Theological Coffeehouse: Evangelism
Download MP3Alright. Well, welcome. Welcome. Welcome. If you're finishing up getting your drink orders in, that's fine.
Collin Hansen:But we're gonna go ahead and get some things started here. The way that some of the time's gonna break down, I'm I'm gonna go for a stretch, like 30 minutes or something. I should never say how long I'm gonna go because I'm gonna go for an hour or 2. And then, we're gonna take a break. Joel's gonna get up here.
Collin Hansen:He's gonna teach for a bit, and then we're we're gonna, field some questions. So, I hope that, you're in a comfy chair, and, and we're gonna get going. One one thing, like, as often as you'd like and everything, feel free to get up and buy drinks. Urban Standard is very, very generous in letting us, meet here at night. And, so we we wanna say thank you to them and also to tip well in thanking them.
Collin Hansen:It's a very generous thing to do. So welcome to our last theological coffee house of the summer since, I believe the first day of fall was yesterday or something like that. So we're we're just we're sneaking in there. One one last theological coffee house of the summer. And, and so we've gone through a lot of different topics.
Collin Hansen:Hopefully, you've been able to come hang out at those. But tonight, the the message is about or the the topic is evangelism, which I know can be, somewhat of a messy topic, depending on your experiences, maybe going out and doing evangelism, or being evangelized too, or or what your background might be. This can this can be a bit of a messy topic. It can also be a topic that brings about a lot of guilt. You know?
Collin Hansen:Like, if I just got up here and said, how many people have you evangelized to this past week? And then, you know, you either start hating yourself or you start, you know, puffing yourself up with self righteousness. Like, I prayed with everybody that I work with, and and you could have this, this rush of self righteousness come to you. But but that's really not the objective for us. I I want to share one quick story.
Collin Hansen:I I was at a funeral a couple years ago, and after the funeral is over, you know how you go to awkward meals afterwards? And and so we we made our way to the to the awkward meal, and and sitting around. There's this girl who had been pretty visibly upset for a good, portion of the day. And I saw the youth minister from the church where the funeral was held go over and talk to her, and then they they prayed. And then he came over, and he wanted to introduce that there was a a new Christian that that we we all should welcome.
Collin Hansen:And, and so everyone, you know, clapped or did something like that. And then, and then he said, Amanda, who saved you today? And she said, Pastor Tommy did. My face was pretty much like most of your faces, just then. Now, I don't, I don't pretend to know whether or not that was when the Lord did reveal her sin, and she turned from that sin, and she turned to Christ.
Collin Hansen:I don't pretend to know all that happened there, but but I did cringe when she said pastor Tommy's name. I cringed for Amanda because clearly that something was not clarified for her, and I cringed for pastor Tommy because he didn't clarify it. Now later, I've I have hope that that was clarified and in time there was clarity brought to that, but but in that moment, I cringed. And maybe for some of you, when you hear just the word evangelism, you cringe as well. Many people do.
Collin Hansen:It elicits these ideas of an aggressive, like, revival service and someone urging a commitment. There's this guy that actually came up with this bench to sit the lost people on, and so he would, like, really kind of give it to them and talking about hell. And and that's where they would, you know, kind of sweat it out and then finally make a decision. May maybe you think of something like that, or you think about a televangelist that's after money or or, just pushing the these commitments. And and maybe you think of that guy on the street, with the sign and the bullhorn yelling just offensive line after offensive line.
Collin Hansen:I at the college that I went to, there's this guy, brother Jim, which was also, he he was one of those evangelists on the side of the road screaming at people. And every time a woman walked by, just pretty much with shorts on or a skirt, he would scream, whore. Like, that's how he was evangelizing. That's how he was spreading the good news. And so we really have to slow down, and that's what I want us to do tonight, to to think about this sometimes pejorative term, this this negative view of evangelism, and I want us to slow down and re examine it.
Collin Hansen:And hopefully, we will see the semantics, these words, these terms redeemed in our own minds and in our own discourse, and that more than anything our hearts would be kindled to share the true gospel of Christ. So this section that I'm doing is is, a theology of evangelism. And so if you are, wanting to take notes, you might wanna start now. Okay. A good place to start, in considering what evangelism is is to look at what it's not.
Collin Hansen:So that's part 1 here. What evangelism isn't. First, evangelism is an outreach. It's not service projects or musical programs or clean up, community projects like that, sports events that you that you put on. Those kinds of events or activities, those outreach things, that's not evangelism.
Collin Hansen:They can be an inroad to evangelism, but in and of themselves, that's not what we're talking about when we say evangelism. Another thing would be apologetics, arguments about creation and evolution, arguments about morality. Those kinds of conversations about gender roles and theological arguments, all of that, which can be a very good and fruitful endeavor, in and of itself, that is not evangelism. Another thing, number 3, testimony. Sharing one's testimony, personal experiences, how you became a Christian, and maybe you stopped doing drugs, or you became a better husband, or you became a better friend or employee, whatever that might be, that can be an inroad to evangelism, but in and of itself, that testimony is not evangelism.
Collin Hansen:And here is the last thing, imposition is not evangelism. Imposing one's belief upon another person. We we actually, in this great article written by Mark Dever, and I'll go through some of my resources, in a little bit. But Mark Dever talks about how Christianity, it can't be imposition. When when we are telling of the gospel, that that can't be imposition, because imposition would would mean that you have a subjective truth, I have a subjective truth, and we'll we'll just see which one kind of wins out.
Collin Hansen:And if I can give a better argument for where morality came from or humanity came from, if I can give that better argument, then my subjective truth trumps your subjective truth. But what we're talking about when it comes to evangelism is this is reality, and we're going to share the story of reality. So outreach, apologetics, testimony, imposition, these things, they cannot be evangelisms. So, one more point about imposition. Imposition assumes that it's up to us.
Collin Hansen:Like, that I can have a good enough presentation or a good enough argument, that if I study enough and can really You know, I I go into the classroom, and the professor says this, and I bolt my hand up, and I say this back to him. Well, they're a professor. They're they probably have something else that they're going to say to your to your statement. And where are you? Stuck, ready to get that question answered so you can go back the next day, and you go on Wikipedia, I don't know, Theopedia, and you find something.
Collin Hansen:And you you answer it, and you've got that one liner that can just take them down. Well, see, that's not evangelism. Because then it becomes, can I convince them enough? Can I have a solid enough argument? Can I have a slick enough presentation?
Collin Hansen:If I had the answer for every question, if I do that, then I can convince them to become a Christian. You might get them to do a lot of things, go to church, or behave better, or have better morality, but you have not made them a Christian. CS Lewis, for those the guys that are, going through that on Tuesday mornings, when he talks about what a gentleman is, He says at first, a gentleman, like, that that name meant somebody that owned land and had this territory, and and it was a it was a status that someone achieved. But then gentlemen became, you know, the guy that opens the door for a girl. You know, someone that's polite.
Collin Hansen:That's a gentleman. Well, they act like a gentleman, but that has nothing to do with their status as a gentleman. In the same way with Christianity, you can you can behave like a Christian. You can have those morals. You can be an upright citizen.
