Choosing a Solid Method (Evangelism 101)

Well, amen. A few weeks ago in our first part of our little mini series here of Sharing Grace, evangelism 101, we talked about our motivation for sharing grace. We looked at 10 good reasons that we should be sharing grace. Anybody remember number one? Yeah, we've been commanded to do so and that ought to be the end of the story, right? But there were there were more. In fact, I added number 11. Then we looked at some common obstacles to why even though we've been commanded to do it, we kind of don't or we we kind of don't as much as we should. If you weren't here and you hadn't heard it, I hope you'll go listen to that.

Then last Sunday night we talked about the message that we should be sharing and the goal of gospel communication is to help people come to an understanding that they need a Savior, right? It's to help them to see that without Christ they're in a world of hurt standing before God on Judgment Day and Judgment Day is coming. We talked about we read some quotes from great Christians throughout the ages 100 hundred more years ago and everybody seemed to get it. Everybody understood that you had to. I love Spurgeon's quote that he described the gospel as a silken thread. You remember that?

And he said you can't send the silken thread of the gospel through a man's heart without first sending what? Anybody remember? The needle of the law to make way for it. And so the law to the proud, grace to the humble, but the law, the message of the gospel and something I failed to do, I even said I was gonna do it early on in the message that then really didn't do it with spend hardly any time at all on what's not the gospel or bad gospel messages or bad ineffective or incorrect or lacking gospel messages like God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Never tell anybody that.

Look there's a lot of truth in it okay but there's context that has to be built up. Never use that. What would you say? Think about somebody saying that to Stephen on the day that he was getting stoned to death. Now did God have a wonderful plan for Stephen? Absolutely he did. The problem is we don't you know our concept of good and wonderful is typically not lined up with God's plan. Never tell somebody to ask Jesus into their heart. There's no biblical warrant for that. There's nothing in scripture that points to that. Just telling somebody Jesus loves them is meaningless without context.

If you just tell somebody Jesus loves them well then that tells them well then I must be okay. You know no matter what sin they might be living in there it's an affirming message. Don't do that. Now that doesn't mean we're supposed to walk around with a scowl on our face or we're supposed to be walking around telling people you're a sinner. You're a sinner. No that's not it. We want to lovingly communicate those and use those tools that God has provided us to lovingly communicate to help people understand on their own. They'll bring judgment on themselves a lot of times and it's amazing to behold. The prosperity gospel is false.

You know Christ is not a genie. He's not a financial advisor who whose whole purpose for your life is to make you wealthy. I love, Patty reminded me of this, I think Brother Bendon is where I first heard something to this effect that if the gospel you preach can't be preached in Haiti it shouldn't be preached anywhere. So just remember that if the gospel message here make it more generic. If the gospel message that you preach can't be preached everywhere it shouldn't be preached anywhere.

And the prosperity God how come Kenneth Copeland and them boys don't go to Haiti and solve all those people's problems you know because it's a false gospel and it's a demonic gospel. That's why. So I just wanted to mention that that there are we talked about the biblical message last week and I meant to spend a little time talking about false messages and fail to do so. So tonight we get to talk about methodology. We get to talk about a method for sharing the message. Now let me say this there are the message we're going to talk about tonight is not the I mean the method is not the only method out there. I'm not I'm not saying that it is.

However it's an effective method to communicate the right message and that's the key. It needs to be a message or method that helps you communicate the correct message. Anthony you need to come get closer to me because I'm gonna be asking you to chime in. Close enough to have you can actually sit back there if you want to but you need that. No no it's fine. Yeah. So what would you add what would you add there as far as methodology is concerned. We're you know we're I'm steeped in the methodology of ray comfort as you are but we both you and I both recognize it's not the only you know we're it's not scripture right. I mean yeah amen.

So just there's a ton of methodologies. I've read the books over the years I've attended the conferences and the classes and they're all helpful and they all have helpful bits and pieces to them but at the end of the day you want to be biblical and just you you're a real person you have to remember and you're talking to real people and so when we get in too far into a methodology we just become robotic and we're kind of pushing people through the steps and that's okay in the learning process you need to do that sometimes if you're scared especially you know it's helpful to have some steps to look at or like we're gonna talk about specifically starting with the law using the commandments.

For years I forgot the resurrection like for years I just told people I told them about the law I told them about Christ's death and his payment and literally left out the resurrection you know for years upon years and it dawned on me one day man like what's the death without the resurrection? So I would just say yeah methodologies are good but at the end of the day literally evangelism is just the supernatural overflow of the heart you know you have to talk to people like real people.

