Hadi Amsina Moja, Soma Yowana. Tena Siku Yapili Yake Yowana Alikua Amis Mama Pomodia Nawawili Katika Wanafunzi Wake. Akam Tazama Yesu Akitembea Akasema Tazama Mwana Kondo Wa Mungu Wale Wanafunzi Wawili Wakamskia Akinena Wakamfuata Yesu. Yesu Aligeuka Akawahona Waki Mfwata akawambia mnatafuta nini? Waka mambia rabii? Maana yake ni mualimu? Una kaa wapi? Akawambia njoni? Nami mtaona? Njoni na nani mtaona? Waka enda? Wakaona akapo? On that day, at around 10 o'clock, Andrea, her brother Simon Petro, was one of the two who heard Johanna calling out to Jesus. He saw Simon, his brother, and said to him, We have seen him, Christ. He took him to Jesus, and Jesus said to him, You are Simon, the son of John, and your name is Kepha. Your name is Peter. for three. and Moses at Torah, and the prophets, Jesus and Joseph, the man of Nazareth. And Daniel said to him, Can you come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Behold, verse 47. So Jesus saw him, and Daniel came, He told him about his situation, and he said to him, you have to find me. Jesus answered him, he said to him, before Philip called you, you were under a tree, I saw you. And Daniel answered him, Rabbi, you are the man of God, you are the son of Israel. Jesus answered him, he told him, because I told you I saw you under a mountain. Amen. Our task in this session is to talk to you about personal evangelism. We ask that the Lord will put his blessing on the world as read. And that he will grant us faithfulness and clarity as we seek to communicate it to you. personal evangelism. Now there are about six points I wish to bring from this text. And in this session, I'd like to be very practical. But in opening let me just mention that personal evangelism needs to be understood in a slightly larger context otherwise the term I think may, might mislead some. Once you talked about, once you talk about personal evangelism, then there is an individualism that is unhealthy that might be read into that. And so I think I need to paint for you something of a context in which to understand the whole matter of personal evangelism. You remember in the last session I mentioned about four things that point to the nature of the local church. I mentioned that it's a converted community, committed community, I mentioned also that it is an accountable community. And lastly, that it is an authorized community. And I mentioned that God's purposes on earth. in unpacking his glory is connected with this institution called the church. So it is in the church that the manifold wisdom of God unfolds. The glory of God is connected with his church. And then I mentioned that there are certain activities which form components of this unfolding glory of God. Which activities become the express mandate of the church. And we can talk about many, but I try to summarize them into three broad categories. The church is called in a special way to minister to God. Through worship. So we gather many times to worship. That's our ministry to God. But the church has a duty to be the training ground for the army of God. The natural place where Christians grow in grace and are prepared for the ministry to live an effective Christian life. What many would call discipleship. And then the church is also called upon to minister to the world. Reach out to the unbelieving world. Now these are mandates that belong fundamentally to the church. So as Christians, when we participate in these activities, yes, it is we individuals participating in them, but we are participating in this as part of the church. And I'm saying that in order to make this point, but even when we talk about personal evangelism, I don't think it is entirely accurate to think of it as if it was something of an individual mandate. We are thinking more biblically. When we consider it as a task belonging to the church, I manage to belonging to the church. And therefore me as part of that local church, I participate therefore in evangelism. And that may be done either in terms of organized evangelistic drives along with others. But even when I'm doing it on my own, in my neighborhood on the road, which is what is meant here by personal evangelism. I'm still participating in the witness of my church. Just like when I live a holy life in my neighborhood, I am contributing to the witness positive witness of my church and i want us to understand even what we call here personal evangelism from that context and i'm not just saying that that is what we read in matthew 16 where we find the great commission given by our lord you don't find christ calling peter separately and then john separately and then uh another one separately then giving them this individual commission it was in the context of The whole team of the disciples, verse 16 we find. It is 11 disciples we are told. And then Christ sees them and then they worship him, verse 17. and then Christ comes to them and declares his authority. So he's talking to a collective body of men. It is to this body he now says in verse 19, God therefore and make disciples of and then as you make disciples baptize baptizing is a mandate of the church you see I'm going to subaptize them, you must be teaching them. To observe all. Now the teaching referred to here is not just in a seminar like this. Because in a seminar like this, we cannot teach you all. We take only eight subjects in two days and we are out of here. The only context in which Christians can be taught the whole counsel of God is in the local church. So, basically what I'm trying to show you here, is that even when you are doing evangelism somewhere on your own, You are still participating in the larger