Collin Hansen:You can be a better mother or a better student or a better friend. You can be those things, but that, in and of itself, does not mean at all that you are a Christian. So, Christians are unable to convert people by themselves. Only God convinces people to repent and believe. To make evangelism something that you alone can accomplish is to convert a person to something other than Christianity.
Collin Hansen:And so when we make this assumption, we have actually belittled the power of god. So what evangelism is, presenting the gospel. Not arguments on creation or merely service projects or testimonies of being freed from drug addiction. It is the gospel. Evangelism is when a Christian shares the gospel message with another person.
Collin Hansen:Outreach can be that road to evangelism, working on somebody's roof in an area of poverty, and building a relationship, and sharing the gospel. It can be an inroad to evangelism, or getting up and sharing your story, trials that you've faced, difficulties that you've faced, and how you have clung to your faith in Christ, that hope. When it turns towards the gospel, then it's evangelism. Edmund Clowney said, to deepen our theology of evangelism, we must deepen our understanding of the gospel. Let me say it again.
Collin Hansen:To deepen our theology of evangelism, we must deepen our understanding of the gospel, the evangel, the good news. So then that brings us to another question. What is the gospel? Here are 5 things that traditionally kind of fill out what the gospel is. Number 1, god is the creator of all things seen and unseen.
Collin Hansen:2, humankind has rebelled against the creator god, and all, everyone stands in condemnation before him, guilty. Ephesians 2, where Paul says, dead in your sins and trespasses. 3, that god plan from eternity to reconcile humankind back to himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, his son. 4, we are now called to repent from sin, to turn in faith to Christ, and his forgiveness and righteousness given to us. And the 5th thing, that Jesus is the current and future king of the kingdom of god.
Collin Hansen:He will return in glory and power to reign forever. So that's that's, like, kind of the redemption story. Summarize the Bible, and and really it's a good summary of what the gospel is. And what is at the heart of that is the cross. At the heart of this, where this forgiveness comes from, where where this righteousness comes from, the heart of the gospel is the cross.
Collin Hansen:NT Wright said, the gospel is the royal announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again according to the scriptures, has been enthroned as the true lord of the world. The cross is the good news. Forgiveness of sins and unmerited righteousness, that is the good news. See, if the good news was good, then there probably had to be bad news, right? We start off with bad news, and that's that's sin.
Collin Hansen:That is our own sinfulness that we have inherited from Adam, and our actions of sin that we have carried out willfully. And so that sin, which separates us from god and fractures that relationship with god, that is the bad news that has to be confronted. But this good news that the news that god was recreating the world, destroying sin and death, it would not be good alone unless there was forgiveness. See, because god could recreate the earth. He could renew all things, but there has to be forgiveness.
Collin Hansen:There has to be atonement. And without that atonement, it's not good news. Oh, god's kingdom is coming. Oh, he's coming in power, and he's gonna reign forever. I can't be a part of that unless there's atonement.
Collin Hansen:And that is the good news. The idea of news, it's pretty interesting. You you get first the the good news that Jesus is proclaiming, a good news that is first mentioned in Genesis, but finds a highlight in Isaiah 40, where it says this, Isaiah 49. Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news, lift it up and fear not.
Collin Hansen:Say to the cities of Judah, behold your god. Good news. The second instance where we see this good news, it was used in the Roman world for the accession, the the birthday of the emperor, when when the emperor came into power. That was the good news because anytime there had you know, you were in need of a new emperor, it meant that one was dead. And so there's this time of uncertainty.
Collin Hansen:What will happen? What where are things headed? What's go what's gonna happen next? And and so the good news of an emperor, provision of a king, you know, someone that would lead the people. And so we see this as another meaning of this good news.
Collin Hansen:For Paul and for Jesus, the announcement of God's in breaking kingdom was both the fulfillment of prophecy and a challenge to the world's present rulers. Gospel became an important shorthand for both the message of Jesus himself, that he is the good news of the kingdom breaking forth, and the apostolic message about him, this news of his death and resurrection. That comes from, Tom Wright's, For Everyone series. So we have these variables of of what's crucial about this gospel message and that we must understand for evangelism to happen. Because there's so many reasons why we don't go into evangelism.
Collin Hansen:We we don't pursue that. We would rather have the community soup kitchen or volunteer and serve because somebody, somewhere along the way, said, preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. And whoever that person is, if we could actually track them down, is dead wrong. Society doesn't need just more of your good works. We've got plenty of pagans doing much better work than the church.
Collin Hansen:Much. And they're doing it with less conflict and less churches splitting apart. I mean, how many times how many times in the 30 years now that PETA has been around have they split off because they've had there have been disputes on, well, can you eat this kind of animal? No. They've held together pretty well for 30 years.
Collin Hansen:But church after church after church, and splintering after splintering after splintering, and the lost world's looking at us, and we're saying, yeah, we've got good news. They're wondering where the heck that news is. So we have to first see that evangelism asks for much more of us than just our good works and good deeds. Those good deeds, again, can be an inroad, a starting point, but of themselves, that is not evangelism. So as we meditate and study the gospel, to know it more clearly, to treasure it more deeply in ourselves, And then from that comes true evangelism.
Collin Hansen:Just to give briefly, 6 essentials. This is from John Piper. Six essentials about the gospel. Six things if you want to jot these down. Number 1, that the gospel is a plan from eternity.
Collin Hansen:God intended this. This was not a backup plan. This wasn't plan b, c, d, depending on if man goes left or if man goes right. And he's just there trying to follow-up behind us and make weave something together. You know, like, by season 2 of Lost, you realize those people really didn't have a plan together.
Collin Hansen:I mean, they we they they were able to weave a good one together, and and it and it was interesting and engaging. But right right, you know, couple episodes into season 2, you're like, they are flying by the seat of their pants. Okay? So but this is this is not how god is. God did not create man and then say, I I hope this turns out good.
Collin Hansen:Oh, wait. Like, day 8. This is already falling apart. You You know, like, it's not not that. God has intended this.
Collin Hansen:So first, it's a plan from eternity. 2, it's an event in history. The gospel is an event in history that Christ walked this very earth. He breathed air. He was crucified, and that he rose from the dead.
Collin Hansen:Just like we have flesh and bone and blood in our bodies, he was here. It was an event in history. 3rd, it achieved something, but the gospel achieved something. Sin was atoned for, and the righteousness of Christ completed so that it could be attributed to us, imputed, given to us. Sanatone for righteousness completed.
Collin Hansen:4, that is offered freely. It is not a result of works. It is a free gift offered. Number 5. The application of the achievement.
Collin Hansen:That now, that there would be a time now when the faith given to us by god would spark in us regeneration. That we would have life, spiritual life, new life ignited in us, just like a spark creates the flame on the match. And that if you zeroed in and they had the super HD Discovery Channel slow motion, 5,000,000 frames per second kind of deal, where it's usually like somebody spitting milk out of their mouth or, like, a drop of water or something like that. Where where if you saw the spark and the heat and the light all happening at the same time, there's not a spark, and then the the flame is from the spark, this flame. And so we would see this regeneration, this life, this justification that that this what Christ achieved is applied to us.
Collin Hansen:And 6, that we are reconciled to God. You see, forgiveness itself, not the end. Justification itself, not the end. Obtaining heaven, being in heaven, not going to hell, that is not the end. These are all means to knowing and loving and treasuring and being satisfied in god, knowing god.
