hard or difficult, you cannot have fellowship with an unbeliever. And when we try, we usually end up desacralizing fellowship and we make it just social. So we have to be very careful. A lost person could be in our church, we cannot have fellowship with them. We can be nice, we can have some things we enjoy together and like about each other, but we cannot have fellowship. So it's a sharing of a spiritual life. Fellowship always takes place in the context of socializing, but not all socializing is fellowship. So socializing is just two people getting together, but earthly would be talking about the things we have in common as humans in this life. Spiritual, out of that, would be things we have in common because we have fellowship with Christ. So it's always socializing in the sense you're getting together with someone else or more. The church too often substitutes socializing for fellowship. Again, up here on the PowerPoint. Then at the end of the day, having merely socialized, we think we've had fellowship. Only Christians can have the rich banquet of koinonia. But too often we settle for little more than fast food, the fast food kind of socializing, which even the world can experience. If the world can experience it, it's not fellowship. So you understand the problem if you make your church the home of all these lost people. And again, it's not that we don't want to reach them, it's not that we don't want to be welcoming and everything, but if you make that the priority in what the church is about, if that's the way you define it, then you can't really have fellowship. Your fellowship will always be disjointed. So, fellowship can happen And this is really a great statement on this. Some of this on fellowship is so good to have because we began to look at it too narrowly or too broadly. And what this section does is kind of keeps you where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. So fellowship can happen simply by two or more believers in Christ talking to each other. because we're sharing things that we have in common. From their knowledge and experience with God and his word. So remember, a lost person can't have that. So two people are just talking about what God did in their life this week, or they were praying this. That's fellowshipping. It can happen almost anywhere at almost any time, and that's another thing to remember. So you can look at your life and you can say, did I have any fellowship this week? Well, I did at church, but I did also at that meeting the other day with those two Christians that I got to talk about, and I had fellowship with my children. We didn't just talk about that they weren't eating their black-eyed peas, but we actually talked about spiritual things, you see. So you can start looking at the places, and you could have fellowship a lot of times during the course of the week with your children, with your family, with your friends. You can have fellowship on the phone. anywhere, anytime. A type of fellowship occurs when Christians listen together as God has revealed through his word preached. Now, many people I have had say to me, they say this to me, well, you know, and we love the preaching, but we want to have fellowship. That tells me, number one, they don't understand fellowship. When we are sitting together, and listening because we have this common koinonia with Christ. We are fellowshipping with Him and each other as we grow. I time a fellowship. Koinonia takes place when believers pray with each other. Yeah, we had a prayer time and then we fellowshiped. Really? You mean praying, something that only believers can do, wasn't fellowship? So you have to understand there's different kinds, different depths, different levels, but all of these things are different, but they are and should be fellowship. So praying So you could get in a room, so last Sunday we prayed, and we did it different ways, but in here, sometimes you were praying with two people, then three or four or five people, and we just did different things, but you know what was common to all of them? We were all fellowshipping, and by the way, we were all fellowshiping in this room, because we were all requesting of our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ certain things. We're the only ones that can do that. So you have to think of prayer is prayer and it's fellowship. If you're alone, you're fellowshipping with God. If you're with others, you are fellowshiping with them. Fellowship should always grow in the soil of a small group Bible study. So one of the main reasons you have a small group Bible study, it is to teach, but it is get to people who have an infinity gravitation to one another. Maybe they like the topics. Different things arrange us in there, but fellowship should grow out of that. In other words, there's no reason why you're in a group of 10 people And that's your Bible study group, your campus group, Sunday school, home group, whatever you want to call it. But out of that, one person can be impressed, ask this person, hey, why don't we get together for lunch or coffee and talk? And then that may even become another level of spiritual fellowship within the fellowship, you see? So these are not exclusive. So we can fellowship as a church as we are doing right now. But there were smaller groups before we met. And there were other groups this morning. And then after it's over, some of you may get into a fellowship that only two or three of you are in. This is constantly going on when believers are with other believers. And if they're alone, it is with God. So the fifth thing is fellowship is intentional and should result in spiritual growth. And so when you're fellowshipping with other