mandates of the church. Because this mandate belongs properly to the church. I need to make that point. That personal evangelism, when a Christian does evangelism in their own time, in their own neighborhood, even that is part of their meaningful participation in their local church. So if you're not doing personal evangelism, if you're not witnessing to sinners in your own time, and you're only a Christian when people are gathered together, then you are not participating meaningfully in the life of your local church. So that's the point I wanted to make. Personal evangelism is part and parcel of our meaningful participation in the life and ministry of our local church. Now having said that, let's get back to our text. The text of John chapter one. So six things I wish to point out to you here. Connected with the matter of personal evangelism. First of all, the primacy of personal evangelism. the important position that personal evangelism occupies. And what I wish to bring to you here is this. In the grand design of God, to build his kingdom by bringing men and women to saving Grace. Personal evangelism occupies a very important position. That form of evangelism where Christians who are associated with local churches take it upon themselves to talk to people around them Giving them the gospel. That is an important part of how Christ develops and builds his kingdom. And I think that comes out fairly clearly in our text. Because what we find in these verses is a record of the calling of the early disciples. The men who are going to walk with our Lord Christ for the next three and a half years or so. So we're going to see the calling of men like Andrew, Peter, Phillip, Nathaniel, Now these men became followers, disciples of Jesus. And in a sense we can call them converts. And we find a record of the calling of the first disciple. And it is not worthy, it is what It's supposed to be noted that these initial callings, and I think most of the other callings that will follow, arise predominantly out of individual efforts. Many of these people called by Christ, called by others to become disciples, were not called mostly in the context of a big evangelistic crusade. I dare say most of Christ's disciples, among the 12 came about to be disciples through some sort of individual personal effort at evangelism. Now look at how that plays out in the text. John the Baptist has been preaching and he now bears witness to Christ. In verse 35, After he has done his public ministry by the river Jordan, the following day he's just standing somewhere along the road along with his two of his disciples. We're not told here that he's in a formal meeting or a crusade. He is standing by the roadside with his two of his disciples. And then verse 36 says, as he looked at Jesus walking by, he says to his two disciples, behold the Lamb of God. So you see, it's a very informal setting. It is not an organized conference like this. It is not an evangelistic crusade where people have planned for 3, 4, 5 months. Just John having some time with his disciples as Christ says, Behold the Lamb of God. Personal evangelism. And then when the two disciples heard him say that, they followed Jesus. They followed Jesus. And Jesus turns around and sees them following him. He said, what are you seeking? And then of course the rest is history. But the point is the earliest disciples of Christ follow him as a result of John's personal initiative in his own time pointing them to Christ. Look at verse 40. One of the two who had had John speak and follow Jesus was Andrew. Simon Peter's brother. What happens in verse 41? Again, personal initiative. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah. And that is how Peter Simon came to be a disciple. In verse 42, Jesus acknowledged him as such. Look at verse 43 to 44. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he found Philip. Again, this is not a public meeting. Just Jesus going to Galilee and then somewhere along the way he finds Philip and he says to him, follow me. Again, personal initiative. Verse 45 and 46. Nathaniel, Philip, having been found by Christ, goes and finds one of his friends called Nathaniel. And again, on his own initiative, he tells Nathaniel, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of God. Now the spirit of inspiration in the Bible. never acts in vain never uses words needlessly so when something is repeated in scripture it is always for a purpose and we see here a pattern forming of disciples Disciples being gathered around Christ. And this gathering of disciples happens as a result of personal initiatives in evangelism. Now what this shows us therefore is this. underlies the prominent place of personal evangelism in the advance of the kingdom of Christ other than the regular preaching of Christ Sunday by Sunday from the pulpit Personal initiatives at evangelism. The most important method that God uses to gather people into his church and to advance his kingdom. We see the same thing, for example, in John 4 with the Samaritan woman. Jesus evangelizes her. And then she goes back into the city of Samaria. And she goes from place to place talking to people. And that is how the whole city of Samaria is turned upside down. I'm not denying the place of public evangelism and crusades and so on. but I'm showing you a pattern emerging of personal initiatives in evangelism and the great impact it has on the advancement and growth of the Kingdom of Christ. When Paul and his friends go to Philippi, And we are told that they make a habit of going by the riverside. Because there were some women there. And they just got to talk to those