Collin Hansen:That reconciliation is the objective of the gospel, knowing god. See, this is where the cross has to be at the center. This is this is how this is achieved. How do we know God? Through the work of Christ on the cross.
Collin Hansen:If you have, a bible with you, we're going to look at 1st Peter 3 18. First Peter 3 18. This is to emphasize that point. In 1st Peter 318, it says, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. And then it says why.
Collin Hansen:That he might bring us to god. Not so you could see grandma and grandpa in heaven, so the disease that that afflicts you and will one day take your life will go away and and be taken away forever, that there would not be any more disease or pain? Not not simply for those things, not simply for the hope of heaven, but to bring us to God. Okay. Moving on.
Collin Hansen:Why the gospel? Why? I mean, if if god is so magnificent and powerful and can do all things, why the gospel? Why this message that we would have to share? Why the gospel?
Collin Hansen:Here in Romans 1 verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of god for salvation. To everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Verse 17. For in it, the gospel. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith.
Collin Hansen:As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.' This is why god has given a power to the message of the gospel because in that message, for in it, the righteousness of god is revealed. We can know the very righteousness of god through our knowing and living in every day the gospel. Now, very quickly, what the gospel isn't. The gospel is not just a good option. It's not the missing piece for that hole in your heart.
Collin Hansen:It is not a resource for a better life. It's not a temporary comfort for temporary pain. It is not a mere option to escape hell. It is that we might know god himself and be reconciled to him. That is the goal.
Collin Hansen:That is the result. According to god's plan, the result of the gospel being preached is salvation. And that through that salvation, we would know him, treasure him, love him, delight in him, and that he would be glorified in us. That is the objective. That is why we share this message.
Collin Hansen:That is why we are about the business of evangelism. That's why we're called to it. See, but that's that's not always what happens. We we go for other results. We want numbers.
Collin Hansen:We want to feel good about ourselves. We want to feel like a real Christian. Because we share our faith, and then all these people just start springing up. And that that's where we we get into some, tricky tricky things, which we'll talk about in the how to evangelize. But but one more thing before we move to how.
Collin Hansen:Who evangelizes? Is this is this left to the professional Christians, to those with degrees that have to do with theology, where they actually tell you that you're a master of divinity? Is that is that where this happens? Is it just left over for them? Absolutely not.
Collin Hansen:Absolutely not. Turn to 2nd Corinthians 5. 2nd Corinthians 5. Who
Speaker 2:evangelizes?
Collin Hansen:Starting with verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and check this.
Collin Hansen:Okay? And entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, god making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to god. As believers, you have been entrusted with the gospel.
Collin Hansen:Yes, there is a particular call on those in ministry, but for all of us, all of us who are in Christ, we have a responsibility because we have been entrusted with the gospel in your life, in in where you work, the relationships that you have, your family, your friends, everywhere you have any form of influence, you are there purposefully, and you are there entrusted with the gospel. Not just to have a life worth emulating in morality, because then you convert them to your morality. And as soon as you screw up, and you will, what you have converted them to falls apart. When you slip up, and you will, they will say, that's not what that's what I signed up for. I thought I was supposed to be good, like you're good.
Collin Hansen:And if you're not good, how can I be good? You've converted them to you. A 130,000,000 Christians in America Converted to what? We have to ask these questions. Converted to what?
Collin Hansen:Now, one would hope converted to the gospel, converted to to know god and to be reconciled with him, that that's our hope and prayer. But I don't know if that's reality. I don't know. And so what we have to hold it up to is the gospel. We have to hold the conversation about Jesus, the doctrines in our churches that that the conversations that we have, we have to hold it up to the gospel.
Collin Hansen:And if you are steeped in the gospel, when you come across something that is not gospel, you should know it. Yes, a particular responsibility falls upon the ministers, not only in this country but around the world, But responsibility falls on you as well to know the gospel and to be so steeped in it that in conversations that are not just on in places where the forum is about debating Jesus, Not not just in those kinds of settings, but in everyday settings. The gospel is permeating from your being, from your breath that comes in and out of your body, that the gospel would be so a part of you that you can't help but have conversations
Speaker 2:about it. Who
Collin Hansen:evangelizes? All of us, because all of us are entrusted with the message of reconciliation. And why? Because we have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation. He has called us to it.
Collin Hansen:He has commanded us to it. And if he is our lord, if he is our king, and we are desiring to live as citizens of his kingdom, we follow his commands out of love and devotion to him. Not not out of burden, not not going to the mall and just trying to you know, somebody's at a pay phone, and and you try to, you know, nudge a conversation just out of guilt, I did that. That's why I brought that up. I did.
Collin Hansen:Kentucky Oaks Mall. It was an awesome Saturday. That was after 4 hours of evangelism training, and, it I don't it didn't go that well. Surprise. Sending a busload of 7th graders into the mall to annoy people didn't really turn out well.
Collin Hansen:But but but here's the thing. Yeah. Here's the thing. Let me get serious after saying that. How we evangelize and I'm gonna close with just one one statement here, and then Joel's Joel's gonna take over.
Collin Hansen:That we would evangelize how we would evangelize with passion and compassion. And the problem is a lot of us kind of take off from the gate with 1 or the other. A compassion, a love for people so deep that that maybe we're willing to kind of compromise some of our theology or brush a couple things out of the way, it's all good news, and you're not gonna bring up any of the bad news, you can be forgiven for what? I mean, just whatever. And we have to we have to hit the nail on the head.
Collin Hansen:We have to talk about sin. We have to talk about judgment. We have to talk about punishment because that's the only way we get to the cross. And so we have to have compassion, but we also have to have passion, Passion for the truth of god revealed in the gospel. Unwavering, willing to talk about the bad news and the good news, willing to talk about the consequences of sin, willing to talk about what we have earned, our paycheck for all the work of sin that we have done, that we are reaping the salary of sin and death?
Collin Hansen:For the wages of sin is death. We have to talk about these things, but if we if we lose sight at any moment of either the compassion or the passion, we will be in a very dangerous position. And so as you hopefully desire a better understanding of evangelism and that practice in your own life, it would push you headlong into a better understanding and love and desire for the gospel of Jesus. And that ultimately, what you would share is not just a way of better living or or a direction of of how to be a better husband or wife or friend or student or daughter, but that it would be reconciliation with god himself. That is where the problem lies, and that is where the gospel lies.
Collin Hansen:The message of reconciliation. Okay. So, I now yield the remaining of my time to Joel. But, do we want to take a break, or do you want to switch out?
Joel Brooks:3 minute break, Julius, you wanna get more coffee.
Collin Hansen:Get more coffee. Take 3 minutes.
Joel Brooks:Alright. I can remember when I was a youth, I I went to a church that, you know, really pounded in that we needed to go to the mall, hand out the leaflets, and all that. And I can remember going for the first time and scared out of my mind to go. And we went to this mall, and we're gonna supposed to hand out the tracks. And I was just chickening out left and right.