Yeah that's really really good and notice you know and the first part of what Anthony said is when you're learning they're very helpful and that's where many of us are is learning so it's okay to have a method that you can plant in your head and over the years you know it's become second nature to me, second nature to Anthony. We'll talk about some things that we specifically pray for ourselves in just a few minutes but you know this is a method that helps a hearer see his or her need for a Savior to become aware of their sin and their standing before God if they were to be judged today.

It's a method that uses the Ten Commandments it accomplishes the goal and it circumvents the intellect. Remember we talked about in the message a quote by John MacArthur and based on scripture that that God has given every man a conscience and the law is written on every person's heart and so speaking the law allows you to circumvent a man's intellect which is enmity with God.

A man's intellect is an enemy of God it considers it so you want to argue prophecies and all that kind of stuff although biblical prophecies you're using scripture that's that's not a bad thing but people are going to be ready for you they're going to be arguing you know apologetics is great I love a personally love apologetics and they're great to get a conversation going sometimes but you've got to be moving away from the person's intellect to their conscience you're speaking to a person's conscience and sometimes you'll see people say the word no while their head is doing this it's the funniest thing you know it's because their conscience is making their head go up and down Anthony's seen that I know or vice versa where their mouth says yes you know whatever and their conscience is making their head shake no it's the funniest thing.

