of God's Word, please open it up to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4, and if you don't have a copy of God's Word, the text for this morning's sermon is printed for you in the bulletin. We're going to be looking once again at 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 7 and 8. And really, we're just going to be looking at verse 7. And really, we're just going to be looking at the last few words of verse 7. So 1 Timothy chapter 4 beginning in verse 7, hear the word of the Lord. But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. Once again, let me repeat the words at the end of verse 7, and exercise yourself toward godliness. This is the second sermon in our three-part installment on Back to the Basics. We said last week that the best musicians in all the world still practice their scales before they go out and perform something difficult. We said that if you go to a baseball game, if you drive to Atlanta and you watch the Braves play, what you're going to see before they come out, before everyone's cheering, before the first pitch is thrown or anything like that, you're going to see the greatest athletes in the world simply throwing a baseball back and forth. And there is a need from time to time to perform at a high level of proficiency. to return to the basic things, the basic skills, the basic maneuvers of anything, and that's what we're talking about in this series. We're talking about the basics of the Christian faith, and it's summarized in what we would call spiritual disciplines. And when we talk about discipline, this simply comes from the word here in verse 7 that says, yourself toward godliness or discipline yourself toward godliness. We don't mean pulling off the belt or taking out the spoon like mamas like to do from time to time. We're talking about building godly habits. That's what we mean when we're talking about spiritual disciplines. And just by way of reminder from last week, we talked about three things from this text. This is kind of our springboard for this week and next week. And there are three things that we find in this text. The first thing is a destination. And the destination that we have is in the word godliness, the very last word in verse 7. Conversion is a means to an end. Conversion, when we come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus and we realize that His death, His life, His resurrection is all that it is, and that we have forgiveness in Christ because of what He has done, that's not the end in and of itself. that God saves us so that we will be a godly people, a holy people, more conformed to the image of Christ. That is the destination that we should aim for, excuse me, for which we should aim. That's our destination. The second thing that we noticed was that there is a road and we see that because the second to the last word in verse seven is toward that the The process of sanctification or growing in holiness or growing in godliness is just that. It's a process. It's something that takes time. It's not something that happens instantly. So there's a destination. There's a road. And then thirdly, we saw that there was a vehicle. There are different vehicles that get us to different places. If you need to go somewhere in the middle of the ocean, you take a boat. If you need to go somewhere that's on land, you're going to take a train or a car or something to that effect. The type of vehicle that you need is going to be determined by where you're trying to get. And if the destination is godliness, the only vehicle that's going to take you on that road and the only vehicle that's going to get you there is found in the word exercise or as we might call it discipline. And we saw that this is the Greek word goumnozo from which we get our word gymnasium. And the same principle by which we grow strong physically by building up good physical habits, exercise or diet and things of that nature is the same principle by which we grow spiritually. You will grow spiritually if you give yourself to these spiritual disciplines that we're going to be looking at this week and next week. And just by way of reminder, I'm going to give you these six disciplines, these six habits that you ought to be building one more time. The first is the Bible, intake of the Word of God. The second is prayer. And the third is evangelism. That's what we're going to cover here in just a minute. And then next week, we're going to look at fellowship, discipleship, and worship. And I did not intentionally end those three words in ship. That was not intentional. If someone more creative would have had some kind of series about ships that are sailing or something like that. That was not intentional, but this week we're going to look at the Bible, prayer, and evangelism and how important those are in your life. And before we jump into those, I want to remind you of two very important things having to do with what we're talking about. And the first is that spiritual disciplines are best learned by doing. They're best learned by doing. We mentioned this briefly last week, but when you're teaching a child to ride a bike or to tie their shoes, you don't get out a textbook, you don't roll in the blackboard, you put them on a bike or you teach them to button up a shirt by putting the shirt on and say, okay, take this little thing and put it in here. You have to learn the spiritual