Joel Brooks:You know, I I would. I'd put them on the windshields of cars and and stuff like that. And finally, I mustered up enough courage. There there was a movie theater there, and I said, the next person who comes out of these doors, I'm gonna hand them a track personally and share my faith. And I I mean, I'm just this little, like, 7th grader, 8th grader.
Joel Brooks:And the door opens and John Konkak, the starting center for the Atlanta Hawks, comes out and he is 7 foot 1. And, I just remember I was like and I couldn't speak. I just all I did know was just handed him this thing and this huge hand grabs it, and he leaves. And that was my only time I actually handed a track to somebody in person It was right there, John Konkak. I'm sure his life was radically changed from that.
Joel Brooks:I'm sure big things. It didn't happen on the basketball court, but big things. But, that's what I grew up associating evangelism with. That's that's what evangelism was. In order to evangelize, you needed to be scared out of your mind.
Joel Brooks:You needed to be, you know, trembling and doing all all those things. And, guys have been taking me on a journey from that. I'm not at the end of the journey. I'm in the process of this journey, and I'm gonna give you a lot of times to time to ask questions about that. The first thing that I want all of you to be convinced of, in order to, I think, be better evangelists is that God changes hearts.
Joel Brooks:I think more than anything else, that's the first thing you need to know. God alone changes hearts. I was just on Chase. I was at Arby's 2 days ago, and, there was a couple talking to a guy, probably in college. I think he was interviewing for a job, and this this couple worked at the church, and I think they led him to the Lord.
Joel Brooks:And he was telling a story about his past, and he said, he goes, oh, that was that was before the Lord changed my heart. Sorry, before y'all changed my heart. And, and I was like gripping, you know, my chair because I didn't wanna be the nut guy who says, actually, can I just have 5 minutes of your time? Love to walk through Romans with you. I was like, no.
Joel Brooks:No. God alone changes hearts. That is the I've got 3 little girls. That is the first thing that I have taught them about God, is as they've grown up, it's like, who is God? God is the one who changes hearts, and I have pounded that in them.
Joel Brooks:God is the one who changes hearts. God's the one who needs to change your heart. God's the one who needs to change our neighbors' hearts. And, and just so their earliest thoughts, and we're we're now starting to see the fruit of that to where if they sin and they knowingly sin, like, what what needs to happen here, Caroline? She said, God needs to change my heart.
Joel Brooks:I'm like, that's right. Let's pray about that. What's wrong with our neighbors, you know, over here who don't know the Lord? God hasn't changed their hearts. That's right.
Joel Brooks:Let's pray. One of the reasons I want to make sure we know that is, for 1, if you're not convinced of that, you will manipulate people when you try to proclaim the gospel. You will. It will happen because you're gonna feel the pressure that's gonna come upon you to change the heart. And so, you're going to if all of a sudden you're not seeing the results you need, you're you're gonna kind of try to steer it this way, try to manipulate this way, try to change the gospel a little bit to make it a little more appealing.
Joel Brooks:You know, throw in a few extras there. And that can't happen. And so, I don't want the gospel to be distorted. And so, you have to realize God alone changes hearts. And the second thing, the reason I want to throw that out is because that should drive you to your knees.
Joel Brooks:It should absolutely drive you to your knees in prayer for the lost. I have had countless conversations with people who said, you know, I've got, you know, a family member, I've got the neighbor next to me or a coworker, and I've just, you know, really been trying to share the Lord with them, share my faith with them. I'm just so burdened for them. And I usually stop and say, do you pray and fast for them? And it's like it's it's amazing how we can convince ourselves that we have a heart for the lost.
Joel Brooks:We have a we really care about our lost family member or our lost coworker. We we care for that, yet, we're not burdened to pray. But if you believe God changes hearts, it drives you to your knees to pray for that person, to fast for that person, to weep for that person. And those things, I think, are absolutely foundational for sharing our faith and for sharing the gospel. Prayer opens the doors for you to be able to share your faith.
Joel Brooks:Prayer opens their hearts to where they can receive. When I came to believe in the sovereignty of God and that God changes hearts in college, my evangelism exploded. And most people would think it's the other way around. It's like, well, if God changes hearts, he won't have to do anything. No.
Joel Brooks:When I came to believe that, my evangelism exploded. You don't have to turn there. In Acts 18, Paul is going to Corinth, in which there aren't Christians there. He's already had a pretty discouraging journey up to this point, and so the Lord actually has to appear to him in a vision. And he says, Paul, don't be scared.
Joel Brooks:Preach the gospel boldly in Corinth, for I have many in that city. Alright. Paul's not got to Corinth yet to preach. He's not he hasn't been proclaiming the gospel. There's not this, you know, Corinthian church there.
Joel Brooks:There's there's not many in the city that we would look at, but God says, hey, I have many there, now go and preach. I will change their hearts, faithfully preach the gospel, and they will respond. It's not up to you. It's not up to you to change ours. I will do that.
Joel Brooks:Say the message. Jeff, he was talking about one of the original meanings of the word gospel and how, you know, when there was a new emperor, the gospel went forth. And, the gospel came also to be known as just any message from the emperor or any message from the king was the euangelion, where we get the word evangelism. Euangelion, the gospel. And so, if the king would make a proclamation, of course, if he's a good king, it's good news.
Joel Brooks:And he would send forth a herald, and he would go into a town. He would say, hear ye, hear ye, thus saith the king. And what he would say would be the gospel, the ewinglian. Now it did not depend on that messenger. If his voice was shaking, you know, the sayeth, the k e.
Joel Brooks:It didn't matter. You know, if if he was handsome, or if he was ugly, if he had, you know, a good presentation, a bad it didn't matter. Because his authority was not in him. The authority was in the message and who it came from. And so, in order to understand evangelism, you have to understand that we're just like that messenger, and it's not our presentation, it's not that we have to get everything just right.
Joel Brooks:You know, as if you get something out of order, that person's heaven and hell is at stake because you you misquoted a verse right there. No. Your authority comes from the king, and you proclaim it, and it goes forth, and it's powerful. And so, think of that when you think of evangelism. And I'm just gonna kinda go through some bullet point things of things I've learned.
Joel Brooks:So, that's that's foundational. God alone changes hearts, and I hope that drives you to your knees. And if you haven't been praying, for those you know around you who don't know the Lord, get on your knees and pray for them. 2nd, in thinking about evangelism, Christians need to be about the big church and not about the little church. What is the number one way number one thing people say when they're like trying to get somebody to become a Christian?
Joel Brooks:I've I've just got to get them to come to my church. You know, your your local church is the answer to that person's problems. That's how that person will be saved, is you have to invite them to your church service. Because people only become Christians in church services. And and I want you to throw that out.
Joel Brooks:That's fine if you want to invite them to church and everything. That's great. But that's not the only way that god saves people. When you're out there doing good works, when you're out there serving, when you're out there sharing your faith, you're not out there primarily at all for church with a little c, your local church. You're not out there saying, hey, the reason I'm giving you this turkey poor family on Thanksgiving day is because I go to Redeemer Community Church, and I would like you to come to my church.
Joel Brooks:Let's throw that out. Okay? For one, the world sees straight through that. We're about the big church. We're not interested in getting them to, you know, our little building here.
Joel Brooks:We want them to be part of the movement of the kingdom of God. And so what we're always pointing to Christ. Point to Christ. Point to Christ. Not point to, come to my church.