So how many of you have had a chance to watch some array comforts videos raise your hand any thoughts what did you think Kristy what did you think when you watch those what were some thoughts that popped into your head as you were watching she's looking at me she's looking that's cuz he's short it did yeah you saw him street preaching did you watch any of the one-on-one encounters? yeah anybody anybody else tell me you know some thoughts yeah he's so good because he's been doing it for what 40 years or something like that he's he's gifted you know and Ray is quick to say there's no such thing as a gift of evangelism and and he's right in what he's saying is we're all called to do it but he's got the gift he's gifted you know he's gifted anybody else want to share any thoughts about what you've seen when you watch that I'm gonna I'm gonna tell one on Jared since he's not here Jared and I had a conversation Jared was concerned he said it sounded so scripted he watched several videos right and it was so much of the same in each of the videos and he's like it sounds so scripted you know and and when I helped Jared understand I said well you know I don't know if script is the right word but I said everybody he talks to who's never heard it before he said well that's a good point you know but as you're as you're mass consuming those videos you think well that's the same thing it's the same thing but each of those people he's talking to is the first time they've ever heard it you know so again as Anthony alluded to when you're first learning it's good to have a skeleton that you can put some meat you can put meat on or have a roadmap that you can always reach back and remember where you are in fact I'm gonna look up I don't know if you remember those little did you ever have the little craft cards that they had it came with the way of the master training course and I'm every every day I remind myself to look and see if you can still get them but it was just a little a little pocket card that would help you you know kind of stay on track I'll see if I'll see if they have any of those so the 101 Christy think you could do that what what you saw Ray do you can anybody else who watched it can you do that I promise you you can you can't do it as good as Ray does it right now or as fluidly as he does it but you got to start somewhere and you can do that I love something I forgot about to Patty and I were binge watching a few of them today and here's the thing he mentions it on the end of one of his videos it says you know do you have somebody in your life that you that you would love to share the gospel with but you're not sure how he says click the share button on this video and send it to him and say I'd love to know what you think about this now everybody in here just thought about somebody they could send the video to you could do that right hey give me your thoughts on this or thought you might enjoy watching this if even that's even less that's even less committal you know if you ask them what do you think oh my goodness you may have to talk to him about it you can do that but hey just start off by saying hey have you ever seen anything you ever seen anything like this don't you love his accent and send it and let the gospel do its work now a great tool to help you is good gospel tracks let me read you a couple of quotes here Spurgeon listen to Spurgeon when preaching and private talk not available you need to have a track ready get good striking tracks or none at all but a touching gospel track may be the seed of eternal life therefore do not go out without your tracks ray comfort has a standing bet he promises to give anybody to give $20 to anybody that ever finds him in public without gospel tracks and he tells a funny story about being in a pool somewhere and some guy walks up and says haha and racist you know you had some coins or something in his swim trunks you know but here's a quote from ray comfort on gospel tracks he says there are many tracks available however make sure they contain the whole counsel of God the most popular tracks fail to open the moral law as Jesus did to mention the fact of Judgment Day or the reality of hell instead they promise a wonderful new life in Christ that promises one of happiness rather than righteousness so we've got some tracks down here on the table from living waters calm it's not the only source of good tracks but it is a source of good tracks they're all very good there you can get some gospel booklets from wretched wretched org those are good but they're longer longer form but a living waters the prices are good there the a lot of the gospel tracks are very witty they're very clear they're topical Christmas got some Christmas millions even current events it's amazing how they their staff is just on it whenever some big thing worldwide thing is happening before you know it they have produced a track dealing with that just like you've seen if you've noticed some of the tracks from King Charles coronation that you know it's a beautiful track with a picture of King Charles on it all about his coronation and stuff with the they printed up bazillions of people they put together I think they headed it up with our spearheaded or whatever thousands of people went to London armed with these during the coronation and up there some others some other current event tracks that they've done but it's amazing just on the spur of the moment boom next thing you know they somehow able to do it in time to use them with the event foreign language they've got plenty of foreign language tracks I think I've got some Spanish are you a good person tracks down here Anthony comments on tracks current events are great in the workplace at school in your family current events can bring up the gospel you know in a heartbeat especially newsworthy current events they're either you know they're either dealing with something very serious like death or tragedy or yeah something illegal you know news is usually always bad news and so current events are a great place to get people's thoughts and then segue into eternal consequences for the news yeah beef you know one thing to pray is for for God to help you see the connection between current events to two gospel conversations I was one time I was street preaching in Athens Georgia at the university campus there and it was during the time maybe it was the Patriot Act or something but there was a the big thing in the news was the government spying you know and so I drew a crowd talking about the government spying knowing all of your activity and then trance you know transitioned in to the fact that that God's recording every thought you know and that I talked you know how horrible would it be if the FBI played all of your whatever whatever and then and then well how much worse is it gonna be how would you like it if we had a hundred foot screen right here and God started playing your thoughts you know so you know that's one thing to pray God helped me make the connection between current events to gospel conversations that you can have in the grocery store with people they Patty I'm gonna come down here this is out of order but I'm gonna go ahead and you know I'm gonna go ahead and do this now so because it fits here too one of the things we'll talk about in a few minutes is some non-threatening questions you can use to start a conversation but Patty reminded me today about an encounter she had where she didn't start the conversation but God helped her latch on to something that the other person said to turn it into a gospel conversation tell tell yeah I was at the grocery store and I was at the Martnell rack at Walmart and another lady was there too and we just got to talking it was early in the morning and she started talking about how she's a school bus driver here in Brookhaven and how bad it had gotten and everything and I just kind of I just took that lead to start talking about how yeah it is bad and everything and I said it's just gonna get worse and she's like oh it is and so then I just I just kind of led into the gospel and and talk about you know it's more than just going to church you know the path to be born again and you know so I just went through and it was just like a conversation and I wasn't like like Ray Comfort witness and I didn't say are you a good person do you think you're a good person you know like that but I still gave her I presented the gospel to her in talking about how bad current times are and stuff like that well she offended oh no she wasn't offended she was a very agreeable and of course I invited to church too but she already has a church thank you mr.