disciplines by doing them. You will never confidently and ably know God's Word if you don't read God's Word. You'll never become proficient at prayer if you don't pray. The spiritual disciplines are best learned by doing them. And secondly, Building habits is initially a difficult thing to do. Just like when you're teaching a child to button their shirt, you applaud them when they finally, after two hours, get that little circle into that one hole, and you say, great job, little Johnny, you did it, great job. Well, initially those things are difficult. But none of us, after having done them so many times, even think about buttoning a shirt when we put it on. It's something that when you do it enough, it simply becomes part of you. And that's how it is with the spiritual disciplines as well. When you're initially getting into these things, they're starting to seem difficult. But guess what? They're really not. They are, but they're not. And they'll grow to become a part of you such that they'll become a passion. They'll become something that you'll wake up in the morning and instead of thinking, oh, I don't want to read my Bible today, you'll be eager and excited to spend time in God's Word. So let's start talking about the Word of God, this first spiritual discipline. And I want to remind you what Jesus said. He quotes the Old Testament, of course, from Deuteronomy when he says this. But when Jesus was tempted by Satan, he responded with a quote from Deuteronomy. And he said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by, say it if you know it, That's right. But by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Now a couple of things that we ought to notice from this. This is Matthew 4, 4 by the way, where Jesus quotes that passage from Deuteronomy. But he says that man shall not live by bread alone. And one of the things that Jesus is likening to, and we ought to say perhaps Moses was likening it to, since it's a quote from Deuteronomy, is the need for spiritual nourishment. Now, if I were to ask you, how long would you be willing to go without food? It probably wouldn't be very long. It certainly wouldn't be a whole day, barring, of course, that you're fasting for some reason. But ordinarily, you need food every day. God made your body to need food every single day. And if you go too long without food, you're going to die. And in this passage, what Jesus is doing is likening the spiritual need to the physical need. And He's saying, if you go too long without God's Word, your soul is in peril. It's dangerous. It's unhealthy spiritually to not have a daily intake of God's Word, just like it's unhealthy physically to not eat properly. So you need God's Word. Man doesn't live by bread alone. It's your spiritual nourishment, God's Word. But notice also that he says, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So we have to remember that we're not just New Testament Christians, or we're not just Gospel Christians, or Epistle Christians, or those passages in the Bible that we like Christians. But we're biblical Christians. You need every word that comes from the mouth of God. That's why we're belaboring in Exodus. We're not trying to skip through everything, but in our series through Exodus that we've been going through, Exodus matters just as much as the Gospel of John. Genesis matters just as much as the Gospel of Matthew. All of God's Word is important, and you need every bit of God's Word to be a healthy Christian. Just like if you were to neglect vegetables and meat and only eat candy or only eat sweets or something like that, you would become very deficient in many things very quickly. Well, in the same way, if you don't have the steady diet of all of God's Word regularly, you will become deficient spiritually. Maybe you'll survive. Maybe but you certainly won't be where you should be. So God's word is very important to us. And I want to answer a few what might be called objections or they might be called reasons why. But I prefer to call them excuses. There are some excuses that we often have on why we don't have a regular diet or a daily diet of God's word for our spiritual health. And so I want to answer a couple of those objections excuses now. And one of the first ones that I often hear is that you don't have time. You don't have time. Well, I want you to ask yourself this question. Anytime you think to yourself, well, I don't have time to read God's Word. Well, what if your boss told you, if you want to keep your job, you need to wake up 30 minutes and make sure you read your Bible every day. Well, I suspect that if your employer told you that and you needed to do that to survive or to provide for your family, you would do it. I suspect that if some circumstance came up and somebody said, listen, you're going to lose your house if you don't read your Bible for 10 minutes a day, you would probably find the time to do it. You see, if you're gonna lose your family, if you're gonna lose a relationship, if whatever it took for you to be able to do that, congratulations, you've just uncovered some idolatry in your heart. You've just opened up something that has said, well, this thing, my house, my job, my family, my friends, whatever it is, your food even, is more important to me than the Word of God is. So, whatever excuse you may think, I think if you were honest with yourself, if we were honest with