Notes: 

Introduction

Good morning. My name is Don McKenzie and I’m part of the pastoral staff here at Great Commission Church.

Our pastor, Trevor Davis will be back next week, so it is my privilege to share the word of God with you today.

Let me start with a question:

Do you like being rejected?

For most, it is humiliating.

For some, it is like being gut punched in your soul.

It’s humiliating and can take your breath away – it hurts and stings and can create lifelong memories.

You can experience rejection while looking for a job - sending out resumes and getting told, no – or even worse, not hearing anything back.

Husbands and wives can experience all manner of rejection within their marriages.

Parents can reject children and children their parents.

Friends can reject one another.

Salespeople experience rejection all the time – it’s the #1 reason people don’t want to be in sales.

A fear of rejection is also a major reason Christians are reluctant to share their faith with others.

1. No body likes to be rejected. 2. I’m afraid I won’t know the right answer to something they ask me. 3. Hey, you could lose a friendship or your job or some other form of harassment or persecution.

Let’s make a list of why Christians might be reluctant to share their faith with someone:

1. Fear of Rejection
2. Lack of Confidence
3. Fear of Persecution
4. Perceived Hypocrisy

Lastly, and this is the big one – fear of having your imperfections thrown back in your face – why, you hypocrite, who are you to preach to me?

Hey, it’s true - we are far from perfect and the person you are talking to may have seen some of your imperfections.

Steve (Randy), you know what I’m talking about.

So, what are the different ways the good news of Jesus can be shared with other people?

Let me list 3 and then we will explore each one.

1. Friendship/Relational Evangelism
2. Direct Evangelism
3. Personal Testimony

The idea behind friendship evangelism is you spend time trying to build a relationship with someone, with the hopes you will be able to share your faith.

That is a great idea, but it does have a hidden danger.

Many times, you never actually share the gospel with them.

No one gets saved by friendships.

You can only be saved by the message of Jesus Christ.

Let me show you this.

Romans 10:14

14   How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

A preacher or messenger – someone to speaks words, is essential.

In the Bible, the words we need to speak are called the gospel of Jesus.

The word gospel means good news.

So, the gospel of Jesus Christ is merely the good news of Jesus.

So, what is this good news?

Let’s see how the Apostle Paul defined it:

1 Corinthians 15:3–4

3     For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4     and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

I’ve summarized what Paul said into 12 words:

Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose the 3^rd day.

This is the clinical, textbook answer to: What is the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose the 3^rd day.

Notice that the gospel is a statement of historical facts.

Look at it.

It is all about Jesus - what he did – he died for our sins, he was buried and then he rose from the dead on the 3^rd day.

All the action verbs are about Jesus and what he did.

So, what role do you and I play in the gospel? Where are we in this statement of historical facts?

The only thing we contribute to the gospel is our wretched, guilty sinfulness.

Jesus died for awful, sinful people – not good and acceptable people, because there aren’t any in God’s eyes.

When you look at this gospel of Jesus, does it ask you to do anything?

Does it tell you that you must live a certain way or try to be perfect?

No, it tells us that we are hopeless sinners, and Jesus paid our fine.

The gospel is about what Jesus did for us – not what we can do for him.

He doesn’t need us to do anything because we can’t.

We need him to do everything for us and the good news is that he did.

The only thing you can do with this statement of historical facts is believe it – embrace it – or don’t believe it.

Use your friendship to talk to them about Jesus.

Look at:

Romans 1:16

16   For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes….

Don’t be ashamed of Jesus.

God releases his power to save people through the sharing of the words of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you never share the actual words of the gospel, then you just have a friendship.

If talking with them about Jesus is just something you can’t do right now, use your friendship or relationship to bring them to church with you.

Check with your small group leader and invite them to your group.

The moral of the story is: Do something spiritually productive with your friends and so many of you do, so praise the Lord.

Now, let’s look at the 2^nd approach:

1. Friendship/Relationship Evangelism
2. Direct Evangelism

This is the one that takes some training and experience.

Direct evangelism is when you directly and purposefully engage someone with the gospel and encourage them to believe in Jesus to save them.

There are ways to skillfully and systematically walk a person through the gospel.