Isaac we're gonna watch a video seven-minute video some of you if you've been watching race stuff you may have seen it because I think it's recent but Patty and I were watching it today I thought oh that's good because he's using a gospel track I don't have any of these but we're gonna order some at his artist that we need to get some of these but he's showing how he use uses this particular gospel track and then so we're gonna watch this and then afterwards I'll have a few comments and we'll and then we'll move on what shot prophet a man if he gains the whole world loses his soul this amazing little tract in a fun way gets unbelievers to memorize perhaps the most powerful verse in the Bible watch a prophet a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul how quick is your mind read the four lines of colored words out loud but instead of saying the words say the color of each word can you say more than five in a row without a mistake try it and then it says see the back and on the back it says now cover your left eye and say the following words slowly for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul this time cover your right eye and read them again now hold the card with both hands about 12 inches from your face and read them one more time then shut your eyes and see if you can visualize each word within your mind don't let anything distract you and so unbelievers in a fun way memorize perhaps the most powerful evangelistic verse in the Bible I'm trying to give you a how quick is your mind card see how quick in mind is gonna read that out loud okay green yellow blue red red blue green blue for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the world and loses all soul for what shall profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and loses all soul for what shall profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul you memorized it yes you've heard that verse before I don't think I have so I've just got you to memorize perhaps the most important verse in the whole Bible you're gonna be given a million dollars by someone at eight o'clock in the morning you can spend it anyway you want on the condition at eight o'clock that night they can shoot you to death on camera it's called a snuff video would you do that what about you would you do it for a million dollars a hundred million no see what Jesus said he said watch a profit a man for gain the whole world and loses his own soul I think you're a good person yes I'm a good person when's your last look at pornography two months ago about like a month ago you know what Jesus said about that but it's wrong she shouldn't do it he says if you look at a woman and lust for her you come at adultery whether in your heart how many lies do you think you've told in your life more than I can count what about you more than I ever stolen something even if it's small yes so you're a lying thief yes still think you're a good person no ever use God's name in vain yes yes you love your mom yes would you ever use her name as a cuss word no no because you respect her you don't respect the God that gave your mother you've taken his holy name and used it as a cuss word very serious guys so if you were to die today you'd be guilty of breaking God's commandments lying thieving blasphemous adult at heart did you get a heaven or hell probably hell yeah how does that concern you yes sir does it concern you ever heard the Bible verse the wages of sinners death I have this very famous it's saying God is paying you in death for your sins like a judge who looks at a criminal that's committed multiple murders but he keeps on I'm a good person judge the judge says I'm gonna show you how serious your crime is I'm giving you the death sentence this is your wages this is what you've earned an Andre Sin is so serious to a holy God has given you the death sentence you're on death row and your death will be evidence to you that God is deadly serious about sin and you've earned your wages so what did God do for guilty sinners like you and me so he wouldn't have to go to hell he died on the cross for us now most people know that but they don't know this and Andre if you can get a grip of this it's going to change everything for you the ten commandments are called the moral law you and I broke the law Jesus paid the fine that's what happened on that cross that's why he said it is finished just before he died he was saying paid in full if you're in court and you've got speeding fines and you plead guilty a judge will let you go someone pays those fines you'll say you're out of here and it's legal you go because someone paid you fine well God can take the death sentence off you he can legally let you live forever all because of the death and resurrection of Jesus and what you've got to do to find everlasting life as repent of your sins and you'll never do that why you think you're a good person and then put your trust in Jesus like you trust a parachute you're gonna jump out of a plane 10,000 feet why would you put on a parachute yeah and your motivation is fear and that fear is your friend not your enemy because it's making you put on a parachute guys because I love you I try to put the fear of God on you today I'm trying to make you sweat a little bit a little bit scared hoping you'll see that fear is your friend not your enemy because it'll make you serious with God can you hear what I'm saying you're gonna think about what we talked about yes sir what about you gonna think so when are you gonna repent and put your trust in Jesus and not your goodness today what about you right now are you sorry for your sins sir you sorry can I pray with you guys father I pray for these two young men I pray today they'll be born again be given a new heart new desires with a thirst for righteousness and a knowledge that passed from death to life all because of your amazing grace and Jesus name we pray Amen can I give you guys a book I've written called scientific facts in the Bible yes yes I guess as soon as possible actually today today yeah and I pray with you of course thank you for Andre father I thank you for his open and honest heart all because of your amazing grace in Jesus name we pray Amen remember the words of Jesus watch it a prophet a man if he gains the whole world and lose his soul keep that tucked in your heart great to meet you Andre it's good to meet you too how quick