Joel Brooks:Come to my church. Come to my church. Okay? It's amazing how Christians think that it works. That, you know, if you go there and I'm trying really hard not to step on some toes here, but if you're all about your local church, and you invade a community, or you invade some place, you know, and you're just like, come to my church, come to my church, that it's the gospel.
Joel Brooks:It's not. You go in and you serve, and you tell them the word of the Lord, and you point them to church with a big c, you point them to the Lord. 3rd little point here, you've got to be around non Christians. This might also be a flaw with church with a little c. Church with a little c can take up every bit of your time.
Joel Brooks:And I our church, the the church I'm a pastor at Redeemer Community Church, is on the verge of doing taking up too much of our congregation's time. Because we meet on a Sunday night and we have Wednesday night home groups, that's already 2 nights of the week. Now, we're on Friday night, Theological Coffee House. It's 3 of your 7 nights of this week taken up with church stuff. You know, I hope you're not doing something else with Redeemer for the rest of this week.
Joel Brooks:You need to be with your lost neighbors. You need to be out there. If you're never around non Christians, when when are you ever gonna have the opportunity to share the gospel? Know, maybe put a bumper sticker on, and hit it, you know, hit a non Christian in your car. I I don't you've got to you've got to be there with them.
Joel Brooks:I would say this, that the best mission field you have are your neighbors. The best place to reach your neighbors is your home. Inviting people to your home, consistently bringing them to your home. We moved a little over 10 years ago into Crestwood, which has changed a lot at the time. It wasn't that great of a community.
Joel Brooks:It's becoming a good community. And, we move in there. We bought one house that was quote on the fringe. And within 2 years, it was no longer on the fringe. So we sold it and then we moved.
Joel Brooks:We're technically in Woodlawn now. And, and instantly property values started going up even more. And people were like, man, y'all made such a great investment. Y'all are gonna make a killing when you sell. And, my wife and I always respond, our investment is our neighbors, not our home.
Joel Brooks:Okay? That's our investment. That's where we're giving our time. We're there. We have no plans of selling and getting that big We've invested into our neighbors.
Joel Brooks:You've got to invest in your neighbors. If you're going to tell them God loves them, you better love them. Don't don't do a drive by, God loves them. As you're driving to your church, you know, driving to your service project, you know, God loves you. Love your neighbors.
Joel Brooks:I think a lot of us don't even know them. The people we live next, we don't even know them. Love them. Get to know them. When I was director at UCF, one of the reasons I started kind of feeling my heart being drawn more and more to Crestwood, and Woodlawn, or just East Birmingham, was I wanted to be around non Christians.
Joel Brooks:And, at UCF, only Christians came by my office. I go to the cafeteria, and it was Christians who came by and talked to me. And so, I started leaving my office earlier and earlier. Sometimes it got bad, and I'd be home before lunch. And I'd just make the rounds in my neighborhood, just talking to people.
Joel Brooks:And, I would just keep going around and talking to where I just got involved in everybody's life there. And, if if people moved in, we were the first people there to to to help them. And, over time, I would say after the first three years of being in our neighborhood, I've had the chance to share the gospel with every single person on our street, naturally, not, not, not, here's a track, but because God has given us a heart to love them and to get involved in their lives. So you need to know your neighbors. You need to be among your neighbors, not always gone, all the time doing something else.
Joel Brooks:And you need to live differently than your neighbors. I don't want to step on toes here. I'll step on my own toes. How about that? If you buy the same things your neighbors buy, if you are entertained by the same things your neighbors are entertained by, you spend your time the same way your neighbors spend time.
Joel Brooks:There will never be a reason for them to ask you for the hope you have. Because apparently, your hope is their hope because you live life the exact same way. But if you pour yourself into them, you are incredibly generous. People see that, you know, your goal is not to get home into your castle. I'd consider people's homes, you know, your home is your castle.
Joel Brooks:You lower the garage door, that's your, moat. You know, your drawbridge coming up to your moat. Now you're getting in and, you know, your neighbors are the enemies trying to seize you, it seems. That's the American mindset. Put that aside.
Joel Brooks:That's not what your home is about. Your home is an open place in which you're constantly trying to bring people in so that they can smell the aroma of Christ. That's something that, Lauren and I, my wife, we've tried to work hard to do is constantly have neighbors in our house so they could just simply smell the aroma of Christ. Christ is the center of what we're doing. Hopefully, most of the time.
Joel Brooks:It's the center of the the how we we decide what we're gonna do with our money, what we're going to do with our time, and they just smell that aroma. And and we constantly bring them in, to smell that. 5th, these I don't even know if we're on number 5. They're bullet points. As you invest in your neighbors, invest also in your community.
Joel Brooks:Tim Keller has been a huge influence of mine. I've been listening to Keller now for about 15 years on and off, and the the past seven pretty intensely, somewhat ridiculous. Those of you who know you know Tim Keller, I have now I'm about at 470 of his sermons. I have listened to 3 times each with notation. I've got his voice in my head.
Joel Brooks:I like Tim Keller. He's one of the guys I've studied. And a point that he has made that really impacted me was you don't seek to make a great church, you seek to make a great city. And by making a great city, you'll have a great church. Now, bring that focus in.
Joel Brooks:Instead of seeking people to bring them to your church and to make your little local church great, seek to make a great apartment complex. Seek to make a great street. Seek to make a great neighborhood. Because in doing good in those things, people are going to see Christ, and it will give you the chance to share the hope that you have. I'll share a lot of failures in a little bit.
Joel Brooks:I'll share one success story, sort of. Right before I came over here, I did a little soccer thing. Scottie was with me, in Crestwood. I just emailed 2 or 3 families and said, hey. Why don't y'all come to Crestwood Park, and I'll teach your kids soccer, and we'll do soccer games.
Joel Brooks:I'm not thinking, you know, hey, halftime, let me give you a little Bible study. Okay? Kids round up, you know, let me share my faith. No. It's a good thing to do.
Joel Brooks:I'm for the community. I'm seeking the welfare of the city, as Jeremiah 29 says. Now, we have, you know, like last week we had about 60 people. You know, this was only our 4th week. You know, this week we probably had about 50 with the parents and the kids just all having a great time.
Joel Brooks:One of those families did come to our church. That wasn't our goal of doing that, but we've been able to build these relationships. It has now given my wife and I credibility when we share our faith with them. Because they know that we're for them, we're for the community, therefore, you know what? If they're Christians, what does it say about God that God is for them, God is for their community, God loves our community, and it gives me credibility when I share my faith.
Joel Brooks:And so you need to be thinking of how to do things like that. Wow. Alright. I wanna give you all a chance to ask questions. So I'm just gonna tell one one thing that my wife and I did a few years ago that perhaps you could do something similar in reaching your neighbors.
Joel Brooks:This is a advent gathering guide. I don't know if any of you have heard of Advent gatherings. You probably haven't because Lauren and I made them up. We didn't make up Advent. It's been around for a long time.
Joel Brooks:But the whole Advent gathering process, we made up. And we were trying to we were looking at all of our lost neighbors and then what can we do to to reach them. So we thought, you know what? When it's close to Christmas time, it's the Advent season, even the most pagan person has this little desire to sing a carol. You know?