people, one of the things that should happen is spiritual growth. And sometimes we don't say it. But if you're with people, and this is one of the blessed things of being in groups that are different ages, different backgrounds, different experiences, and so forth, because sometimes when you're sharing something, yeah, you know, we went through that as a couple, and what we were able to do, well, somebody may be in that group fellowshipping with you, and you're sharing this thing about what you did spiritually. They're going through it, and no one knows. but they're getting great help in growing spiritually. Sometimes if you haven't prayed much and you get around people that have, you grow spiritually by learning, by observation. I mean, prayer is really a It really is a pretty simple thing, but it's very scary at the beginning. And I remember when I got saved, if they would have called on me to pray, I mean, I'd have run on top of the roof and hung from the steeple. It would have been so scary. But it's really just, it's just real simple. And this is why we always let our children, we never formulated their prayers, we let them. And I think they pray some of the greatest prayers when you're listening to them, of things that they say. And that's all it is, is us talking with God and fellowshipping with other people. So it goes on, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaken the unassembling together. So there's always been the problem of Christians who didn't go to church, and not just non-Christians, but Christians who didn't, and because they were not concerned about the spiritual growth of other people. That's a primary reason we go to church, is we're concerned about the spiritual growth of other people, the spiritual well-being. So he says, consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking the assembling together, as is the habit of some, always has been, but encouraging one another. You can't encourage one another unless you're there, and there's a one another verse. and all the more as you see the day drawing near. So in discouraging, really discouraging times, we need to be encouraged spiritually all the more. So there's several one-anothers here, and these happen in community. They happen in the local church. They happen as we are fellowshipping. So just notice some of them. So that one, don't forsake the assembling with one another, but encouraging one another. Love one another, John 13. Admonish and encourage one another, Romans 15 and Hebrews. Be devoted to one another. Be devoted to their growth, their life. bearing their hurts with them, listening, all of those things. Speak truth to one another. Rejoice with one another. Weep with one another. Sometimes you have some really good news you want to share, and you share it with somebody, and they go, hmm. So did you see the weather, what it's going to be tomorrow? Why do people do that? It's the weirdest thing. Rejoice with them. Be thankful with them for them. And we weep with one another. Yeah, I just lost my brother and so it's a pretty hard time. It really, I know, I went through that and then we talk about ourself. It's okay to relate that I've lost my brother too. I know it hurts sometimes. And then get back to them. But you see, we're sharing in that. We're fellowshipping in those things. Greet one another with holy greetings. Pray for one another. That's James 5.16. So we go to the elders, we pray and everything. But also, if you'll notice in that passage, hey, pray for one another. And that's a constant thing. So when somebody asks you to pray, pray. again you can do it any way you want but I learned through the years I was forgetting to pray because I get asked to pray a lot and I was forgetting and I would walk off with the greatest intentions and my mind goes blank. I go into another world when I walk away and so I just pray right then. And so, like I said on the internet, it's very easy, praying, and I'm not saying they're not praying, but you see it all the time, praying, I'll pray for you. And that's okay if you do it. But I stop and pray, if I'm gonna say it, I stop and pray right then. Just heard of a, at Truett McConnell, Barry McCarty, whom I've known for many years, he was sharing that a couple there, they got married three months ago, and they were in a car wreck, and his bride was killed. They were married three months. And just a tragic situation. So he coveted our prayers, so I just prayed then for him. He'd be preaching the funeral for that, for everything. And then I said, I just prayed for all of you. So some way, we need to be praying for one another. Whatever works for you. But we need to take serious when somebody asks us for prayer, and we need to be also, according to that, pray for one another, that they would ask us, but we would ask them to pray for us as well. And seek after that which is good for one another, forbear one another. We all have these idiosyncrasies. We have things we do that can rub somebody wrong or et cetera, et cetera. We're just forbearing with one another. Some people don't grow as spiritually fast. Some people go forward two feet and back up two and a quarter feet, and then the next time, and it's just this, and we watch them for years. Just be forbearing, meaning don't turn against them. Love them, pray for them. live in harmony with one another, don't judge one another, accept one another, and on and on. And so there are many other one another's, but these are really beautiful. So seven basic heart attitudes which foster fellowship. I'll put the goals and interest of others above my own. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but for the interest of others. So Philippians was a great church, but there was a little division in the church. And so he dealt with that in verse 1 through 5 of Philippians chapter 2. The second principle is, I will live honest, open before others. Therefore, laying aside all falsehoods, speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. And so just being honest. Third, I will give and receive correction within spiritual limits, but encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called a day so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So we all need some correction occasionally. And that's one of the things, a little bit difficult at times, but that's one of the things that happens in marriage. is that we're faced with what we've done, and we have to deal with it. May have been said we were wrong, and we really weren't, but many times we were, and so you have to face it. Same thing in a church. Number four, clear up troubled relationships, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. It's a great verse on what Christ did, but on relationships. So we forgive. How do I forgive this person as Christ has forgiven me? No strings, no limit, over and over and over. That's how you do it. And look, you can have vertical and horizontal forgiveness. So Horizontal forgiveness, we're not to walk with unforgiveness in our heart. So we need to have vertical forgiveness all the time. But horizontal, this is towards God, horizontal is towards the person. So that's the personal relationship. So the relationship has become estranged, there are problems in it, and this person has not repented. So you don't forgive them on the horizontal because you can't reestablish the relationship because they're unrepentant. And people say, well, just the grace of the gospel. No, no, that's not the gospel. There has to be repentance. But you can do it on a vertical. This is what Jesus had. He forgave them vertically. And he could say, honestly, God forgive them because they don't know what they're doing. But notice, they were not forgiven until they repented. So I can have somebody who hurts me and take it to God, and I can get forgiveness in my heart with God so that I have no unforgiveness in my heart. And I would love that relationship to be restored, but it'll never be like it was until there is repentance. So that relationship may never be restored. But I don't have unforgiveness in my heart between God and I." That's how you walk with God in the midst of having lost a relationship. Number five, I will participate in the ministry of the church as each one has received a special gift, employ it, serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. So we have a gift and we participate in serving and fellowship by serving other people. Again, when you're serving other people, you are in fellowship with them if they are believers. Number six, I will support the ministry of my church, contributing to the needs of the saints. So when we're giving, there is a fellowship going on between us and Christ. We're also joining ourselves with those who are in communion with Christ in the endeavor of that local church and ministry. Number seven, I will follow the spiritual leadership within scriptural limits and make it a joy to them. Obey your leaders, submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls. As those who will give an account, let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. So there can come a time that the leaders are carrying so much grief of something that they do what they're supposed to do. They're still being faithful with God, but there's no joy because of what's going on in the fellowship, what's happened, and so it becomes unprofitable for the people that they serve. So three steps of connecting with the church. This is so simple, it's very good. Number one, you gotta attend the main meetings. So that's part of it. because this is a church gathering. Number two, join a small group that meets regularly for fellowship, prayer, and Bible study. So that's an essential element. So we don't see it as that you can come to the large group and not be involved of a smaller group and grow to the spiritual level that God wants you to be. Nor can you get there by not serving. Nor can you get there by not, you see, there's several things, and this is one of them, being in a small group. Third, participate in a ministry for which you have a passion. And this is essential, this is how you serve one another. You don't have to figure out your spiritual gift before you serve, and we'll talk more about this. You just start serving, do something, and you may discover in that that either God has really gifted you in this area, spiritually and naturally maybe, but also you just have a passion for it. And if you have a passion for it, nobody's gonna have to bug you every week to be there to do it. Things will get in your way and you'll move them because you want to do that. So it's the passion. Now this is the habit of sharing your faith. And so, 1 Peter 3.15, most of us know, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense. The word defense is the Greek word apologia. That's where we get the word we use, apologetics. Okay? So this is a great example of it. So defense, to make apologia. To everyone who asks you to give an account, so explain to me, why do you have hope in Christ?" Notice it's a why question. Ask you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. And I think my understanding of this is the gentleness is towards the person and the reverence is towards God. So we're making a defense of why? And we're gentle towards the person, regardless if they are or not. And we are reverent toward God. We're taking it serious, what we're