If you want to learn how to do this, it usually takes a commitment to go through a course.

Two of the more popular courses are Evangelism Explosion (EE) and the Way of the Master.

But here is what I’ve learned about most evangelistic methods.

They all start with a question and then build from there.

Let me give you some starter questions.

First:

What was your religious background growing up?

I’ve never had anyone get mad at me for asking this question.

People don’t mind talking about themselves and their past.

You’ll learn a lot about them, and it can help you decide your next step.

Kyle Brigance, our Missions Paster gave me this one.

What do you think is our greatest spiritual need?

How about:

Do you ever think about spiritual things?

Here is what I’ve used with family members who are not saved and indicated or flat out told me they don’t want to talk spiritual things with.

Just curious, has anything changed for you spiritually since we last talked?

About a year ago I asked that of one of my lost family members and they got mad at me.

They said, “Why do you keep asking me that? If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”

What’s so funny is I only ask him about once a year – but he wanted me to stop – so I did, and we get along just fine – but if something does change, I bet he will tell me.

Here is one of my favorites that I use with people who do home repair, yard work or who are in some kinds of sales.

In your job, do you meet and interact with a lot of different people?

In my experience, I always get a yes.

I follow up with:

Do people ever talk to you about religious things?

Again, I always get a yes.

I then ask:

What do they say?

And they will start telling me a story or two about how people have tried to talk religion with them.

One guy said, “Oh yeah. This one lady just flat out said to me one time: Are you saved? Do you know Jesus?”

I said, Wow, that was direct.

What did you say?

He hesitated and then said, “Well, I told her I was saved, and I did believe in Jesus.”

He didn’t sound too confident, so I was now at a moment of decision.

Was I going to try to be sneaky for Jesus or would I’d just come out and tell him I was also a Christian?

What do you think I did?

I decided to try to be sneaky. So, I said:

Hum, so you believe in Jesus. I’ve been thinking about this a lot. What does it mean to be saved and to believe in Jesus?

Now, I just gave this guy, who claimed to believe in Jesus, permission to evangelize me.

I might as well have said, “What must I do to be saved?”

He started stumbling with his words – he really wasn’t sure what to say.

So, I let him off the hook and told him I was a Christian and asked him when he thought he had become a Christian – and it went from there.

Hey, stop looking at me so judgmentally – I didn’t hurt the guy!

Here’s one I’ve heard our pastor use:

Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how to receive eternal life?

There are probably many, many other ways to start a spiritual conversation, but these are some I’ve used or heard used.

The goal is just to have a polite, meaningful conversation about who Jesus is and what he did on the cross.

Okay, let’s review and here is a list of these starter questions:

1. What was your religious background growing up?
2. What do you think is our greatest spiritual need?
3. Just curious, has anything changed for you spiritually since we last talked?
4. In your job, do you meet and interact with a lot of different people?
   1. Do people ever talk to you about religious things?
   2. What do they say?
   3. What did you say?
5. Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how to receive eternal life?

As you look at these, do you know what’s wrong with all of these?

When you ask the question, people are going to answer – and then what do you do?

Take the last one:

Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how to receive eternal life?

They answer, no.

And you say, “Well, I hope that happens for you one day because I sure can’t do it for you.”

It takes more than just knowing how to start the conversation, which is why most people need to get some training to engage in direct one-on-one evangelism.

All these questions are pretty easy but in just a minute I’m going to show you some powerhouse questions you could ask.

But first, would you like to hear the absolute worst opening question ever?

Back in my day – people used to hitchhike a lot – you younger folk can google it, hitchhiking – one word - and see what that was all about.

I had a friend pick up a hitcher hiker and once the guy got in his car, he turned to him and said:

Are you prepared to meet God?

You can let me out right here, thank you.

That was not the right time to use that line.

Okay, now let’s move on to the powerhouse questions that are used in a couple of evangelism courses.

The first one comes from The Way of the Master. It starts like this:

1. Do you consider yourself to be a good person?

I have asked a lot of lost people this question and guess how they answer every time?

Well, yes, I’m a pretty good person – but hey, I’m not perfect or anything.