ourselves, we would say, we could not honestly tell God on judgment day, I'm sorry God, but I didn't have enough time for you. It's not a legitimate excuse. And the other one would be, well, I just don't feel like it. Or something along the lines of, my heart's not in it. Or, well, I don't want to do it just because Pastor Ray told us to. Or, I don't want to just be checking off a box or something along those lines. Something along the lines of, well, my heart's not in it. I don't really feel like doing this. Well, if that's your reason, if you wake up a few minutes early tomorrow morning and that's your reason, then just remember this. Paul has already brought us into the realm of sports or into the realm of discipline. These things have to become habits before they become passions. We've kind of already touched on this briefly just a moment ago. Don't be upset or discouraged or think that you're doing something wrong or use this as an excuse if you think, well, but I don't really want to. Okay, great. Do it anyway. It's what you need to do. If you don't feel like eating when you really need to eat, if you don't feel like taking a remedy or a medicine when you really are sick and you really need that medicine, guess what? Do it anyway. because it's good. And at some point, as this becomes a habit, you will notice yourself, if you do it long enough, you will notice yourself becoming eager and having a great expectation, looking forward to the fine meal of God's Word that you have every morning. So, let's move into some practical suggestions. I told you last week that this was going to be very practical. That last week we spent quite a bit of time establishing the need for spiritual discipline. And this week and next week I want to give you practical suggestions as we get into these. And the first thing... is to eliminate distractions. And this is kind of an excuse and kind of a practical suggestion at the same time. But how many of you have ever heard of John or Charles Wesley? Anybody ever heard of John or Charles Wesley? Most of you have, yeah. Well, how many of you have ever heard of Susanna Wesley, their mother? Maybe about half of you. Well, Susanna Wesley had 12 children. Now, I've got what our culture thinks is a lot of children and the Chastains have quite a few children. There's some of y'all that are working on it. I'm so thankful to be in a place that values children and thinks that children are important. But none of us have 12 children. Susanna Wesley had 12 children and they knew, at least John and Charles and the rest of their brothers and sisters knew, that if Mama had her apron over her head, you did not go and speak to Mommy and you did not cause a problem in that house at that point because you would be disciplined at that time. Now what do I mean by that? And why do I bring that up? Well, I'm saying that because if Susanna Wesley found time every single day with 12 children while her children were awake to spend time, adequate time in God's word, reading and spending time in prayer, then you and I can find the time. You and I have the ability to spend time in God's word. But one of the best ways to eliminate distractions is by waking up early. Now, Scripture and experience and reason, I think, all teach us that the best time to do this is in the morning. Is to wake up. If this is new to you, I would recommend just waking up about 30 minutes early. 30 minutes before when you do or 30 minutes perhaps before your children. And husbands and wives, husbands, you need to help your wife if she's waking up before the children. Maybe you need to watch the kids if they wake up so that mom has time to do this. Find some way to help each other. We're in this together. But the best thing to do is to wake up about 30 minutes early. Some of us, if you've been doing this a long time, you're gonna wake up long before that. And you're gonna spend a lot more time in God's Word. But if you're just getting started out, just wake up about 30 minutes early. And this helps with eliminating distractions. So you eliminate distractions by getting up about a half hour early. So that's the first thing. Try to get rid of any distractions you know that are gonna happen. The second thing is to get a yearly Bible reading plan. Now, like Ms. Joanne mentioned in the announcements, I have one back there for you if you haven't picked one up. That's fine. Guess what? If you missed every single day last week, you know what? Perfectly fine. You're not behind because in just a couple weeks, you'll be caught up because this Bible reading plan is not every day of the year. It only has readings for 25 days out of the month, which means that if you missed every single day so far this year, you can still pick one up today and be caught up in just a couple of weeks. So use a Bible reading plan. And what this does is this helps you to not have so little that it seems like a daunting task that it'll never happen. No, I'll never get through this. I'll never actually read God's Word. But there is also a danger in some cases, maybe I shouldn't say a danger, but of reading too much. So that you take in such an amount of reading that it's difficult to retain and you're not really chewing on what you've been reading. And we want, the goal is not to just get through it. But the goal is to really know what God has said in his words. So I have found that if you've got