is your mind is available at living waters comm just click on store and then tracts so first of all you probably missed the question he asked about the million dollars after he got him to learn the phrase what does it profit a man if he gained the whole world except uses he said if somebody were to give you a million dollars first thing in the morning and tell you you could do whatever you wanted to with it the only condition was that at 8 p.m. that night they were going to shoot you dead on on film of as part of a snuff video would you take that deal and of course they said no so he upped it hundred million no of course not you know why because what does it profit a man if you gain the whole world that uses soul ray often uses he often asked people would you sell one of your eyes for a million dollars most people say no we actually saw a young man today say yes I would so Ray didn't bat an eye he didn't no pun intended he moved he just immediately said would you sell both of them for a hundred million the guy immediately said no I wouldn't he said yeah what are you gonna do see the world with your hundred million no you're not gonna see anything and in in because it's like we we value our eyes our eyes are extremely valuable to us but all they are is little gelatinous balls that serve as windows for our souls to look out you know so as much as we value our eyes we should value our souls more so just a couple more comments about the video were those three guys offended at all no I mean Ray wasn't being accusatory he wasn't I mean you heard the compassion in his voice and none of those guys was there anything to be scared of with those guys I mean they they were extremely gracious and not angry at all let's see so ways to distribute tracks tracks are a great way to get into this I've got and we're gonna let you take some of these up here some of them Patty don't want you to take because we need to order some she's fallen in love with the few this is a smaller version of the giant money track I've got some that a little bit bigger than this and I just realized I don't have them in my truck I've got them in the Honda I've been I was riding the Honda before I got this truck so I need to put some in the truck these are great at drive-through windows at McDonald's you go up you pay for your food or whatever and and then but before you leave you say hey can you break a really large bill and I have them up above my thing and before they can answer it you stick that in the window and they every single time what do they do bust out laughing and about every every two or three times that I do that they'll say what will they ask me do you have any more do you have any more people ask for them Anthony if you experience that people because these tracks are they're cute you know now Ray used those track the track that he had there to take people all the way through the gospel presentation but they have a lot of tracks and of course this can apply to any of their tracks that you know did you get one of these you get one of these have a good day I've handed off the track but I'd had it didn't have to stay there say anything now that's not the end goal the end goal is you want to be able to you know that these Christmas ones are great they're the great a great lead-in question is hey have you been naughty or nice you know well I think I've been pretty good well can I ask you a few questions to see if that's true how many lies do you think you've told in your life you know listen people that's not offensive that is not an offensive question if you if you ask it gently and with a smile on your face and you communicate concern for people but any of these tracks these little here's a little IQ track IQ test what is greater than God worse than the devil the dead eat it and if the living eat it they die the answer is nothing what's greater God nothing what's worse than the devil nothing the dead eat it that's nothing and if the living eat it that the living eat nothing they die and then on the back it's got another intelligence test do you think that all good people go to heaven do you think you'll go to heaven it's a gospel presentation these happen to fit exactly perfectly in the credit card slot and a gas pump now I'm not telling you to do that I'm not sure if it's appropriate to do it I may or might may or may not do that but just telling you that they do curved illusion tracks these are awesome people love these kids love them especially we gave them out at the Halloween thing and we just walked around and they grab people's attention can y'all see that can everybody see which one is bigger smarty pants but which one looks bigger now which one looks bigger ah kind of creepy right isn't that great and then you know what you can do that two or three times do what yeah creepy Christian man you know that and you do it two or three times because it because no matter how many times you do it your eyes never adjust but after you do it two or three times you just put them together and say they're the same times here you can keep that hey you got any more and say be sure to read the instructions are on the back because they are it gives instructions on card one about how to do it hey it's options are on the back bye or you can you can talk about how we shouldn't trust our own shouldn't trust your heart you know your eyes deceive you and so does your heart you know would you consider yourself to be a good person that's where that's where I'm always heading because people the Bible says most men will proclaim their own goodness proclaim each his own goodness but the Bible says how many good people are there no not one you know so 10 commandments coins man they're great they're pretty and shiny you know it's got a gospel presentation on one side 10 commandments on the other so again tracks can be a springboard to the gospel they can help you get into a gospel conversation when you're ready to do that and I and I pray God will would swallow allow you to allow compassion to swallow your fears and do it whether you're ready or not but at any time when you get frustrated okay bye I mean just leave it with them okay bye and they've got it in their hands right or huh yeah giving them a track is better than not saying anything let's see anything else Anthony about sharing about tracks how you know how you've used them or any stories pertaining to use