That is followed up with:

1. Do you consider yourself to be a good person?
   1. Did you know there is a good person test? Would you like to take it?

You then can skillfully move a person through a train of thought that helps them to see why they need a savior.

Now, these next two come from Evangelism Explosion.

Here’s the first question:

1. Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that, if you were to die tonight, you would go to heaven – or would you say that is something you are still working on?

Most people will say they are still working on it.

That sets up the next question:

2. Suppose you were to die tonight and stand before God, and He were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into My heaven?' What do you think you would say?

Their answer will help to understand how they think about getting into heaven so you can tailor your discussion in that direction.

Look, I know – this can seem very complicated and requires some commitment and learning, which is why people take classes and practice all this.

But, guess what?

I have some good news for you.

The Lord has a provided an easy way for all his children to share something about him.

It is our 3^rd way:

1. Friendship/Relationship Evangelism
2. Direct Evangelism
3. Personal Testimony

This is when you simply tell someone else what you think the Lord has done for you.

It’s not direct, it is indirect.

I’m not going to directly talk to you about the gospel of Jesus.

I’m simply going to tell you something I believe the Lord has done for me.

This is the training wheels of evangelism, and the Lord wants us all to ride.

You can do this.

A personal testimony can be either a salvation testimony or a blessing testimony.

A salvation testimony is when you tell people how you believe the Lord Jesus saved you.

It is what it is because it is your story.

You just tell it.

A blessing testimony is about some interesting or difficult time in your life and how the Lord interacted with you or helped you.

It could be a healing story or a breakthrough story – anything you believe the Lord has done for you or to you.

Here’s the secret to any type of personal testimony.

Don’t leave Jesus out.

It’s easy to say God or Lord but it seems more difficult for Christians to actually say the name of Jesus to others.

See, a good testimony should include information that could help a person learn more about the saving grace of Jesus.

Jesus is the celebrity.

He’s the person they need, so don’t leave him out.

Remember a personal testimony is your story.

They can’t argue with it.

It doesn’t take as much courage to just tell your story and include Jesus somehow.

So, there are salvation testimonies and blessing testimonies.

Here’s an illustration of a simple blessing testimony.

Let’s say a lost friend or family member shares with you that they are going through a tough time in life. They are struggling.

As I listen, I would probably ask a few questions and at some point, I could end up saying something like this:

I’m really sorry you’re going through this. I’ve had some really tough times in my life, so I feel like I have a sense of what you’re going through.

Those times always challenged me and even made me revisit my faith.

When I came to believe that Jesus loved me and gave his life for me, I guess I just thought he would always fix my problems after that.

Sometimes he did but I learned he was more interested in fixing me than just changing my circumstances.

Do you think the Lord might be doing something in your life?

What could they say? It’s my story – short and sweet and it included Jesus by name.

The question on the end is non-threatening and however they answer, we are just talking.

If they say, I have no idea what’s going on – I’m just confused and hurting.

I could offer to pray for them and if I did – it needs to be short and sweet:

Lord Jesus, my friend is struggling, and I want to ask you to have mercy on him like you have had on me so many times. Thank you, Lord, amen.

Okay, let’s review the main point for a personal testimony.

It should still be on the screen:

Don’t leave Jesus out!

If you do, it was just a story about you – not a story about him.

Our stories don’t save anyone – but Jesus’ does.

The Apostle Paul shared his personal testimony in the simplest of ways in Galatians 2:20.

It is so simple and beautiful that it has now become my life verse.

Look at this:

Galatians 2:20b

20   … I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Now, I know Paul did not say Jesus – he said Son of God, but he has already used Jesus’ name 5 times before he gets to this verse and he used it a total of 17 times in the Galatian letter.

So, Paul loves the name of Jesus.

But here he uses one of his titles, the Son of God.

If you recall, when I shared a sample blessing testimony, I used Paul’s testimony because it is also mine.

Jesus loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul went from Jesus loves us and Jesus died for us to Jesus loves me and died for me.

In fact, that is when you become a Christian - not when you hear the gospel, but when you become aware that Jesus loved you – that he personally died for you.

I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I know some of you at times doubt whether the Lord really loves you – adores you – likes you and delights in you as his son or daughter.