women. Evangelism again and again shows himself to be a prominent part of how Christ advances his kingdom. a kingdom. And if this is true, and I think it is, then personal initiatives in evangelism is an extremely important way in which God is going to grow local churches. We are always under this erroneous impression that our churches are going to go much more rapidly if we can bring the most prominent preacher from America, from Europe. a two-week evangelistic drive. Bring the entire Mumia town to a standstill. I'm not saying God cannot use that. He can and he has. But I'm saying that is not going to be the regular way in which God grows his church. How many of those crusades can you do in a day? How many of them can you organize in a year or even a month? Do you even have enough money to organize such every week? Personal evangelism we can do not just every day, we can do it almost every hour. This is the most natural way in which God is going to grow his kingdom and therefore how local churches are going to grow. So let me say this in application. If we care for the growth of the kingdom of Christ, if we are desirous to see our local churches grow, not only in grace but also in numbers. Every individual Christian must own the evangelistic mandate of the church. exercise that mandate wherever they are we must incorporate personal evangelism into our lives deliberately and consistently because that is the way you participate meaningfully in the life of your local church but also in the growth of the kingdom of The great priority of personal evangelism. The second thing I wish to show you again from the text is the simplicity of personal evangelism. Personal evangelism shouldn't be difficult. It should be simple, it should be easy. Again, the simplicity of it comes out clearly from our text. When John witnesses to his two disciples, realize that George was only the forerunner, the main man, the breadwinner is actually Christ. Andrew immediately becomes a disciple of Christ. We don't see him sit down and begin to think deeply. To begin to devise strategies. How can I make this Christ known? What programs do I need to put in place to make him known? You don't see AMRU or Philip, or anybody for that matter in the context, who then begins to say, who is going to support me with equipment in order for me to make Christ known? Which seminar on evangelism do I need to attend before I can begin to tell people about Christ? It's very simple. So John simply evangelized his disciples, those immediately close to him. Surely, he knows Jesus. John was the man who was mandated by God to point the world to Christ. To identify the Messiah for the world. So he's standing somewhere with his disciple. There is Christ. Now what methodology does he need? Nothing. He simply said, behold the Lamb of God. He just reaches to the people who providence has placed next to him. What about Andrew? Who is one of those two? As soon as he realizes that Christ is the man, we are told in verse 40, He immediately goes and finds his own brother. He is not cracking his brain. Where do I go? He simply goes to his brother. He says, Peter, I think we found the Messiah. Come, come, shake him out. Is that a difficult thing to do? No, no, it's not. He simply goes to his brother. And then Christ meets up with Philip in verse 43. And Philip goes back again. We are told in the same city that he was living with, and he finds one of his neighbors, probably his friend or his acquaintance, and he finds Nathaniel. He tells him the same simple story. and my point is this brothers and sisters very often we are paralyzed and we do not participate in personal evangelism because somehow we have convinced ourselves that this requires some special skills. As a special program put in place by the church. And we are waiting for that special program. We are waiting to be equipped with the special skills. It's much simpler than that. Much simpler than that. Now someone has described evangelism in this manner, that it is like one beggar, a poor beggar, who has found bread, and he goes up and meets up with another beggar, and he wants to show this beggar where he got bread. Okay, let's come to the Bible then. The story of the four lepers. In 2 Kings 7, the city of Samaria is besieged. And then God brings them into a miracle of food. And they're enjoying themselves eating to their fill. Struck by their consciences. They're made uncomfortable. You know what we're doing is not right. This is a day of good news. How can we simply enjoy this by ourselves? Let's go back to the city and tell others. Let me give you another example. Give you another example. Brother, Jeff here is my friend. I've known him a few years now. Okay, I've visited him, he's visited me. We preach together, he knows me, I know him. Now, Brother Mukenya there is also my friend. He has never met Jeff. He knows nothing of Jeff, Jeff knows nothing of him. And then we find ourselves in the same environment. Maybe we meet up at the road or something. I know Jeff, I know Mukenya. What is the first thing that I do? Oh, Jeff, meet Mukenya. What is so hard about that? You have come to know Jesus. You know that husband, that wife, that daughter, that mother, that brother, that friend, that neighbor. You know them. And they do not know Christ. What is easier than simply say, Oh brother, behold Christ. That's what you're doing. Or maybe look at it this way. You are walking along the road and something striking happens. Maybe an accident happened. Or a thief is being stolen. And whatever happened made such a strong impression on you. And then you walk and you arrive in your house. Do