them yes yeah it is Keith asked you said is it possible to share your testimony without witnessing yes it is here but here's let me turn that around though Keith and I were having this conversation earlier and I was actually supposed to tell him to remind me I didn't have to tell him he reminded me your testimony is a great way to share the gospel but what's important you got to make sure that you know how to share your testimony in a way to communicate the message that we talked about last week so get with me get with Anthony get with Keith or Chris Travis can help you obviously we don't want to we don't want you to lie in your testimony but we can help you talk through it help you get it down on paper where your testimony reflects how God revealed your sin to you and then revealed the remedy to your sin you follow me we can help you craft your testimony so that it tracks with the message that we talked about last week does that make sense this means yes I'll see some people yeah so keep in mind the the best thing I could tell you to do and I'll do I'll mention some in just a moment but the but the but the best thing I could tell you to do is go back and listen to last Sunday's message with that in mind with tailoring your testimony to that message but all right the couple of what did I say hey up Patty no that's why I said I don't want you to lie but we want to help you to truthfully tailor your testimony to be able to communicate listen if you've been born again God revealed to you somehow you needed to be right so you need to be able to tell that story somehow you knew you were lost nobody gets saved till they know they're lost so you need to be able to tailor your testimony about those are the points you need to be able to cover when you're talking to someone and God can use that and how he transformed your life you know how you became born again through through that that recognition thank you Keith let me add to that so you know in Romans it tells us that our conscience the conscience of a man either accuses him or excuses him so when you're talking about your testimony like me I was not a church person so when the Lord convicted me of sin the Ten Commandments were not running through my mind verbatim yet I knew I was a terrible person according to God I knew the things that I were doing were wrong and so while I didn't have the commandment in mind per se I had the conviction of sin and so you know then if I tell my testimony it develops over time that okay this is what I didn't know what born again was I heard that term when I was maybe in my teens and I never knew what it meant you know and then when the Lord saved me I realized what it was and I saw it in Scripture so you may not have the nomenclature of the scriptural terminology when you are saved but after you know you realize okay that's what God was doing that's what God was revealing to me that's what God was showing sure yeah that that's exactly that's very good for example if you if you'll if you listen to my testimony which is on it's pinned to the top of my Facebook page and Fin pin to the top of my Twitter profile reveal to me that I was lost as a duck I'm like Anthony I didn't know anything I didn't I mean I knew the commandments or I couldn't tell them to you but I mean I'd grown up in church but I wasn't thinking about the seventh commandment they all said I'll commit adultery but I just knew that the things that I was putting into my brain and it threw my eyes was awful and unacceptable and wicked but you know as I you know then I understood oh I was an adult you know I mean some some time way later understood so when telling my testimony it's perfectly reasonable for me to say what I just said you know I knew that I was wicked and all this kind of stuff later God showed me that what I really was was a breaker of the seventh commandment you know I committed adultery because Jesus said whosoever looks at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart see so so come would come you know come see me come see Anthony Keith Travis Chris Shepherd we will help you work on your testimony to get it to where it can be a true witnessing tool thank you Keith all right we're burning up clock let's see something else to pray for so what did I what did I tell you to pray for already somebody remember because I don't no I hadn't said that yet that's what I'm about to say no did that last time but I did hint at hint at that it was something else well here it is here here's the new thing I want to say pray for is pray every day this every day why I don't anymore I don't know what I need to start again but every day when you pray the Lord would bring you divine encounters pray spiritual antenna would be up that's the point at which I was gonna have Patty tell that story because her spiritually or up that again she didn't start that conversation the other lady did and Patty was listening with spiritual ears and heard a comment that was able to that she was able to latch on to naturally not force you know not awkwardly or anything just naturally turn the conversation so pray for spiritual antenna Anthony tell them happened at your house a week a couple weeks ago and tie that into what we're talking about yes every time we leave the house we pray we don't necessarily pray in those words about spiritual antenna but we pray that we'd be Christ like to the people that we meet and that we would be loving to the people we meet and that they would see Christ in us and of course that says you know we want to communicate truth to them and we want to be helpful and be whole people ministering to whole people in every way and the kids were at a business down here they were doing a what's it called a sale yeah it's like a kid where kids could be entrepreneurs and they could put up tables and sell some stuff so my daughter came into town to be with her brother and sister at this event this is all gonna tie in in a minute anyway we get there and set up early in the morning and Timothy feels sick this is when he got strep throat and so he was feeling really bad so by the time 11 o'clock rolled around we had to go or I had to take him home and but I needed to be there with candy and Leah also so my daughter was in town my oldest daughter and I said hey would you come home and sit with Timothy I'll bring y'all home and then I'll go back so I was also trying to work out