another reading plan or if you do it twice a year or something like that, that's fine. This is not law. These are just practical suggestions that I'm trying to give you to help you get on the road to disciplining yourself so that you can live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So wake up a few minutes early, get a Bible reading plan. And then the third suggestion I would make To get two notebooks Two notebooks. Now, here's why. I have one regular-sized notebook, you know, legal paper or whatever, and then I have a tiny little notepad. And the reason that I have this tiny little pad is for, again, distractions. So if I think, oops, I've got to do this, or you know what, I forgot I'm going to have to do this today and I didn't do that, or this thing came in my mind and I need to look that up later, or I forgot to order this for the church, or something like da-da, on and on and on, ad nauseum, that's what my little notepad is for. So that I can stay focused and I can say, well, I know I'll get to these things later if I write them down immediately. That's why I have that little notepad there. Or you can, if you have one notepad, I guess you could write it in the corner or something like that. But that's why I always have two notepads whenever I'm reading the Bible. And then, of course, my main notepad has to do with, I want to know what God is teaching me in His Word. And there are basically three things that I'm going to write down. I always write a date. And I always write the passage that I'm reading, and I'm essentially looking for three things. I'm looking for implications, implication, transformation, and complication. Now, I did do that on purpose this time. That was intentional. But implication, what is the text implying? What is this text teaching me about God? What is this saying about God? There's some texts in the Bible that don't even mention God by name. However, it is clear that God is at work in them. And so I'm writing down what is, God showing me about himself from this text. That's what I mean by implication. And then the next thing is transformation. How should I be transformed in light of this truth? If we're talking about God's love, if there's a warning passage having to do with the judgment of God coming on something, what should I be avoiding? Or perhaps, what am I neglecting that I should be doing? What am I avoiding that I shouldn't be avoiding if God tells me to do something? So that's what I mean by transformation. What do I need to repent of? What do I need to do? How does my life need to change because of these words that I'm reading from the Bible? And then complications are simply questions that I have. If I don't understand something, if I don't know, what does he mean by this? Well, I could be tempted to get a little off topic and then go and research this question that I have right away. And what that tends to do for me is get me off topic to where sometimes I don't finish the passage that I'm in. So I tend to write down the complications or the questions or the concerns that I have or things that I don't understand in this text. Three basic suggestions on getting a daily intake of God's Word. Wake up early. Get a Bible reading plan. I would recommend the one that I'm using. And then have two notepads for writing down things. Let's talk about prayer. Let's move into prayer, our second spiritual discipline. And by way of showing how important this is, I want to read to you a passage. I've read books on prayer. I've listened to lots and lots of sermons on prayer and lectures on prayer, and I've never heard anyone use this verse. And yet, a couple of years ago, when I was reading through the Gospel of Luke, this passage caught my attention, and it has shown me, I think, the importance of prayer more than probably any other text in the New Testament or the Old Testament. Listen to Luke 5.15. However, this is talking about Jesus. However, the report went around concerning him all the more, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. Now that probably doesn't sound like an earth-shaking, world-shattering text about prayer or the importance of it, but that's because I didn't read it slowly enough. So I'm gonna read it again, and I'm gonna explain what's going on here. The report went around concerning him all the more and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by them of their infirmities. So notice what's going on here. Jesus is preaching and teaching. Jesus has been healing people in his ministry and all of these people are flooding to him, flocking to him. We wanna hear God's word. We wanna hear the gospel. We're suffering. We need healing. We're deathly ill. And what does Jesus do when all of these people are coming to hear the gospel and all of these people are coming to be healed? He leaves. And it says, so, meaning that because all of these people were coming, even though this is happening, he leaves them. He leaves them suffering. He leaves them eager to hear the gospel. And he goes and withdraws to be by himself to pray to his father. Now, there's a wrong way that we could look at this and think, well, Jesus just needs a little bit more compassion. Well, that's not what we ought to read when we think this. Okay, when we read this, excuse me, that's not what we ought to think when we read this. But what we ought to think is, wow, prayer must be really