Joel Brooks:That's why, I mean, you see it all all the time, you know, on TV. You know, some some punk R and B star or whatever singing O Holy Night. You're like, yeah. I mean, everybody wants they all sing the Christmas carols, but we live in an unchurched area, and so they don't get to they don't go to church. They don't get to sing that.
Joel Brooks:So we thought, well, what if we provided a safe environment where they could come and do this? And so, my wife and I, we we had primavera coffee, which urban standard serves, to make up a special Crestwood Christmas blend. And, we we spent, like, $2,000 on coffee, to do this. And on the back, we put an invitation to our house for 3 Sunday nights. Said, come enjoy wine, wassail, and, I think I can't remember.
Joel Brooks:Celebrating, singing a carol, and Christmas devotion. We paid for free babysitting, and we just handed it out to all of our lost neighbors, hoping we would get some people to come. And we had about 40 who came. And it was amazing. We we had a lot from the homosexual community come.
Joel Brooks:Those who've been completely burned by their church growing up come. Those who had never been to a church come. And they were in our house, and we just got to know one another, and then sang a carol, and I did a 6 minute devotion. 6 minutes. And that was it.
Joel Brooks:Just just a little splash of the gospel, just a little aroma. And the next week, more came. They were excited. They brought hors d'oeuvres. They wanted to bring stuff.
Joel Brooks:They wanted to be a part of that. And the Lord took that, and really used it as a way that we could share our faith and for them to hear the gospel. That's something that everybody could do. That's something you can do in your home. If if you're interested in doing something like that, this is a guide that walks you through the whole process of of how my wife and I thought through that.
Joel Brooks:It gives you a sample devotion to do, sample letters to send out, everything if you want to pick up one of these and to go through it, or you talk to me later. You guys are more equipped to do that than I am as a pastor. The the moment it comes out that I'm a pastor, every door is shut with you know, I try to avoid ever letting people know I'm a pastor because, oh my gosh. And suddenly, God becomes part of their conversation. Where before it was always effing God, then it was just now God.
Joel Brooks:You know? He's like, He's been so good to me. And so, you just know that it closes doors. And, for instance, I'll say this, when I started Redeemer Community Church, no one who came to the Advent gatherings has come to our church. No one.
Joel Brooks:Sunday night, same time as these Advent gatherings were. But the moment it became church, and the moment they saw me as pastor, that's it. So being, you know, having my masters of God, masters of divinity actually puts me at a great disability. Know, this is what laypeople need to be doing in reaching. Well, I'm gonna stop there and, let you guys ask questions to either me or Jeffrey, either theology of evangelism or the practice of it, and just know that I have failed at it far more than I have succeeded.
Joel Brooks:Questions?
Speaker 4:Great. Yeah. Go ahead.
Speaker 5:After that? Do you see the response for it, or
Speaker 2:do you
Speaker 5:see the response for it?
Joel Brooks:The question is, once you've been able to present the gospel, fully the gospel, what do you what do you do after that? You know, is it, you know, are every head bow, me, you, let's bow. I'll say this that in the times I've been able to present the gospel, I've asked, does this make sense to them? It's like, is this something you would like to talk about more? And I just try to feel them out with that.
Joel Brooks:Is this, and because there is a trust in the sovereignty of God, I believe that if there is conviction and it is truly there, that if it's genuine, that tomorrow is not gone. That a work from the Lord is beginning, and a conversation is beginning there. And so for me, the gospel, the times I have presented that fully, I've always followed up the next day and presented. And it's it's been interesting to, sometimes the people are like, woah. I guess I was drunk last night.
Joel Brooks:And then other times, people are like, no. Yes. You tell me more about that. And I'll say this, that usually it's always been when tragedy has hit my neighbors that I've had the opportunity to share the gospel, and that people some of my neighbors who wanted I felt like nothing was happening. We were serving, serving all we could do with them.
Joel Brooks:Nothing's happening. Somebody close to them dies, they come over to our front porch weeping. And it just gives us a chance to do that.
Speaker 2:K. Have you tried the
Joel Brooks:Ingles scale? The Ingles scale. The Ingles scale. No. I have not.
Joel Brooks:Okay. Yeah. The question is, like, do I feel out people where they are? What is their belief about God? Always doing that.
Joel Brooks:I mean, always. And then what I usually tell my evangelism of others will probably look a lot like evangelism to me. I think one of the problems with Christians in presenting the gospel. And so, I'm always telling people how the gospel I need the gospel. And then as I'm telling them how I need the gospel because I'm a sinner, because I have all this, then I can present that to them.
Joel Brooks:I need this hope. And a lot of times, you know, they're calling, what are you talking about? You need. I mean, compared to some of my neighbors, I'm the most righteous guy there is. I mean, I'm like, I don't know.
Joel Brooks:They think of me as Billy Graham compared to some of them. I'm like, no. You know, I I need the gospel. Just like you need the gospel. So, I I it's hard for me to ever put a person on a scale because some of the people you think are so close are actually the ones who are farthest away.
Joel Brooks:They're I mean, they're so close because they're really just kinda Pharisees or becoming Pharisees instead of becoming Christians.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Joel Brooks:Some of the questions I ask, I'm generic, you know, whatever, but I'll say, Hey, what's a defining moment in your life? Tell me something that really kind of defines who you are. And it's interesting, they'll get people to talk. You know, usually, they might boast about their high school glory days when they caught the one pass. That's great.
Joel Brooks:That's a that's a defining moment in their life. Sometimes it's the divorce they just went through. Different things, but I I have found a lot of times that question has given me an entry to to ask more to spiritual level. And usually, if I'm talking with them or something like that, once hurt comes in, I everybody's been hurt. Everybody.
Joel Brooks:And you can focus in on that hurt there and just say, you know, tell me more about that. And if you say that with compassion, I think Christians are so like, Ah, we can't probe. You know, that's too personal of a question. Now, I found with my neighbors, I've never said too personal of a question. Surprisingly, you know, you can ask, So tell me, why did he get divorced?
Joel Brooks:They talk about it. No. I don't have a formula. I I I don't. I'm not a good formula guy.
Joel Brooks:Anybody else? It's both. It's completely both. It's just the trying to love your neighbors. I really think Christians don't do a good job loving their neighbors.
Joel Brooks:I mean, Jesus said, hey, your the 2 big commandments, you know, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, love your neighbor as yourself. This week, all of you, think of how you've loved yourself. Think of how you doted on yourself. Think of all the money you have spent on yourself. Think of all the ways you have entertained yourself.
Joel Brooks:Okay. Think of all those things. Now think of your next door your physical next door neighbor. How have you loved them today or this week? Think of your physical coworker.
Joel Brooks:How have you loved them? Christians fail miserably. I fail miserably at that. You know, 2 here's your 2 biggest commands. I mean, you you Jesus couldn't have narrowed it down anymore right there.
Joel Brooks:Love God, love your neighbor, And and we fail on those. And we're always going to. But I usually it's usually both. You know, some of the huge mistakes I've made, like, one of my neighbors moved in one time, and this is actually the first time I I didn't start drinking alcohol. And for those of you who don't believe you should, I still haven't.