buying a bumper for my car at the time this is all gonna work out I promise I'm telling you these things for a reason and I was in one vehicle the little Toyota but I needed to be in the different vehicle to pick up this bumper if the guy was gonna meet me back in Brookhaven and I didn't know I was kind of texting back and forth with him anyway I took Timothy home and I get home and I don't see anybody on the road and we live out if you've been to our house we live 25 minutes west on 550 out in the middle of nowhere past National Forest sign and I get home get them set up and I'm thinking to myself well I don't need to go back into Toyota I'm gonna go back in the Ford because the guy with the bumper might contact me so I take the time and change everything out that I normally have in the car and I put it all in the other car and SUV and I head out and I get to my property line on 550 and there's a Ford old Ford Explorer you gotta understand this man lives 2700 miles from nothing and we love it so no but that's important there's a Ford Explorer broken down and like I can see it leaving my driveway and I'm like and they're standing there like looking at the car and I'm like Lord I don't have time right now I'm going I'm going back so I really didn't want to stop and I was in nice clean clothes and it was a flat tire like the sidewalk just blew out and the guys looking at the car like he has no idea what to do so I stopped kind of in the road like I'm gonna be a good good guy and just ask if they're okay did they call somebody I'm like you guys okay and he's like no not really I was like man I said you got somebody coming he's like nope say you calling somebody he's like don't have anybody to call I'm like so I said all right I'm gonna pull over I'm like man do you have a spare he goes I do but I can't get it out I don't know how to get it out of the car anyway if you know about Ford vehicles there's a there's a rod that you have to have to stick up into the back of the vehicle to let the tire down from the back and if I'd have been in Toyota I wouldn't have that rod but I was in a Ford almost identical to his just one step bigger that had that exact rod so I'm like okay Lord you want me to help this guy with the tire so I was like man I have what you need I said do you have a jack and he's like got the little peewee jack and we're on the side of mountainous terrain and Union Church so you're not gonna use that Jack so I said man give me a minute I'll go back to the house and I pray on the way back to the house I'm like Lord please let me help this guy and his girlfriend was with him anyway make a long story short they were coming from Tampa Florida and kills me every time I say this think about it how far is Tampa only only thousands of miles okay and I was past that point five seconds beforehand going home gonna get in the car and they break down but time I'm in the house change up my vehicle and they're there so I'm like how many people are there anyway I'm like I'm gonna change your tire you know I'm gonna help you so I go back jack the vehicle up and he's and I'm praying Lord if you want me to share the gospel with him just have him say something and he's like he looks me now he's like man I think the Lord that you stop and I say you better thank the Lord because I did not want to stop I said I'm on the way I was like it's hot dude it's terrible out I said I'm and I just say this all the time and it's a phrase that I use and it kind of catches people off guard but I say look I'm a terrible sinner I broke all ten of the commandments and either thought word or deed and you know immediately they think I'm a murderer and here I'm a murderer changing their tire but they don't understand what I'm saying but then I explained it to him so I'm jacking up his car and he's like he's like man I'll do that I said man I would prefer that I'll jack up your car and I'll just tell you about the Lord you know that you just said I was just you know blunt with him I was like man you travel from Tampa and the Lord makes you break down right here like this is the God of the universe that says we're gonna meet today and man I want to tell you you know I love you and I want to tell you the truth that he's worthy you know to be worshipped and went through the commandments with him just a little bit I usually I don't you know go through all of them but I'll usually touch on lying because everybody's done that and I'll touch on stealing and what I've done in later years even is some people will say you know they've never done that they really will they'll say no man I'm good my own sister sat in front of my family like two weeks ago and you know just said she's absolutely righteous but there's there's a twist to that that you can turn is you know judgment day it's gonna reveal not just the commandments but no one has loved the Lord their God for their heart soul mind and strength no one has loved their neighbor so the standard of love really will crack the heart of soul that you're talking to because no one can stand there at least in their own mind they may say it with their lips but they know that they have not loved people the way they ought to and really I used my own sin to talk to Maurice that was his name and you know at the end we actually I gave him a hug and he had a tire and I told him stop by anytime and just with a working vehicle and not a broken vehicle and that was that was it but when I it was more for me I was I think I told Keith this last week you know I'm sure it was for Maurice and his girlfriend but it was it was more for me to to again humble me and say look and John O said this in a message that Chris sent me that you know we only exist on this world right now because there are sinners left you know when the last child of God is saved that's a wrap it's over so literally our lives like you go to college because there are sinners that need the gospel you work where you work because there are sinners who need the gospel you live where you live because there are sinners who need the gospel literally that's the only reason we're here we have other things to do yes but those things are just avenues to bring the gospel I was reading I think it's John 9 the man born blind I was reading that this afternoon and the disciples asked Jesus it says Jesus passing by and there's a man born blind from birth and the disciples