important if as compassionate as Jesus was, And if Jesus even said in Mark chapter one or two that his purpose when he came forth was to preach God's word, he leaves in the middle of these opportunities and says, I need to go spend some time in prayer. I want to speak with my father in heaven. Well, if prayer is that important for Jesus, then it ought to be that important for you and I as well. But there are also some excuses, excuse me, objections or reasons why. we give that we don't want to pray. And sometimes one is, well, I'm too ashamed or I'm too angry to pray. I don't want to pray because I've sinned. And that is a real thing. I mean, the Bible talks about in 1 Peter 3, that if men don't treat their wives well, that their prayers will be hindered. And if that's the case, if you don't want to pray, or you're ashamed, or you're angry, or you're in sin, well, I would recommend don't keep sinning. Don't commit other sins because you've already committed one sin. Don't disobey God with respect to prayer because you've committed another sin. Instead, do what 1 John 1 says. Confess your sins. and he will be faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness." Instead of saying, making some excuse and say, well, I think it would be a better idea if I sin because I've been sinning. Instead, what we ought to do is confess our sins and begin our prayer with that saying, Lord, forgive me for my sinful anger, forgive me for whatever sin it may have been for treating my wife this way, for treating my children this way, and then You pray. And then you move on to other forms of prayer. So, let's not use that as an excuse. And then I think another one. Is the difficulty focusing? I mean, I will admit that I have trouble focusing sometimes in prayer. And so, to answer this, I want to just move into our practical suggestions. And the first thing that I would suggest is to pray rehearsed prayers. Turn in your Bible, if you have a copy of God's Word, to Luke chapter 5. I want to show you... I'm sorry, Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11. And we're going to go to two places here. If you have your Bible, I want you to follow along. If not, that's fine. Just listen carefully. But we oftentimes, I think, think, well, you know, I want to pray from the heart. I want to pray impromptu prayers. And those are biblical. Those are fine. But remember, I'm trying to give you practical suggestions if you've been behind. And I want to give you biblical reasons why praying a rehearsed prayer or simply a prayer from the scriptures or a prayer from a book is a biblical idea. This is not a man-made tradition or anything like that. Well, if you look at Luke chapter 11, let's start in verse 1. It says, Now it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, that one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Can I just say that this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Luke 11 verse 1. Not even the part after that, where Jesus explains. But the fact that the disciples are honest, and they say, they recognize their weakness, they recognize, Lord, we're weak in prayer. We don't pray as much as we should. Now notice that he doesn't say, teach us how to pray, a method for prayer. He's saying, teach us to pray, which means I'm not praying as much as I should be. I know that I need to be praying and I'm not. And listen to what Jesus says in verse two. So he said to them, when you pray, say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, and so on and so forth. Now, the reason I point out this passage, if you go to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, he says, in this manner, therefore, Pray ye, in this manner pray, meaning he's giving you a formula or guidelines on teaching you how to pray, but that's not what he says in Luke 11 too. He says, when you pray, say. In other words, say these words when you pray. So the Lord's Prayer is a guideline. It is a tool for teaching us how to pray, but it is also a prayer. It will teach us to pray if we simply say the Lord's Prayer. So a rehearsed prayer is not something that's less spiritual. It helps you. It's a biblical idea. Jesus says, when you pray, say. Now go with me to Acts chapter 4. I want to give you one more example of this. Acts chapter 4. in verse 24. But let me back up to verse 23. Acts chapter four, beginning in verse 23. And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they had heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of your servant David have said, and so on and so forth. Now, I bring this passage up to say there's tumult in the church, there's some trouble going on, and they want to come before the Lord and pray, but one person is not praying. All of these people are praying together, and they're praying a prayer that is five, six verses long. This is not something where everybody just all in unison happened to say the exact same thing at the exact same time. That's not what happened. But in verse 24 it says, so when they heard that, plural, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said. So notice that all of these people are praying the same prayer together in a difficult situation. So earlier, If you're not accustomed to this, to praying a prayer in unison with other people, just notice this is not just some tradition that we do. We do this because it is a thoroughly biblical thing to do. So if you're