you not normally find yourself making that the first thing you tell the people there? Our side was coming here. This thief was being stoned all day, really stoned him. We tend to make... Big, make much of those things which have made the strongest impression on us. Here's my question. Have you met Christ? Have you? Has he made an impression on you at all? If you're a Christian, then the Christ you met has made a life transforming impression. Isn't that going to be the first subject you talk about with anybody you meet? It does not require technique. It does not require planning. It does not require an organized event. It is simply introducing someone to a frame you know that they don't like. So evangelism, personal evangelism is not complicated. It is revealed to us in the text as being fairly simple. But we complicate it because we think of it in different ways. So we've talked about its priority. We've now mentioned its simplicity. In the third place, let's talk about the message of personal evangelism. There is a clear and consistent message. And really, this is all you need. And if you have this, you can evangelize. Now this is pervasive in the text. So notice the message of evangelism. Verse 29. We go back a few verses. Verse 29. The next day he saw John, saw Jesus coming toward him. What does he say? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's the message. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. There's a message there concerning Christ. He is the Lamb of God. With all the implications and the ideas that pour into that phrase. There is a whole idea of sin. Why did this Lamb of God come to take away the sins of the world? It's a message of evangelism. And then behold, There's a challenge for people to look at him. But my point here is in verse 29 we realize and see Christ is the message of evangelism. In verse 36, again in his own personal time, John is standing with his two disciples. Does he give them a different message? No, it's the same message. Behold the Lamb of God. Now there is some kind of an ellipsis here. The previous one was much fuller. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Here it simply says behold the Lamb of God and you're supposed to assume the rest is also true. Christ and his work is a message. Look at verse 41. In verse 41 when Andrew comes to his brother Simon, what does he tell him? He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. So what's the difference? The difference between the Lamb of God and the Messiah and Christ, the message is the same. Look at verse 45 again. Philip now comes to talk to Nathanael. And what does he tell him? We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth. The message of evangelism is Christ. And the work he has come to do for sinners. In our text, it is fairly sketchy, but you notice there is a very consistent message. You don't find anyone of these people going to their friends and then beginning to start theological controversy. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Where did Cain get his wife? Trying to resolve the difficult theological questions. You know, also the problem with us, particularly the reformed people, mainly when we come into some of these truths, We begin to misdeploy them. You've discovered the error with tongues. And this is the only conversation you want to have with everybody. Can women be pastors or not? It's the only conversation you're willing to have. Now I'm not saying those are bad conversations to her we don't shy away from a good theological fight as part of defending the faith and sometimes as part of clarifying the gospel we are preaching but we've I'm going to be very, very clear of the message we want to bring to men. It is not that our theology is superior to your theology. It is not even that I've been to I've learned things now I can show you a few things. Paul speaks to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1.23, he says we preach Christ and Him crucified. 2 and verse 2, when we came to you we sought no nothing save Christ and Him crucified. Even in apologetics, defending the faith, Peter gives us the framework. In 2 Peter 3.15 he says, sanctify Christ in your heart and then be prepared to answer everyone. The priority is not the debates and the argument. The message of our evangelism is Christ. Now, of course, in order to arrive at Christ, we must tell people about why they need Christ. Show them about their sinfulness. To show them their sinfulness, we might need to introduce them to the law and the severities of the law. But always we are very clear in our message. We want to introduce these people to Christ. Everything else you do must become means to an end. Because sometimes you get lost in the heat of just loving a good debate. And we can win many of those debates. And really never come around to showing people the love of God in Christ. and how that love is demonstrated in the crosswalk of Christ. In every particular instance in our texts, you are struck by the consistency of the message. Whether it is in a plane or in a bus or on the road, your entry point might be the economy or politics or farming, how it is dry. But you're constantly steering and shepherding the conversations towards Christ the Savior. Isn't that what our Lord did in John 4? When he meets the Samaritan woman. And of course he begins the conversations with the woman. He says, woman give me something to drink. And you say, well, how can I give something? You are a Jew, you are a Samaritan. There's no dealings here. So Christ begins with ordinary need. You might call that an economic issue, socio-economic issue. The