Joel Brooks:But the first time I drank alcohol was like 20, when I was 24, 25, or something like that. One of my neighbors moved
Collin Hansen:in. I guess
Joel Brooks:I was 26. And, I got a 6 pack of beer, and I went over there and just sat on his front porch. It was actually failing miserably because he was a recovering alcoholic. And so, I'm thinking, here we go. I'm gonna do this for the Lord.
Joel Brooks:You know, just say show like Christians we're yeah. Probably should have done a little research there. Other times, that's weird. Great. That was that was bad.
Speaker 2:The
Joel Brooks:question is, how do you avoid getting in a debate or an argument? That's hard. You know, one of probably the most common argument I get is, well, you know, all religions really are the same. You know, one of my neighbors after his divorce, he went to Tibet and actually lived in a monastery for a couple of Buddhist monastery for a couple of weeks. And he's and his what he brought back from that was, you know, all faiths really are the same.
Joel Brooks:And he's pouring out his heart on this. We're finally connecting for the first time. So, what do you do at that moment? Actually, you're dead wrong. You know, do do you really confront there, or do you let it go?
Joel Brooks:Decided to confront with grace. I'd say, you know what? Actually, I I can't agree with that statement. I can't. But then I didn't go into explaining it at that point.
Joel Brooks:I just asked him a follow-up question, because I knew that wasn't the time for me to keep pushing it on the sky. All I can say is, you know, humility, humility, humility. Realize those people were created in the image of God, just like you're created. Because of that, there's things you can learn from them. They might even be a better person than you.
Joel Brooks:Remember, sinners hear the gospel first. You know, usually the worst who responds to gospel, meaning all of us here, we're probably the worst. They might actually be better people than you, and yet you're evangelizing to them. So try to learn from them. And just, I don't know, just humility.
Joel Brooks:And I'm always in conversation with the spirit asking at what point do I push. My fear is I don't ever want them walking away thinking I agreed with their false statement. They need to know at least didn't affirm that. The the question is how long do I feel like I've known somebody on average? And I would say that there are some people who've moved, some of our neighbors who've moved in, and it's been the 2nd day I've talked to them, and I've been able to share the whole gospel with them just because it's a divine appointment.
Joel Brooks:And there's others that you're just like, oh my goodness. For instance, I have a neighbor who lives across the street. I've been trying to share the gospel with him for the longest time just and it's always little bits and pieces there. He's got the full gospel over the course of about 8 years now, and I've thought of every technique. One of my last techniques I did is we actually had this antique motorcycle at my mom's house.
Joel Brooks:I don't know. It's like from the forties. It was this gorgeous thing, and I knew he liked antique motorcycles. He collected them. So I gave him this motorcycle because I could care less about that.
Joel Brooks:And I thought, now, he'll see. His eyes will be opened how generous I am, you know, and how, you know, surely he's gonna respond to the gospel. And he's like, man, that is awesome. And we have never that didn't open anything to sharing the gospel anymore. Now he just thinks, I'm really, probably stupid for giving him that motorcycle.
Speaker 2:I have the gospel, and I'm either gonna share it or not share it. You know? But then you have this other sense of, like, sometimes doors are open and sometimes they're not open. You know? Like, what I feel like for me sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference between a closed door and a closed door and a
Joel Brooks:With that, I would say a closed door, the only way you know if a door is closed is if the gospel's rejected. That's a closed door. And an example that I use, I can remember in college one time. And we're all waiting outside the classroom and apparently, the teacher hadn't arrived. So we're all just sitting in the hallway, sitting in the hallway, waiting and waiting.
Joel Brooks:And then finally, someone goes, anybody check the door? Alright. Oh, yeah. Hey. It's open.
Joel Brooks:You know, not one person because somebody had been sitting there studying before and so everybody just kind of assumed it was locked. And I I I think that's how people are with their neighbors or coworkers. There's like, well, I'm around them, but, yeah, it's not the right time. They haven't seemed interested in spiritual things, and nobody has actually gone up there and said, hey, is this open? Actually, share the gospel, see if it's you have no idea what the Lord if you've been praying for that person, and you're praying, God change your hearts, and you're praying, and you're praying, and you're praying, I would tend to expect that maybe there is an open door.
Joel Brooks:I would lean towards it being open versus it being closed. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Trying to think. Thinking about the idea of a closed door, like, how many times
Joel Brooks:I I would say no, for the same reason I would never stop preaching gospel even to me, and it's always we need the gospel. We need If if I'm around people, they're gonna always hear me preaching to myself how I need the gospel. For me, the difficulty for Lauren and I has been family. Lauren comes from a her dad's not a believer, and, you know, some of her family's not believers. And she has shared and shared and shared and shared, just endless.
Joel Brooks:And she's never going to stop sharing, but we both probably feel that the salvation of her dad or her brother isn't going to come through us, That the Lord's gonna bring in somebody else. Doctor John Piper had a very similar situation. 1 of his children did not know the Lord, and he said, God just after sharing, sharing, sharing, father said, you know, it's not gonna be you. That's really hard to trust. That doesn't mean you ever stop, but to trust that guy's gonna bring in somebody else.
Joel Brooks:Family's tricky. There's so much baggage going into that.
Connor Coskery:One of the things
Speaker 7:I always think is, like, hardest about, like, sharing my faith is that it always, like, comes across kind of condescending to the other person. You know, like, I understand, like, what you're saying about, you know, like, I need the gospel too.
Speaker 4:You need
Speaker 7:the gospel. Like, is there anything else that you can say, though, that, like, kind of puts you more on equal footing or even, like, a more humble footing?
Joel Brooks:Yeah. The question is, is there any way to not come across as arrogant when you present the gospel? It's hard because the gospel's offensive. That's the bottom line. I mean, it it is the gospel's offensive.
Joel Brooks:Not to all. You know, to some, you know, it's an aroma of death, and to others, an aroma of life. And, I think one of the ways you know that you've clearly presented the gospel is you see a direction. They're either going farther away or they're going towards. So I don't have an answer.
Joel Brooks:Just that, you know, as humbly as you can, present it. A follow-up book. This isn't so much evangelism, but it is. Tim Keller's Reason for God is fantastic. And just getting you to understand the gospel and to understand your own faith and also to promote humility when you talk to a non believer.
Joel Brooks:So one thing Tim Keller is really good at is listening to somebody who rejects the gospel or doesn't understand it. Honestly listening listening and just saying, have you thought about this? That's it, and that's it. He's very gracious. So I would say Reason For God is a fantastic book.
Joel Brooks:If I had to this is going to sound so condescending. It's not. If I had to recommend any book, it would be the Bible. You know, and just, I know it sounds condescending. Christians don't know their Bible.
Joel Brooks:You know, it's the sword of the spirit. And so we're saying we're trusting the spirit, and he's looking around. It's like there's there's no sword for him to draw, you know, because we we just don't know our Bible. And so when we're presenting the gospel, we're always saying, I think the Bible says this some place. Like, yeah.
Joel Brooks:Your faith is real. You care enough about your faith. I mean, it just comes across like you don't really care as well. But, we just need it in our Bibles.
