All right, well, good morning and looking forward to. Getting to our second session of this evangelism study that we've been doing. Last time we looked at the philosophy of evangelism, why we do what we do. We looked at what the gospel is. We looked at why we should share it from the Bible. And we looked at different passages of scripture that kind of go right along with that. Today, we're going to be looking at the practical aspects of evangelism. And the purpose is to help believers of all stages gain confidence. and sharing the truth that has so wonderfully changed our lives. And it really has. The gospel has changed our lives in a drastic and lifelong, eternal, actually, way. And so we want to know how to best share that with others. So last time, we looked a little bit at why we do it, why we share it, what the Bible says, the commands in the Bible that we ought to share it, and what the gospel is. And today, we're going to kind of Practical things. How can I get involved in a conversation with somebody regarding the gospel? How can I start that conversation? What are some simple ways that I can declare the gospel in a way that a person who knows nothing of the Bible can understand it and can get a grasp of what we're communicating to them? And so that's kind of what we'll be looking at today. All right, how to simply share the gospel. You can go ahead and turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 15. We'll be there in just a moment, but somebody help me out as you're turning. What does the word gospel mean? What's that word mean? You can just... Good news. Okay, good news, good story, good news, something of that nature. Let me ask you, why is the gospel of Christ good news? Died for our sins. Died for our sins. Anybody else have any ideas? I don't know. OK, you know, he doesn't deserve it anyway. I don't really want him to get it. So why is this news? But if I told you when you walk out of church today in your parking spot instead of the car that you drove in with, you've got a brand new 2024 Ford Mustang, you'd say that is good news. OK, because it affects you and what Jesus has done. It affects. First Corinthians 15, and we'll we'll begin reading in in verse four. Says, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, so we see that word, the gospel, which I preached unto you, this is Paul speaking, which also ye have received in wherein ye stand. And verse two, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory that which I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. Four, I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, now that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. So, according to these verses, what is the gospel? Am I on with this? Okay. And that's on, so I'll stay here. All right. According to these verses, what is the gospel? Somebody help us out. What's it say in these verses that the gospel is? Okay, the death, burial, and resurrection. And when somebody asks us what the gospel is, typically we'll say it's the death, burial, and resurrection, which it is. But there's a key part of this, and it's how that relates to us, right? If you look up on the screen there and in your notes, it says, why is the gospel good news to us? Because Christ died for our sins. Okay, so yes, it is the death, and the burial, and the resurrection, but it says in the middle of verse three there how that Christ died for our sins. And so, as we are sharing the gospel, please understand the way I'm saying this and don't misunderstand me, we often focus on the us part of it. In other words, why it matters to us. In other words, if I go to a lost person and say that Jesus Christ died and he was buried and he rose again, but I don't tell them why he died and for whom he died, it doesn't help them a lot. making sense to them why they need that, why it was important, all of those sorts of things that we would recognize. And so, as we share the gospel, a simple way to share the gospel with a lost person is to help them to recognize that they are sinners. Okay, that's why Christ died for our sins. And so they need to know that. We're sinners, we're guilty, man has a problem, right? God offered the solution, which was Christ dying, okay? And yes, he was buried and he rose again, And we we take hope and rejoice in that and then we tell people from the rest of scripture that you must believe on this you must believe in Christ as your Savior so man has a problem and and God offers the solution which was is the gospel is what we see here and then we must believe it so that's a simple way that you can share this idea with a a lost person and Let's see, we're going to pull this up here. This is these exact same ideas, but in maybe a simpler form to share. Now this is not a one, two, three, this is the simple, perfect way to describe the gospel, and this is the one you have to use. This is a way that I sometimes outline it when I'm explaining it to somebody. And it helps them to understand it in a way that's easy also for me to communicate. And it's perfectly biblical. So, you see number one there, all have sinned. And we see that in many