doing. So every day we talk about all kinds of things, work, family, weather, on and on and on. And in Norman, sometimes it's a little important to talk about the weather. I have learned that, more important than it was in Arkansas. But I mean, we talk about a lot of things, where we've gone, where we're going. what our kids are doing. So that's the way that sharing our faith can be. You only talk about those things with the people that it's appropriate, and the same with your faith and the same way you approach it. So we're called to serve and commanded to share our faith. Number one, the requirements for telling someone about Jesus, and I'm just going to tell you, but you're going to see three levels, or actually four levels in my estimation. There's sharing a witness, there's sharing the gospel, and there's apologetics. And somewhere either right after apologetics or in between the gospel and apologetics, there's just teaching truth. So you could be talking about the family, you're helping them to know a biblical budget, you're helping them to know a biblical view of work, a biblical view of government. So you see there's really these four areas that we're engaging them with the truth. So in sharing a testimony, it is what you have personally experienced in salvation through faith in Christ. That's all your testimony is. And by the way, that's a common word that's used, and it is the word martyros, from which we get martyr, because many of them that identified what Christ did in their life died for that. Anybody who knows Jesus can share their testimony. If they cannot, they don't know Jesus. All you're doing is telling what happened. So why are you a Christian? I don't know, one day this happened, and you just tell them. That's all it is. You don't have to know any Bible. You don't have to know anything. A testimony doesn't have to have extra things. It is what happened to you. Think of it as a human interest story. And by the way, many people will listen to your testimony that are hostile to Christianity. Well, let me just share what happened. So, well, you know, my daughter was in a car wreck. All of a sudden, people are listening. It's a human interest story. And they love to cover these in the news because they're about humans going through things. That's all your testimony is. Yeah, I grew up and I didn't believe in Christ, but one day somebody was talking, if I can share that with you, and you share your testimony. So the moment you get saved, 10 minutes later, somebody could knock on your door and you could share your testimony. If you think your testimony is more than that, you need to back up. It's what Christ has done in you, how you got there. And he can say, well, I don't believe that. Well, it's OK. I'm telling you what happened to me. You are excited. You want others to know what you have. So we don't share our experience. I've never shared my experience of being a multimulti-billionaire. I've just never shared that. And I'm probably not, as far as I can tell. And that's because I'm not one, you see. We don't share the experience we have if we're not that, but we are Christians. So the requirement for being believed when you witness, witness is a word, testimony witness is the word that's translated from that, martyros, and it just means witnessing about what happened to you, sharing a testimony. Live a life that reflects what you talk about. So your life doesn't replace your testimony. You have to tell them something. But when you tell them, what will give that credibility is your life. If your life changed when you got saved or your life is different than the person down the street because you say you follow Christ, that gives credibility to what you say. Number two, requirement for being believed when you witness. Oh, I'm sorry. That's the life about reflects what you're talking about. The third thing is five ways of sharing your faith. So this is witnessing. So we're still talking about witnessing. We're talking about sharing your testimony. We'll expand it in a moment, but this is what you have to know to do. Sharing your testimony is telling what Christ has done and is doing in your life. You know, you could say, you know, my brother, he's always been there for me, and even now, he helped. You see, you don't have to know anything except what you experience from what your brother is doing in your life. So that's the way it is. So witnessing, you share your testimony, you tell them what Christ has done. Some skills, and so this will be very helpful to you if you'll take the time to practice, even stand in front of a mirror, time yourself. Learn to share your testimony in five minutes. So cover it in five minutes. Once you learn to do that, learn to do it in two minutes. And then figure out how to do it in one minute. And here's why. Because you're wanting to be able to share your testimony in all kinds of situations, and sometimes you're sitting at a break table and you've got a 30-minute break, and 22 minutes is gone, but you have about five minutes to talk. But there are other times there's only two minutes. You have to figure out what you need to get across. Sometimes it's one minute. That you've run into somebody, there's an encounter, and the way things are, you have one minute to tell them what Christ has done in your life. And if you go into your Aunt Nancy, she's twice removed, she lived really down the road, it's over. And don't ever bring up Aunt Nancy when she's removed like that. So you have to, what you're doing is five minutes, two minutes, One minute, what is essential to tell them about your testimony? And this will help you have more courage, be able to accomplish what you want to when