just getting into the groove of praying, I would recommend starting out by praying rehearsed prayers. You can find prayer in the scriptures. We have a whole book, an entire book, just about 150. Not all of them are direct prayers, but in the book of Psalms. Those are song prayers to God. You can pray the scriptures. You can use the Valley of Vision. Valley of Vision is a great book that is filled with mostly Puritan prayers. I think there's a couple in there by Spurgeon. But prayers that are rehearsed. And these are means of teaching you how to pray. So that by learning from others who are very proficient in prayer, very godly men, you learn to pray by praying rehearsed prayers. So that's my first suggestion is pray rehearsed prayers from the scriptures or good, solid, theologically sound books like the Valley of Vision. And the second one would be simply along the same lines, but to prepare for prayer. And I prepare by prayer by taking notes for whatever I'm going to pray about typically I'll make I have a marker board in my study And what I tend to do is I'll take notes on that I'll get up before I've read and I'll typically get up and I'll go to my marker board and I'll write down things that I want to praise God for. And I have to do this because sometimes I get a case of the gimmies and I'll just ask the Lord for things and sometimes I'll neglect praising God or confessing my sins or something along those lines. So I make sure I write out a few things that I need to praise and thank God for so that I don't come to God as a spoiled brat without praising Him and thanking Him for all His mercies that He's given to me. So, you can prepare by prayer by taking notes on a piece of paper, on a marker board, or any way that you want to do it. And simply, as I've said, be careful not to neglect praise. Be careful not to give God reasons why. You know, if one of my children came to me and they said, Dad, I really think I need a cell phone. I would say no. If they came to me and they said, Dad, I think I need a cell phone because sometimes when we're playing outside, you know, knocks fell down and I just got to thinking, you know, if we didn't have a way to teach you and we were kind of on the other end of the neighborhood or if we were in the woods or something and we didn't have a way to contact you, I really think it'd be a good idea. Well, I would probably still say no just to be honest with you. But if they gave me good reasons, I would be paying very close attention. I would think, you know, they've thought about this. They're giving order. They're giving argument. They're giving me good reasons. And I would lean toward that direction. You know, God is a real being. He's not just an object somewhere out there in the sky. God is listening. God cares about the reasons that you're giving Him. And I would recommend giving good reasons, biblical reasons, scour through the scriptures. finding biblical promises, biblical ideas, so that you know that you're praying to God and asking Him for things that He wants. Things that He thinks are a good idea. Not just things that His unwise children, and I mean us, not little ones, but us as well, oftentimes we ask for things that are not biblical. So, And then the last suggestion I would give is to pray out loud. Praying out loud helps you to not have your mind wander and become distracted. Alright, let's move into the last one and I'll be quick. And that is evangelism. We talked about the Bible, talked about prayer, and now we're moving into evangelism. And I think this is probably the one that if we were honest, we might get the most pushback on. Well, that's your job, Pastor Ray. Pastor Mike is the one who's supposed to be doing evangelism. Well, let me remind you of Ephesians 4 in verse 11, which says that God gave some to be pastors and teachers for the equipping of pastors and teachers only for the work of ministry. Anybody? Is that what Ephesians 4, 11 says? And God gave some to be pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. Which means that everything that's supposed to happen in the kingdom does not rest, thankfully, and I don't mean this irreverently, but I do mean, thank God, on my shoulders, on Mr. Jimmy's shoulders, on Pastor Mike's, or on our deacons, Mike George and Chester Hamilton. Thanks be to God that it doesn't rest on our shoulders. But we are to equip the saints for the work of ministry, and part of that is evangelism. And in Acts chapter 8 and verse 4, it says, Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Now this word for preaching, I do think there's a deficiency in all of our English translations, at least all the ones of which I'm familiar. The word preaching, there are two different words in the New Testament for preaching. One of them is what I'm doing before you, formal keruso, preaching of the authoritative heralding of God's Word. That's what I'm doing now. But this word here in Acts chapter 8 and verse 4 that's being used of everyone in the congregation is not keruso. It is Ewangalizomai. Ewangalizomai. Evangelism. That's where we get our word from. That's the word being used. It doesn't mean authoritative preaching of God's word. It means proclaiming the evangel or the good news of Christ. That's something that everyone in the church is called to. Now certainly we all have different gifts and abilities and that doesn't mean that everyone's