asked Jesus hey who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind he says neither he was born blind so that God's glory would be displayed this very day and it hit me like a ton of bricks like we go out we're not going out to condemn sinners we're going out to literally find other people to display the glory of God that's what we're going out to find we just have to keep that in mind but divine appointments are everywhere like they really are when you stop and look and listen and wait and God can and you have to beat your flesh into submission literally to say Lord I want to do this you know I want to go yeah that happened because the Lord of course knew he could trust Anthony with that even though Anthony wrestled you know with his flesh part but God will break somebody down in front of your house who traveled 14 hours to break down right where you are you know I think about this right quick now we're wrapping up I wanted us to have time to do some play acting but we don't so so oh yeah questions so if you've got questions hold on for just a second just to in in keeping with what Anthony was talking I've thought about this often where Christ told the men to go into the city to prepare for the Passover right and he said go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a jug of water and tell him to take you to the upper room and we're gonna prepare and all that kind of stuff did you realize what had to be orchestrated just right for those men to meet that guy walking that with that I mean they had to start exactly at the point they needed to start that guy had to do whatever he had to do to get that water pot filled up so that he could start right when he needed to start my point is you realize how easy would have been for them to miss each other but they didn't miss each other it happened just like he so you realize how easy it would have been for those people to have missed Anthony can I tell you something it would have been impossible for those people to miss Anthony because the Lord orchestrated those people driving from Tampa Florida to right there at the moment he was coming out God will do that if you're if you can be a willing vessel so I asked to have questions ready do anybody got any questions about first let me say this and I'm gonna finish men come come to me we're happy to practice with you Anthony will too we're happy to do that Travis I think you've got some experience in this Travis will too and look we need to we need to have a men's night out and go witnessing to folks homeless people if you can go love on homeless people provide them a meal that's another thing I'll do with those giant hundreds especially if I'm traveling I'm on and I'm on a schedule and I don't have time to really flesh it out with them I'll ask them if they can read and if they can a giant hundred goes into their Burger King bag or whatever when I provide them a meal people show up up here out here on church days and I'll run down the dollar store buy some bread and some ham and all that bring them a bag put a hundred dollar bill in there y'all can you read yes there's something there for you to read so anyway we would be happy to lay out Patty Patty's familiar with the method ladies talk to Patty she'd be help you to flesh it out so any questions that anybody has well that's what I'm saying it's up it depends on a couple of things comfort level what you're ready to do and their openness and you'll get a feel for that I'm glad you mentioned that because one of the things I wanted to say is what do you do if somebody says I'm not interested okay thanks have a good day turn around Ray talks about watching a bumblebee or watching a honeybee go from flower to flower you know this go here only stay a second go to a flower only stay a second eventually you see them on a flower go in deep and he said that's the way we are we're bees going from flower to flower looking for nectar you're looking for that open heart that's great I'm glad you said that because it I wasn't trying to communicate or what I was trying to communicate is don't feel like you have to stand there and get beat up especially if you're not ready for it you know if you if God has equipped you to not take no for an answer then then use the gift that God's given you to to part you know parry with them and you don't want to ever be offensive listen the message the cross is offensive the message of the cross is offensive let people be offended by the cross not you you don't want to ever be offensive but but that's great Annie if somebody says I'm not interested hey if you're you know if your game turn it on so you know well you ought to be you know really really hey you how much do you value your eyes you know you could then then get to their soul and all that yeah don't you don't have to give up my point is especially if you're new at this and you're in you're ready to hand out you know and they're like what is that get that out of my face okay thank you have a nice day you know you're not required to stand there and get hit in the mouth Anthony you were gonna say I was gonna say it is gonna be uncomfortable and you just have to press through the discomfort yeah anything else we're really over time yes ma'am yeah yeah yeah yeah I think I I think I would probably agree with the principle of that however in the south everybody knows those words but you know I don't think Ray uses those words either you know in fact he uses he uses man's law in civil criminal court to try to bring home what happened on the cross you know Christ Christ paid paid the price for our for crimes you know and you're I don't know that it's necessary to use the word saved you know somebody's gonna pay for your crimes either you or Christ and so but it's a good point that we do have to be careful about the jargon that we use and maybe explain our term any other questions we're really over time well let's pray and again I wish we'd had time wish we had one more we should have one more week I'll see if we can we'll see if we can maybe find an empty week somewhere and maybe just partner up and and do again it's not the only method out there but I would encourage you YouTube channel ray comfort just witnessing and they're they're encouraging shows them when they don't go well you know I mean and just get it in you and then talk to us and we'll help you Anthony would you pray for us please