woman brings in tribal politics. Christ navigates the conversation around that. brings it to this point where the woman is playing up the politics and ethnicity. He still has a conversation to himself. He says if you knew the gift of God and he who says to you give me to drink. You would have asked of Him and He would have given you living water. And this is how this woman is converted. The message must always be Christ. If that is the message, no Christian can actually claim that they are not able to evangelize. Because if you are truly a Christian, you became a Christian by the gospel. Faith comes by hearing. You had something about God. Holy and righteous. You had something about His law. Severe and unattainable. You had something about yourself. A miserable sinner under the wrath of God. And then you heard about a person, the God who became man, born under the law. who lived righteously and died in the place of those who believe in him. And then you were challenged to put your trust in him. It is this whole body of truth that you had and believed. That is exactly what you are now being asked to pass on to the other person. So if you are already a Christian, you already have a message. Now you might not speak it as clearly as brother Ailey would, but you know that message is Christ and his work on behalf of sinners is our message. Number four, notice that in each of these situations of pastoral evangelism, there is a clear and pointed demand comes with it again and again. Personal evangelism is not merely informational. Once we've given out the message clearly, there is a place for making a demand on those who are hearing. Now notice the following. John twice uses a commanding word. Behold. There is a lamb. You're here looking that way. John challenges you to look at him. It requires those who hear his voice to turn towards Christ. That conjures up images of Moses in the wilderness. And the Israelites have sinned and God has set judgment in the form of fiery sapphires. And Moses is commanded to raise that bronze sapphire. pointing forth to Christ crucified, the message we preach. Moses did not just raise, lift up that bronze sapling, then went away. He went around saying, look and live, look and live, look and live, look and live. That's what John is saying here. Twice. Behold the Lamb. Stop looking the other way. Turn your head and look to Him. Stop looking inward to what you can do or not do. Look to Christ. There's a clear pointed challenge. There's a time to think that that demand to make clear challenge of people when we preach is only confined when we preach from a stage like this. We are doing personal evangelism. We must leave people with a clear indication in their minds as to what the gospel demands. So in John's words, it's behold the Lamb. In Jesus' response to those disciples, when they asked him, where are you leading to come? He tells them, come and see. To Philip, Judah says, come, follow me. Philip says to Nathanael, come and see. It is always a challenge. We'll tell people who they are, what their problem is. We show them clearly what Christ has done. And then we challenge them pointedly. To turn away from them. The sins and look to Christ. There's a pointed demand. A clear challenge. A call to action. And that also belongs to the realm of personal advantage. Don't be satisfied with mere information. Number five. Notice the sovereignty of God in the results of personal evangelism. And this of course comes as a balance to what we've just said. The clear demand must be coupled with a resting on the sovereignty of God. Now the sovereignty of God comes out very clearly, particularly in the interactions of Christ with Nathanael. When Nathanael comes, Jesus says, behold a Nazelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. So Nathanael said, how did you know me? Jesus answered, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. It sounds very much like the language God uses with Jeremiah, right? So we must think, it's not just before Philip called you. That's what we were told here, before Philip called you, when you were still under the victory. But we know the rest of scripture tells us that those who actually come to Christ were foreknown before the foundations of the world. So even though Christ confines himself and his knowledge here merely to the time when he was still under the tree before Philip called him, the rest of scripture is much more wide than that. It was before the foundations of the world. Now these four knowledge is not mentioned on the account of the other three, only in the account of Nathaniel. But like I've said, the writers of scriptures have an economy with words. What they mention here, As Christ foreknowing Nathaniel. It's true of all those others who went before. Those who are ultimately saved. Those who respond to your call of the gospel. Are those who are foreknown before the formations of the world. Even as we preach and evangelize, we challenge and demand the people repent and have faith in Christ. We are confining ourselves to the means that God has supplied. And we are not being as arrogant as to seek to seal the deal ourselves. And hearing is a folly of the invitation system of the sinners. I speak to my students in class and they are convinced that that method is not biblical. They always ask me this question. So if we are saying that we cannot call them to come, what do we do? Do we just leave them to go like that? Leave them to go like that. Isn't there something we can do? And the objective word is leave them like that. Meaning that to let them go is a hopeless thing. That's why I say to them like this. You