going to be as skilled at proclaiming the gospel as maybe Pastor Mike is, but that doesn't give us an excuse to neglect it. Just like we're not going to be as good at prayer as this person, but that doesn't mean we should neglect it. We're all not going to be as knowledgeable at the scriptures as this person, but that doesn't mean that we should neglect it. And so in the same way, it is the responsibility of all of the saints of God in some way or another to be finding people and proclaiming the gospel to them. And I think probably the main excuse that we give for not evangelizing is fear. And this comes in a number of ways. Maybe not the main one. The other one might be not knowing how. But I think probably the main one is fear. And this comes in a number of different categories. All of which falling under the heading of fear. Maybe fear of awkwardness. Fear that we don't know very much and maybe they'll ask me something that I can't answer. Fear that we might lose a friend. Fear that we might lose our job? Now, once again, as we've already said, if any of these are your fears, and if any of these are reasons why, excuses, that you don't proclaim the gospel, then once again, you've uncovered some idolatry in your heart. Now, I'm not saying when you're at work that your responsibility is to be evangelizing. That is not the primary thing that you're supposed to be doing at work. When you're at work, God has called you to give your employer whatever he's called you to do. So don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. But there are opportunities that we often have at work or in the break room or at lunch or in casual conversation at work or whatever happens where we could be proclaiming the gospel. And that's what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is in those times when God has given you a great opportunity to be a witness for Christ, neglecting it because you're afraid of what might happen to your job. You're afraid of what might happen with your relationships with your friends. So fear is one excuse. But the other reason is sometimes people think, well, I just don't know how. I'm not very good at this, I don't know how. So let me give you a couple of practical suggestions. The first one has to do with when you meet someone new. So this is cold call evangelism. This is the first time that you meet somebody, be F.I.R.M. with them. F.I.R.M. is an acronym. F.I.R.M. stands for Family interests, religious background, and message. I know it's hokey, but it's helped me. I use this all the time. So that how can I, if I meet someone new and I want, I believe this is an opportunity to proclaim the gospel to them, this is how I make my way into talking about the gospel in a non-threatening and an awkward way, I think we could say. First I ask them, so tell me about your family. You got any family around here? And then we'll talk about that for a minute. And I say, well, tell me what you like to do or what kind of work you in or something along those lines. And then they'll tell me that. And then I move into the our religious background. So, hey, do you go to church anywhere around here? And then they'll tell me, oh, I go here or I go there. No, I don't really do that. And then I use that if they tell me, yes, I go here or I'm this person. I would say, well, let me ask you a question. What does it take to be right with God? What do you understand it takes for someone to be right with God if they've sinned? And then they'll tell me. I had a conversation with a guy one time, and he said, well, I'm this. I'm this religious tradition. I said, well, and I asked a question. I said, well, tell me, what does it take for that type of person to be made right with God? And he said, oh, man, live a good life. And that told me right there, this person does not understand the gospel. This person thinks that by their good works, they can be made right with God. And so I had the opportunity then to segue into the gospel and say, well, you know, I have a problem with that because I haven't lived a good life. I've sinned. In fact, I did it this morning on the way to work when I was arguing with my wife. You see, everybody looked at Tristan, and I did not intend for that. That was kind of funny. I was simply giving an example of how you might say, I haven't lived a good life, and be honest with them so that they don't think you're trying to play the I'm holier than thou card. So be firm with them. Family, interests, religious, background, and message. But then what about somebody you already know? That would be a little awkward to do that if you've had your cousin that you've known your whole life, and then you say, hey, where do you live? You don't do that. But one one way that can help you into talking about the gospel is your personal testimony now your personal testimony Specifically we're gonna get a little bit technical here, but that is not the gospel The gospel is the person and work of Jesus Christ All right but your personal testimony is a great way to present the gospel of Christ and your personal testimony consists of what your life was like before Christ and How Christ saved you, and then what your life is like after Christ. So, you know, this happened to me, and this happened to me, and this happened to me. I realized the gospel, which is Jesus died, Jesus rose again. He paid for my sins. It's not about me working