scriptures. I should have asked before we started here, did everybody get an outline? Did anybody not get an outline? If you want to raise your hand. OK, I think we got a couple. Brother Bob, if you want to grab just a couple, that would be helpful. And if you didn't get one, keep your hand up. I want to make sure you have this for your own sake in the future. So we see that all have sin. Okay, and sin is what separates us from God. It's the wrong that we've done. We're born sinners. We do sin. It's our nature. And so we are separated from God. Could somebody grab Romans chapter 3 and verse 10? Somebody want to read that for me? I'm going to raise your hand if you've got that one or you're going to get it. Romans chapter 3. Alright, Brother Nally, thank you. I'll let you get verse 23 here in a minute as well. Can somebody get Romans 6 and verse 23? All right, Brother Eric. And we'll stop there for now. All right, all have sinned. The sin is what separates us from God. Sin deserves punishment. And we'll look at that in a moment. If you've got Romans 3 verse 10, if you want to go ahead and read that for us, Brother Natalie. Okay, none righteous. There's no exceptions to that, okay? And then verse 23 as well, if you would. Okay, again, that is, it is all-encompassing. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's no room for Bill over here who's done pretty good, or Joe who's done a lot of good stuff for his community, or what. All have sinned. We're all guilty. Okay, it doesn't matter how many bad things you've done and how bad the things that you did were. It does not matter. We are all guilty before the Lord. James chapter 2 mentions the fact that whosoever shall keep the whole law, you do everything right, but you offend in one point. You're guilty of all, okay? So we are all guilty, all have sin. Oftentimes when I'm explaining this to someone, I may list a few sins simply to get in their mind what the Bible is speaking of when it's talking about sin. Sin would be something that we do or we say or even think scripture tells us that's against God, that's displeasing to Him. And so, disobeying your parents. If I'm talking to a kid, I'll oftentimes mention that one. Lying, stealing, hating your brother. All of these different things we can list. Lust or whatever else it is. All of these things, the Bible says, are sin. And because of that sin, we are guilty. And I'll tell you, if you've not shared the gospel personally with very many people before, typically when you start listing just a couple things, people go, oh, yeah. Yep, I've done that, I've done that, I've done that, I've done that. We're all guilty. Most of the time, it's not hard to show somebody from the Bible, yeah, you've sinned. You've done wrong. According to what God says, yes, you've sinned. And most people will understand that. And so, we need to tell folks that all have sinned. And then if you could read 623, I think, Brother Eric, you have that one? Romans 623? Okay, so the wages, the payment for our sin is death. It's separation from God. And the Bible teaches that in eternity, that will be eternal separation from God. Now also, death is also a physical effect of sin. If you go back to the beginning of time, the fact that death entered into the picture was a result of sin. And so that, what we see in our world today as far as corruption and death, that's also results of sin. But eventually it means eternal separation from God, and that is the payment for our sin. And then secondly, we see that Jesus paid for our sin. So this sin that we've done deserves the wrath of God. It deserves condemnation, John chapter 3 tells us. But Jesus, he paid for that sin. He took our place on the cross. Does somebody want to find John 3.16, or quote it, either one. That's a familiar one, if you want. Somebody want to find that one? I know you guys are jumping out of today. Tim, you want to grab that one? And then 2 Corinthians 5.21. Somebody could find that one. Marcus, thank you. And then Romans 5, 8, if somebody else wants to grab that one. Okay, Brother Campbell, thank you. Alright, Jesus paid for our sin, He took our place on the cross, and He offers us forgiveness, He offers us eternal life, He offers us a relationship with Him, and all of those things. John 3, 16, if you want to read that one. Okay, so God giving his only son, Jesus Christ, to take our place. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. Amen. I love that verse. For he, speaking of God the Father, made him, Jesus Christ, to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? He had never sinned. He lived a perfect life. He is God. He's perfect. He's holy. That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That verse eliminates any, I gotta do this good thing to get to heaven. I gotta please God in this way. No. God made Jesus to be sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. It's all what Jesus has done on the cross. And I love that verse. And then Romans 5, 8. Okay, again, it wasn't because we did good stuff. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus took our punishment on himself. He took our sin on him. He died. He paid for it. There's nothing left for us to pay. It's all paid for, okay? And then thirdly, believe on Christ for salvation. Somebody wants to find Romans 10, 13. Anybody want to find that one for me? Okay, thank you. You can read that one, Ms. Sarah, and then we'll just stick with that one. Actually, John 318, if somebody could find that one as well. All right, Brother Campbell, thank you. believe on christ as you say by the way on the uh... the last point there we talk about jesus paid for send there's nothing left to pay there are some folks who would would believe that they're still they'll say yes i'm trusting in jesus but i still have to do this or i have to do this and some of those verses you can use a it's done it's finished It's paid for. There's nothing left for you to keep doing in order to gain favor or something else from God. And so, these scriptures are very helpful in dealing with people who maybe have questions as you're sharing the gospel with them or have maybe preconceived ideas that they've heard or even just thought up in their own mind that there's some verses that just very clearly answer their questions and help them with that. So, Romans 10.13, if you could read that verse. All right, and we're talking about believing on Christ as our Savior. Anybody that calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then John 3, 18, if you would. Okay, so here we have the position we previously were was, okay, if you've not believed, you're condemned already. You're already guilty, right? But it says if you do believe, then you're not condemned. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's what Paul and Silas said to the Philippian jailer when he came and said, hey, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 would be a great verse to write down. I don't think that one's on your notes. For by grace are you saved through faith, and then not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So it's faith. It's believing in Christ as your Savior. It's not something you can do. And there are many groups who would say that you have to work your way to heaven. Now they might not put it that way necessarily, but essentially that's what they're saying. Catholics and other groups as well would say we've got to keep a certain set of rules or we've got to do a certain good amount of things and not certain bad things so we can get to heaven. And you'll hear it put all different ways by different groups. But the Bible says it's not works, it's by faith. And it's by God's grace, okay? He was made sin for us. It's nothing that we could do. And so, I hope those things right there, it just gives you a very succinct and simple way, but clear and biblical way to share the gospel. Hey, all of sin, that means you. Jesus has paid for our sin. And you have to believe Him. You have to accept this gift of salvation. The gift is offered to everyone. Perhaps you may come across someone who says, well, then aren't we all okay? Right? If Jesus paid for all of our sin, aren't we all good? But the Bible speaks about accepting this gift that He offers. He's offering eternal life. He's offering forgiveness. You have to accept it. You have to believe it for it to work for you, for it to help you. So, hope that uh... that helps out uh... let's look a little bit now at engaging a lost person so uh... engaging in conversation with someone who can i share the gospel with and to whom can i share the gospel with now obviously the answer is well you can share it anywhere you can share with anyone but but think uh... give me some some real life applications who can you or where can you share the gospel with someone Family, okay, absolutely, family. Okay, at the grocery store. She's like, where at the grocery store can you share the gospel? For one thing, these things we have on the back wall, we call them tracks. They have the gospel in them, okay, very clearly. If you've never grabbed one of these before, I would encourage you to do so. Sometimes you don't have time for a 30-minute conversation or someone's working and you can't take them away from their job for 30 minutes, okay? Because that's not good for them to do that, right? And so, leaving somebody with a gospel tract that they can read, and it talks about the fact that they're sinners, and Jesus died for them, and tells the gospel very clearly, is a great thing to do if you don't have time to talk to somebody. At the grocery store, you could catch somebody outside that's sitting down on the bench, just waiting, and just have a conversation with them. Yes, above all. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Yes, absolutely. And I've been with a man who, they weren't busy in the restaurant at the time, and sometimes the waiters are just kind of standing around. And he's been able to, he was able to talk to him, and I kind of sat there and was like, wow, I didn't know you could do that. And it's exciting how the gospel has effect on people when they listen. And there's all sorts of areas you can share. Somewhere else or someone else. Okay, at church, absolutely. Seeing visitors come in or other situations. Actually, church outreaches we have we invite community into our church fairly often for different events whether it's a day camp or whether it's uh... church-wide picnic are all sorts of things and we invite people from the community uh... tomorrow doing the solar eclipse uh... outreach and we invite people in that that very well may not know the truth of the gospel again that's it fantastic situation to share the gospel. They come to you. It's great. They're here at the church, okay? So it's kind of expected in some sense, and it's a very open avenue to share the gospel somewhere else or someone else. co-workers okay at work co-workers and again uh... b both courteous and uh... appropriate okay don't waste time on your job when it's not appropriate to do so but oftentimes their times when you're working with somebody where you can share the gospel and you can do so in a way that uh... gets them thinking about eternity and and that's a very very helpful that yes Sure. Yes, that's neat. That's very exciting. I've heard that with parents when someone's talking to their child, whether it was at a service or something. and they're sharing the gospel with the child and the parents over there listening and trust Christ as well. And that's always neat. Any other ways, real quickly? Yes. The internet, okay. Online, whatever, social media, whatever. You can share the gospel. Did you know that? You can share your testimony. I think that'd be a really good thing. A short three, four, five minute video of you sharing what Christ has done for you. That'd be a great thing to post sometime. That'd be really special. There's all sorts of things. We could go on and on and on. Gas stations, person across the pump from you, give them a track, you know, even if it's only 30 seconds and you sharing, hey, this is what Christ did for me, this is what this speaks about. That has impact far beyond what we can see. It really does. engaging the lost person. So, how do you start the conversation with a person with the gospel? That's oftentimes the hardest part for us is starting this conversation that is a spiritual nature. We have an easy time talking about weather or sports or whatever else, but sometimes it's difficult to talk about the gospel or talk about the Bible with other folks. And so how do we start that? Now, I'm going to give you an example. This is not a one, two, three recipe, OK, for how you're supposed to share the gospel with somebody. But this is an example of what I might say if, for instance, I was out with the church on Saturdays. We go out in the neighborhood and either put flyers on the door or knock and talk to people. And this is something that I might say if I were doing that. So I might knock on the door. and say, hey, we're from New Life Baptist Church, and we're just in the area, we're sharing what Christ has done for us on the cross, and we're just inviting people to our church. And then I might say, do you have a church that you go to at all? And it really doesn't matter what they say. If they say that they go to the Catholic Church, or the Lutheran Church, or Baptist Church, or they don't go to church, or whatever the case may be. That tells you a little bit about them and maybe helps you go forward in the conversation a little. But regardless of what they say, you can go right into and say, well, hey, you know, that's great. But more important than church is knowing for sure that you're on your way to heaven, or knowing for sure that your sin is forgiven, or knowing for sure that you have a relationship with Jesus, or something of that nature. And then you can go forward in the conversation and say, maybe that's when you start telling him what Christ did for you, and start telling him your testimony. Or, depending on what they say, they might say, well, I used to go to church for a while, but I don't really go anymore, and all this stuff. And I just try to do what I'm supposed to do, and all that stuff. And sometimes I'll say very kindly, but simply say, well, the Bible tells us that it's not about what we do. In fact, the Bible teaches us that we're all sinners. And then you can go right into the gospel. And you don't have to have a 20-minute explanation of the gospel. But it's really not difficult to share the gospel with somebody and get into a conversation with them. And oftentimes, people are searching. And they may not look like it to you, and they may not respond like you wish they would and say, yeah, tell me more, okay? But oftentimes in life, people are searching. They don't always know for what, but they are searching, okay? And they need Christ, they need the gospel. And so, it is our responsibility, according to what we looked at last time, to share this truth with them, okay? And so, Simply opening the conversation is sometimes the hardest part for us, okay? One of the best things, and we don't have a whole lot of time, but one of the best things I learned as I started trying to share the gospel more, and I didn't really grow up sharing the gospel much. It wasn't until I got older that I started trying to share the gospel