Collin Hansen:I've got a couple
Joel Brooks:of books too
Speaker 4:that I can
Joel Brooks:mention. Okay. Good.
Collin Hansen:Greg Gilbert's What is the Gospel? Short. Good book. It's excellent. Jive Packers, Evangelism and the evangelism, God's sovereignty, and how do we reconcile that and see them working in harmony.
Collin Hansen:Marks of the Messenger by Max Stiles, part of the 9 Marks kinda deal. And, yeah, a couple others if you wanna talk afterwards, anybody, about books. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:Couple more. Go ahead.
Speaker 5:Yeah. It's because we're in the South and in the culture we are, you know, a lot of us may rub shoulders with people who are more who would say, like, with certainty, yeah, I'm a Christian. And, you know, their lives could look like any different kind of ranges of things with that. If there's someone like that who, like, obviously has a huge disconnect from, like, claiming to be Christian and how they live out. Like, is there a different way that you kinda try to share the gospel or, like, talk to them about it?
Joel Brooks:The the question is being in the South, in which everybody looks like a Christian, or, you know, when I was director of UCF at Sanford, you know, girls dressing up like they went to church when they went to the cath even though they didn't go to church. Just just because you you have to give that appearance, is there a different way to present the gospel to those who are just churched, but not Christians? That's a great question. I don't know. I I'm not aware of any way that I do differently.
Speaker 5:You can go there. And he's talking to Chris with the whole book's written to people who believe it. So you springboard it against enjoying yourself in it and
Joel Brooks:I would say being in the South, one thing is that, I mean, I I feel like I say every other week at our church in presenting the gospel. If you're presenting to an unbeliever, this is what they hear. No matter how much you communicate it, I'm asking you to go to church. I'm asking you to become a turnover a new leaf and to be a better person. That's what they hear.
Joel Brooks:You cannot over communicate just what the gospel is and the grace behind the gospel. I'm not asking to become a better person, turn over a new leaf. Somebody wrote a little I don't even know what it was. They posted something on the Crestwood Yahoo group blog, I don't even know what it was, about me, one time. Because I feel like I over I try to over communicate the gospel, try to be as clear as possible.
Joel Brooks:And somebody said they, they mentioned me and mentioned the church, and they said, you know, Crestwood, this is a man who is seeking to make Crestwood a more religious place. I was like, how many times I mean, I can't remember how many times I said, I don't not preaching to make you a religious person. I say that over and over and over. It's not religion. But that's what they took away.
Joel Brooks:No matter how much you communicate, you're like, what you want me to be is a better religious person. And so as crystal clear as you can communicate the gospel in a church kind when the culture is church. Okay. Yeah. The question is what do you do if somebody says, well that's great if it works for you, but it doesn't work for me.
Joel Brooks:I've actually, in all my years, only had somebody say that one time to me and it was my brother-in-law. And it actually it it kinda took me back.
Speaker 4:And I was like it's like, wait.
Joel Brooks:But I didn't even know how to respond. I was like, but it it's truth. And That's probably all I said with a very puzzled expression. But what it did was it drove me to my knees to pray for him. Him.
Joel Brooks:That's why, you know, in starting this off, I said, you've got to realize God changes hearts. I think most Christians rarely, if ever, weep for their lost neighbors or coworkers in prayer. I think in their mind, they're evangelizing in their mind, you know, I'm really just trying to seek opportunities to share my faith and all this. And they, I think they actually believe it. I think we actually believe it.
Joel Brooks:But when it comes to, are we on our knees? Are we praying? Are we fasting for those who don't know the Lord? I don't think we do very much, And that opens doors, more than any, you know, 5 point e e evangelism explosion thing you might memorize, you know, make open the door, put your foot in, get in there, and share the gospel with them. So last question.
Joel Brooks:Mhmm. Better be a good one.
Speaker 4:Can you clarify a bit about the relationship of prayer and evangelism having clearly said that we don't change hearts
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And those things, and yet stressing an emphasis on you need to pray for these people to open their hearts. Yeah. Seems like if I pray enough or fast enough or weep enough, something's gonna happen.
Joel Brooks:Yeah.
Collin Hansen:Can you talk more about that?
Joel Brooks:I can. Hopefully, you all heard that question. Basically, it's how do you reconcile God alone changes hearts with what seems like if I pray enough and I fast enough, then God's going to change their heart. That is a very, it's a modern thought, that that whole process of, wait, wait, if God alone changes hearts, we don't have to do anything. We just let Him change it.
Joel Brooks:It doesn't matter if I pray, or it doesn't matter if I share my faith. That's a very modern thought. It's not a biblical thought. If you go through the Bible, kind of like Paul, he got there I have many people in this city. When he heard that, he didn't say, I don't even have to go there.
Joel Brooks:You know, I I could just say, I don't even have to pray for them. No. He goes and when he writes his letters to the Corinthians, he's like, I'm praying for you. He's always when he writes his letters to these churches in the areas, I have not ceased to pray for you. And he always boldly proclaimed the gospel, and the reason he did those two things is because he knew God changed hearts.
Joel Brooks:If you were grew up or in college or UCF, you probably heard me say this, but the best example that I know of this, in this biblical mindset, is Noah, which we'll get to I think 2 weeks at Redeemer. In which after the flood, Noah's out there and God says, hey, I'm gonna make you some promises. From now on, there will always be springtime, there will always be harvest. And so, he declared that. The modern man would say, God promised me no work.
Joel Brooks:Great. He just said, there will always be a springtime, there will always be a harvest. I don't have to do anything. And that's but Noah's like, great. And he got a hoe, and he went and he started gardening.
Joel Brooks:He got God's promise that God was going to bring fruit, and so what that brought about him was the action to bring it about. And I think that's so, you know, J. I. Packer in Evangelism and the Sovereign of God really flushes that out. But it's because I know God changes hearts, prayer will be the means in which he does that.
Joel Brooks:So I'm going to pray, and I don't see that as a as a conflict any more than Noah picking up a hoe and it's like, now I've got the confidence. He's made this promise, and I'm going to go after it. And it helps me to understand God's heart. When you pray for a person, you really start understanding God's heart towards that person. We have, I think, as a whole, Christians have very cold evangelism, very cold.
Joel Brooks:It's calculated. It's we're gonna go there, do this good work. Now, I've got to share my faith, and there's almost no heart in it. You know, there there isn't that, I actually really love you with the love that the Lord has given me for you. You take up my thoughts, you take up my prayers.
Joel Brooks:And so, and I think people sense that. Good question. Let me close here. And if y'all want to you know, once again, if any of you are interested in doing something similar to Advent gathering, I've got 10 copies or so up here. Let me close this in prayer.
Joel Brooks:God, every one of us in here have failed far more than we have succeeded, And all of our successes we owe to you. So God ask that you would humble us. The Lord make us good heralds of the gospel to where we would go forth from here saying, hear ye, hear ye, thus says the king. And we would proclaim the message of the gospel in confidence, not in ourselves, but in the King who gave us the message to take out. And God I pray that you would give us your heart for the lost.
Joel Brooks:Well, I pray You would drive us to our knees, that You would make us weep for those who do not know You. May we feel the way you feel towards them. We pray this all in the name of Jesus and for his glory. Amen.