or whatever. And then after that, what your life is like after you came to Christ, which is, you know, I'm not where I should be, not where I want to be, but God has changed me. He's been working in my life, and I'm so grateful. And we have this example in one place among others. In Mark chapter 5 and verse 19 where Jesus tells someone, go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he has had compassion on you. So your personal testimony, how your life has been changed because of Christ, is a great means of getting to the gospel. How you can tell them how Christ has saved sinners. And then the last suggestion I would give, other than being firm, and your personal testimony would be simply to ask someone to help you and to set aside specific times. You could come up to me and say, Ray, I really want to grow in evangelism. Will you take me and go out and evangelize with me? And I would say, absolutely. I would love to do that. And if you went up to Pastor Mike and said, Pastor Mike, I know that you're very passionate about evangelism and you've got a lot of experience in this area. Can I go out with you and evangelize sometime? He would say, absolutely. And I know that for a fact because he's shaking his head yes and no right now at the back of this room. Now, what that's going to do is it's going to do a couple of things. Let me tell you this. I've had a couple people come evangelize with me. Jason has, Jonathan has, and we've gone to evangelize. And guess what? Every single time, even though they don't know it, every single time that I go to evangelize to someone, I'm nervous about it. And I have elements of this fear every single time. But guess what? I do it anyway. And you know what else happens? Just like when you're fearful with new things that you're learning, if you've had to give a presentation at work or if you've had to do something like that, if you do it over and over and over and over and over again, it becomes easier. I'm not saying that it always is easy. You're probably always going to be nervous. There's probably going to be some element of fear, but courage is not a life without fear. Courage is doing what's right even when you're afraid, even when there's a risk involved, even when you might lose your friends, you might lose your family. But what's going to happen is that if you spend time with someone evangelizing, you're going to become more comfortable and more comfortable until you're able to go out and do it on your own. until you're able to, with proficiency, go out and evangelize on your own. And I would recommend, this is a bonus number four, setting aside time. It doesn't have to always be something that happens spontaneously. But if you say, honey, I want at least once a month, we're gonna go out, or you go out and do something, go down to City Market, and I'm gonna evangelize. Or you can say, I want once a month, let's try to get someone at our house that doesn't know the gospel, one of our neighbors or somebody from work. And they're going to come over for dinner with the specific purpose of sharing the gospel. Now, I don't ordinarily, the first time that I meet someone, invite them to church. That's not what I do. And the reason for that is because a lot of times, that's going to come across to them like you want something out of them. Not that you care so much about them. I typically wait about three times so that they know I'm not just here for me. I'm not trying to, you know, you're not trying to make you, you know, another notch in the church's belt, you know, another set of antlers on the wall. That's not what this is about. I want them to know that I care about them and that their interests matter to me and that Christ cares about them. And so I don't typically invite them to church or something like that the first time that I meet them, but I want them to know I care about them, spend time building up trust, and then I will typically share the gospel with them and invite them to church. And guys, sometimes, sometimes people are converted the first time that they hear the gospel. However, ordinarily, that is not the case. Ordinarily, it takes five, six, seven, sometimes a hundred times before someone actually comes to saving faith in Jesus. So don't be discouraged if you begin doing these things and somebody doesn't come to church immediately or you don't get the results that you're expecting. God is at work. Your responsibility is not to convert them. God the Holy Spirit does that. Your responsibility is to be faithful in proclaiming the gospel to the lost and leave the results up to God. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. God, You are gracious and You are good, and we do thank You that You have called us out of the world and into Your marvelous light. We thank You that You have given us Your Son to pay for our sins. God, we have been all failed at many times in these disciplines. We've failed to grow. We've missed out on victory. We've missed out on opportunity. We could have been on an exceedingly higher plane as far as humility goes, as far as godliness goes, as far as holiness goes. Were we more faithful to keep these precepts that You've given us in Your Word? So God, we do ask that You would help us to be faithful in this week, tomorrow, today, beginning with these small steps concerning Your Word, prayer, and evangelism. And in Christ's name we pray. Amen.