don't just leave them like that. You are leaving them in the way that Paul left the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. After he had explained all his labours for three years, what he did. He preached from house to house, publicly, he laboured, he cried, he suffered, he did everything. But how does he conclude? Now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to save your souls and give you an inheritance with those who are sanctified. To shrink from ungodly means is not a hopeless thing. It is to trust God to finish the work. Trusting in the sovereignty of God in this enterprise means we will not devise methods other than what are there in the Bible. But it also means this. But we will never come to a point of despair. In a personal evangelism. Because this is why many people despise this. They want to count the chicks at the end of the day. They want to see how many of these eggs actually hatched. And when they don't see that, they begin to consider their efforts as being futile. We're not shooting anything. But our great encouragement to keep on going, even in those moments when results are not clearly apparent to us. It's because we know that God has a people. ordained by Him from before the foundations of the world. And we also know that the method ordained by God for the calling of these people is what I'm doing now. But I also know that God has not given me a list of those that He has chosen. So I don't know the person sitting next to me might actually be one of them. And if the gospel is the way in which God calls them, I could very well then preach them right now. This is precisely what Christ does in Acts 18. Paul has been preaching in Corinth. With mixed results. This particular time the place becomes hostile. He goes to sleep planning to leave the phone with him. He's discouraged. Christ comes to him at night. He tells him, don't leave yet. Nobody will lay their hands on you to harm you. Keep on preaching. And what is the motivation? Christ tells him, I still have many people in this city. He didn't give Paul a list of them. No. He simply said, I have them. So keep preaching. So what does Paul do? For the next 18 months, Paul preaches again and again. And we know his efforts were not in vain. Because there are two letters in the New Testament written targeting that particular church. Sovereign in the results. That sovereignty limits what we do or not do. We don't seek to seal the deal by our own means. We trust the means ordained by God. But that sovereignty is also our comfort, especially in terms of great drought. It might be mine to sow the seed. to sow the seeds. It might belong to him to water the seeds. And we do that aggressively. But it is God who must give the increase. Number five and last. Who are the proper participants in personal evangelism? Again, I'm showing you all the things from our text. Let's begin with Andrew. Andrew has been shown Christ. He is a follower of Christ. Then he goes to look for his brother Peter. Christ calls Philip, follow me. Philip follows Christ and then goes finds Nathaniel. And my point is simply this, the proper participants in personal evangelism Evangelism at all are those who themselves have tested of Christ and found that he is good. Evangelism cannot be a case of the lost seeking the lost. The blind seeking to lead the blind. It is those who are converted who have tested of Christ. The poor who have found bread and have eaten to their fill who can now go and evangelize others. And I'm saying this because very often in a seminar or a conference like this. We can come and simply take in, take in, take in. And all we are thinking of is how do I take this to others? But if this conference was about God's way of salvation, the first thing you ought to do is this. To ask yourself the question, have I myself found that way of salvation? Is this salvation as it is being explained here mine? And if the answer is no, I will do all those things that have been commanded here as demanded by the gospel. I will seek So please don't be like a crane a crane, crane. Go to the port in Mombasa, you have cranes. Get a container from the ship to the trailer. to the ship and you might turn out to be like that because you can learn techniques and truths in this conference and try to offload them to others from the conference to your place without ever stopping to think. We were told that unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Have I been born again? I've been told here that God justifies sinners by faith. Have I been justified by Christ? Only that which you have tested and found to be true can you meaningfully share with others. And it is my prayer therefore, that even as we urge all participants in this year's conference, to realize the prime importance of personal evangelism, and actively participate in it. If you're here and you know you're not a Christian, or remember what our brother Ailey was preaching earlier, You've got the kinds of faith that are not adequate, biblically speaking. Do not come from this conference not making Christ your own. The world is close to you, it is near you. The world of faith that we preach. If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the son of God, that God has raised him from the dead, if you can call upon him today, He will have mercy on you. He says, come to me. All you that labor and are heavily laden, I will give you rest. You can make Christ your own this afternoon, even this late, during the end of the conference. Then you can come out of here with something to go and take us. May the Lord do that for all of us, for His glory. Amen. Amen.