more. One of the best things I learned was not to share the gospel with a script. uh... not to go to somebody's door or up to the gas pump and say hey this is my name and this is what the gospel says and just start rather engaging them with the truth of the Bible where they're at. Now, that may seem scary to you. You say, well, I'd rather go to the door with a script of what I know I'm gonna say so they don't ask me something I don't know or they don't say something and then I don't know what to say or whatever the case may be. But you will have much more impact if you show that you care for this person and listen to them and what they think and then tell them, well, this is what the Bible says. And that will have a greater impact on them than if you just start reading off a list of scriptural truths, okay? What do they say? Listen to them and say, well, here's what God says. Here's what the Bible says about this, about you, about eternity. And that has a great impact. Let me just encourage you with a couple things here. Don't be afraid of questions as you're sharing the gospel with somebody. Don't be afraid of questions. You say, well, what if they ask something I don't know? It's okay. Just say, I don't know. I mean... Seriously, you don't have to make up some answers so you don't look bad or something. The fact of the matter is they don't know the answer either. And part of the reason that they're asking or being even critical or strange with the way they're asking questions is because they are searching and they don't know the answer either. And so don't be put back by that and don't be Don't be embarrassed by not knowing the answer. Now, I believe we ought to know scripture and we ought to work at knowing scripture better. But not knowing every verse that talks about the gospel is not an excuse to not share the gospel, okay? We ought to be sharing the gospel. And as people ask questions, that's a great opportunity to go learn another verse that may apply to that, okay? And so don't be afraid of questions. And then don't be afraid of rejection. As you're sharing the gospel with people, there are going to be people who don't want to hear what you have to say. That's normal. That's what Christ experienced. That's what the apostles experienced. People who didn't want to hear their message, okay? And as you go out, if you knock on doors or whatever, you'll find that some people will open the door, see you have a Bible, and say, nope, and shut the door. uh... shake off the dust and go to the next door uh... it's at first when when that would happen or every once in a while uh... i've had somebody get a little bit mad and say you shouldn't be talking about this to people or whatever that's actually fairly rare but it happens occasionally and when it first happened when i started sharing the gospel i wanted to crawl into a hole and i thought man this is terrible and it's like oh i don't know if i want to do this anymore But at some point, I recognized that rather than me feel awkward about their response, I actually feel bad for them because they're not rejecting me, they're rejecting Christ, they're rejecting God, okay? And so it's, not to put it lightly, but it's no sweat off my back. They're not mad at me, they're mad at the truth I'm trying to proclaim. And I'm, if anything, I'm burdened for them. But in that case as well, they yell at you, okay, that's fine. Go to the next place and see if someone will hear there. That's what they did in the Bible. One city wouldn't hear, they kicked him out, they threw him out. Well, go to the next city and see who will be tender to the gospel there. And even in those cases, you'd be surprised the fact that that impacts that person that you talked to, even if they act mad at you. It has an impact, even surprisingly. uh... you you you may be rejected uh... and then don't be discouraged by results uh... we've had a number of families come here to new life from going out on on outreach or having outreaches here or whatever but we've also had uh... decent periods of time where it seems like there's not much fruit from our labors you know you go and you say i've witnessed and witnessed and i've told people about the gospel and i i haven't seen much don't be discouraged by the times of little don't be discouraged by the times where You try to share the gospel and it doesn't seem like people listen very well, or they do listen but they don't make a decision. Don't be discouraged by that. Your job is to proclaim the truth. God takes care of the fruit. He will bring the fruit as He desires. That's not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to proclaim the truth. And God is working even when you don't see it. God works in ways that our human eyes don't always see. And so you can trust that. So don't be discouraged by the results. Okay. Real quickly here. Clicker to work here. There we go. All right. Some confusing terminology to avoid. You see the first one up there is turn from your sins, okay? When we say this, I don't know what we always mean by it. Because what it sounds like is you need to stop sinning, stop doing the bad