you get in those situations. It's like memorizing a verse. It's like reading a passage over and over. You're trying to get it in you so that it's deep. Well, same thing here. Just get this in you. Rarely you're going to have 30 minutes, but I used to train people in Arkansas. They had a state ministry where people, lay people, went into churches and shared their testimony at Lay Renewal Weekend. You may have heard about it. And so I was involved in some of the training on a state level with them. And it's very different. It's a very, very different approach So if you have one minute, two minutes, five minutes, pretty laid back, you're in this personal thing. But when you get up in front of people and you have 15 to 30 minutes, it's a totally different ballgame. And you have to do things a certain way. So you have to take that serious. So if you get an opportunity to share your testimony in front of a group, You need to talk to somebody who knows something about that if you want it to be as effective as it can be. Here's three components, though, that need to be in your one minute, two minute, five minute, but also a 30 minute. Number one, pre-salvation. So who were you before you got saved? I grew up in Oklahoma as one of five children. I was the youngest. my family was Christians or weren't. Just something, because you may share something, and especially is this true when you're before a lot of people, that even in that 30 seconds, I grew up in Oklahoma, I've been here all my life, my parents were divorced, and I don't see my siblings much anymore, but there were five of us. You may have connected with 10, 20, 30, 40 people just doing that because they grew up in Oklahoma. Their family went divorced. They're divorced, and they want to know how does a child come through that divorce, you see. And siblings, we get estranged. and there's somebody sitting out there that's going through that. You see, so you just, some of these little bitty things, you're connecting, but they need to know who you are, a little bit, don't go long. Second thing is, especially in that one minute one, the second thing is your salvation experience. So you talked about who you were prior to, now you're gonna talk about the actual experience. And what led me to Christ was this guy at work witnessed to me one day, and I began to understand, and he shared some verses with me, and I just felt like I wanted to pray and receive Christ and become a follower of Christ, and it's that simple. You just shared what transpired in that time. And the third thing is, how has it been since? So they need to know, If you got saved a year ago or five years ago or six months, but particularly you've been saved for 20 years, okay, before, okay, I know who you are. I know that you got saved, but has it made any difference? And so I want to tell you, my whole life changed. And I began to learn to view work different. I began to view other people. My marriage was going through very troubled times. I don't think we would have made it, but when I got saved, my wife got saved a year later, and we've just pointed our life towards Christ, and it's increased the love in our marriage and forgiven. You see, that person's now listening a little more. So you have to have these three components. It's very simple, but it makes sense, doesn't it? You wanna know who they are, how'd they get saved, and what's happened? Did it do anything? So this is another level. This isn't testimony and witnessing. It can be intertwined. I'm not trying to draw a hard line. I'm just saying so that you distinguish between them. Evangelizing is to share the gospel, euangelion. Now you need to know the gospel. In witnessing, you just need to know what happened to you. Now you need to know the gospel, and again, you can blend these two. So explain the gospel, sharing scriptures that convey the gospel. Now look, there are several great tools, and people gravitate to one or another, and that's okay. So somebody will recommend one of these to you, another person, another one. They may recommend other tools that are out there, but the truth is, we have some really good tools to help you. and you can take any of them and use them. They only need to talk about a few things. Number one, something about creation. God created us, we were without sin. Then there's sin that we can't do anything about. And then what Jesus did to take care of that problem. And then how do we avail ourselves to that? You see, as long as they do that, so the death, burial, and resurrection, So they do it in little different ways, and you can become pretty persnickety about them and everything, but they're just tools to help us. Then, at some point, you'll become eclectic, that you'll draw from this, from this, from this, you'll like this verse better, you'll use this, and then in that, what you find is if you talk to people very often about their faith, or about knowing Christ, you may find they're at different places of lostness, maybe. Their understanding is different, things like that. So I remember witnessing to different people. I witnessed to a Zionist. Well, where you start with a Zionist, you do have to know a little bit about Zionism. I'm just saying that person's different than maybe talking to somebody that's been in church and not hostile to church, but somebody that was hurt in church is different. So the parts that you're going to bring, you might start at a different place with this person than you did the last word, but that's okay. And you can use these tracks that way. You can actually start here and back up. They're just tools and they're very helpful and we are blessed with several, more than these even. Speaking the