stuff you've been doing, and instead go to Jesus. But in reality, what we need to do is we need to recognize that what we do, what we've been doing is wrong, it's sin, and that condemns us. And therefore, we need to accept Christ. It's not a matter of doing better in order to please God. It's a matter of recognizing that I'm not pleasing to God. I'm guilty and I need Christ. And so saying the word turn from your sins makes people think if I just start doing more good stuff, then God will be pleased with me. And if they don't have Christ, that is not true. And so we want to avoid saying certain things like that. This next one is just ambiguous. Ask Jesus into your heart. And most of us have probably heard that, maybe said it before, but I'm not sure quite what we mean by that. Are we asking him to literally come into our heart? Obviously not. Are we asking him to, you know, what exactly does that mean? When the Bible speaks of the word heart, oftentimes it's talking about our thinking. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. And so asking Jesus into our heart, it's just kind of, it's not a very biblical way to explain believing on Christ for salvation. And so if you use it, I would just explain it. Same thing with this next one. So this one is a little bit different. I say avoid it only because you would have to explain it if you used it, okay? Repent of your sin. Now, is it biblical to repent? The answer is yes. However, when we use repent sometimes, we sometimes mean the same thing as the first one that we have listed up there, which is stop doing the bad stuff and start doing the good stuff to please God. In other words, say, I'm going to stop doing all this bad stuff, I'm going to start doing good stuff. That's not biblically what repent means when it comes to accepting the gospel. What it means is I'm turning and the way that I'm thinking from thinking of this is the way I'm living, this is the way to please God or whatever the case may be and saying that's wrong. I'm changing my thinking. Now I know that Jesus is the only way. I can't do anything myself. That's what repenting is. It's a change of mind from thinking the old way to the correct way, thinking right. So it's not a wrong phrase necessarily, but you have to explain it if you're going to use it. And so for that reason, I say it's sometimes easier just to avoid it. Real quickly, there's a couple other things. This would be more on the case of if you're sharing your testimony. Certain things we might say. For instance, have you ever heard somebody say, well, I just saw the light? Probably not the most clear thing to say if you are sharing the gospel with a lost person, because what does that mean? You're like, well, it means the same thing as it meant to Saul on the road to Damascus. Okay, probably not, but also the lost person has no idea what that story is. So it doesn't really mean anything to them unless, again, you want to explain it. How about this, you're explaining your testimony and instead of saying that you recognize you were a sinner and you needed Christ, you say, man, I found Jesus and I stopped gambling, I stopped drinking, I stopped doing this, and we skip the decision we made. and we look at the results that God wrought in our life. Okay, again, that's not helpful to a person who does not know the gospel, because they need to know, this is the decision that I need to make. I'm a sinner, I'm lost, I need Christ. As a result of that, will God often work in your life and help you have victory over things? Yes, but don't skip the decision and look at the result, okay, when you're sharing your testimony. If you wanna go to that and say, this is what God did after I trusted him, sure. But make sure that you stick first with the decision that you made, okay? And then I think in your notes there, you have some hindrances to soul winning. And our time is done, so we don't have time to look at them. But fear of what may happen, not knowing how to talk to someone about the gospel. not recognizing that it is a biblical command, a biblical mandate. Perhaps there's physical limitations that you have, and you say, I can't go out on Saturday. Let me just encourage you, there are other ways you can share the gospel. There's always some manner that you can share the gospel, whether it's online, whether it's over the phone, whether it's in person. Don't let physical limitations prevent you from finding a way to share Christ. Work obligations, you may say, well, I can't go to this outreach or whatever because of that. Again, there are other areas. And then lack of compassion. That's a searching question. Do I have the compassion that Christ had for souls? And if not, what needs to change? Lord, what do you need to do in my life? What needs to change there? All right, our time is done. I'll pray, and then I'll have the pastor come up and dismiss. Father, I do ask that you'd help each one of us as we look to share Christ with others, this life-changing truth. Help us, God, to share with clarity. Help us to share with boldness. And God, we leave the results to you. And we'll thank you in Christ's name.