truth in love. So that's the gospel and the testimony to think, speaking the truth in love, sharing the mind of God on the topic of conversation. So this is where I was talking about that you you know more of the Bible. You're always learning the Bible to grow in Christ, but you're always learning to be able to engage people with truth because they're in deception. So this can be about government, economics. It can be about family. They can have a wrong view of what marriage is, wrong view of child-rearing or being a child or being a parent. their work ethic, all these things, you can engage them with the truth of Scripture. So you can see in your testimony, you don't need to know anything but what happened to you. And the gospel, you just need to know basically a track and be able to communicate that. And by the way, if they raise a question, that you don't know the answer, instead of letting that cause fear in you not to engage people, because if you engage people, they will, at some point, ask you a question you do not know the answer to. It is going to happen. So that's one of the reasons people don't engage. You know, I'm just afraid they're really smart. I mean, they got a good background and everything. They're going to ask me something and I don't know the answer. And here's what I say when somebody asks you a question that you don't know the answer. Don't do this outwardly. Do it inside. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I've been asked a question that I don't know the answer to. Hallelujah. Thank you, God. Praise you, God, for that question and that I don't know the answer. That's quite different than, well, I'm just afraid I'm not going to know the answer. No, you want to not know the answer. I'm not saying be intentionally dumb, but there are going to be questions. You know why? Because what just happened is, you know what? That's a great question you ask, and I'm sorry, but I don't know the answer. If you'd give me this week, I'll try to find out what the answer is. And can I get back with you on that? You see, they just set up your second meeting. Yeah. Plus, you showed them you listened to them. Plus, you showed them you value their question. Do you know what it makes people feel like when they ask a question and you say, that's a great question. I don't know the answer, but I'm going to get it because that is a good question. Your relationship with that person just got tighter. And then you have the second meeting. If it happens again, same internal celebration, don't make it external. That's another good question. Could we just maybe just have coffee each week and talk or whatever it may be? You see, being asked a question you don't know the answer is really a good thing from assuring of the truth of them. So the truth of God on a topic is about all kinds of events, and you have to learn to be sensitive when you're talking about evolution. You're talking about politics, you're talking about government, you're talking about economics. To be sensitive to see the place that you can go into the gospel are your testimony. And I've mentioned many times in Roundtable, this is one of the things I'm watching, because they're dealing with a subject and I want them to deal with it, but when someone asks a question that indicates that there's an opportunity to share the gospel, I want that presenter to sense that, drop the subject, and go to sharing the gospel. But you have to be sensitive, and it happens. It happens all the time in politics, economics, whatever it is. Family, yeah, my family's not doing very well. You understand in that when you help them, there's going to be a great opportunity to share the truth of gospel. You understand that, to share your witness because we've all experienced problems in our marriage. So there's that not we're better than them, but we're together, but we have an answer. And then the example, and it looks like I'm not going to make it, but I'm going to do as well as I can. Oh, and I have to give you a couple of minutes. So, uh, so I'm not going to make it, but you do have all of these. I apologize. So, but you have to have an example. You live the life that is consistent with what you say. And that corroborates what you're saying. Your example doesn't replace your sharing, it just gives credibility to it. And without credibility, the sharing is a vacuous horn. So apologetics, you're answering why. So I'll stop after this, but witnessing you share your testimony, all you need to know is Jesus. That's all you need to know. If your testimony is 50 seconds, that's all there is. You're just sharing what happened. That's all you know, really. The gospel, you just need to know two or three things, very basic. We have tracts. You can share that. You can teach them from the Word of God about things. You can talk on any subject. This takes more knowledge. Only go to the subjects that you know. You're gonna have learned something. Sometimes you'll learn something in church Sunday, and then you'll have an opportunity to share it that week. You can teach them on that subject. And apologetics. Apologetics is, so this is a easy way to remember this. When you are answering The what question, what do you believe? You are giving your testimony, you're giving the gospel, you're teaching from the scripture. When you answer the why question, you just shifted into apologetics. So we all do apologetics, all of us, if we're talking to anybody. So what do you believe? Well, I just believe Jesus, what he said, he's the only way. Why do you believe that? You understand you just shifted gears. They no longer want to know what you believe, they want to know why. What is your defense of that what?