Instead, you think about what you’ve done and what you fantasize about and wonder, “How can God even stomach me. I must repulse him.”

But this is the good news – Jesus is able to do what we cannot do.

He can love the unlovely.

I will never experience the wrath of God for my sins because Jesus loved me and gave himself for me.

I’m a disgusting person, yet the most beautiful, perfect and powerful person in the universe adores me and I don’t know why – but I believe it.

He loved me and gave himself for me.

He died to set me free from eternal punishment.

He died to change my life both now and forever.

He died to one day remove every last vestige of my sinfulness.

He died so I could start loving him.

He died so that one day I would be able to love him with no hindrances – no fear – and finally no sin.

It is the greatest love story ever told.

So let me ask you a question:

Have you come to the place in your life that you believe Jesus loved you and gave himself for you?

In just a moment, we will ask our prayer ministries teams to come up front because….

 

Transcript: 

Well, good morning to everyone. My name is Don McKenzie. I'm a part of the pastoral staff here. Our pastor, Trevor Davis, is going to be back next week. So it is my great privilege to be able to share with you this morning. And we are in a series about making more and better disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, last week our pastor gave us a biblical definition of what a disciple is. And today I want to share with you some tools that are needed in order for christians to make more disciples. Now, I'm sure you've noticed new christians just don't happen by accident. We actually have to learn how to share our faith because that's how God makes new disciples. Now, would you agree that perhaps most christians find it a bit scary to talk to other people about the Lord Jesus? It's called evangelism. And in order to make more disciples, we have to grow in our understanding of evangelism. So I ask myself, why are christians? Why have I been afraid to share my faith with others? And so I want to give you four reasons. See if you can identify with any of these. Now. Number one, I think, is fear of rejection. Nobody likes to be rejected. You know, the number one reason that people don't go into sales is because a part of the job is to regularly be rejected. Nobody likes being rejected. And when you share the gospel, you can easily be rejected. Number two, lack of confidence. I'm afraid that they're going to ask me something I don't know the answer to, or if they ask me something and I just look like an idiot and don't know what to say. So there can be a lack of confidence. Number three, a fear of persecution. Now, in our country, we don't typically suffer physical persecution, but I've known people who have lost their jobs because they wanted to share the gospel of Christ. Or you could lose friends or experience some form of harassment or intimidation. And number four, which I think is the big one, perceived hypocrisy, the fear of having your imperfections thrown back in your face. Wow, you're preaching at me. You're a hypocrite. Cause I know this, this and this about you. You know what I'm talking about, Steve, don't you? Yeah. We all struggle with this. It's a big fear, and it makes us reluctant to share our faith. But, you know, as christians, if you're a Christian, don't you want to share your faith? I know I do. And every Christian that I've actually talked to has this desire to want to be able to talk about Jesus to others. And yet these fears kick in. And this is why the Bible, we see a lot of prayers about just having boldness to share the good news of Jesus. So this morning, I want to review three different approaches to sharing your faith. Okay. The first one is friendship or relational evangelism. Now, the idea behind friendship evangelism is that you spend time trying to build a relationship with someone, a friendship with the hopes that you'll be able to share your faith with them. Now, this is a great idea. I recommend it. But it does have some hidden dangers. And I want to just point out one many times, as we're building friendships with people, we never actually share the very words of the gospel. Here's what I want you to remember. No one gets saved by friendships. You can only be saved by the message of Jesus Christ. And I want to show you this. In romans 1014, it says, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Now, don't let the word preacher throw you off. That can just be a messenger. It's somebody who's actually speaking words. In the Bible, the words that we need to speak to others is called the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, the word gospel just means good news. So the gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of Jesus Christ. So what is this good news that we're supposed to share with other people? Well, the apostle Paul gives us a technical definition in one corinthians, chapter 15, verses three and four. Let's take a look at it. He said, for I delivered to you. And he specifically in the previous verse, is talking about the gospel, for I delivered to you first of all, that which I also received. And here it is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now, I have summarized what Paul said here into twelve words, and it's become something I rehearse every day. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose the third day. Now, that is the clinical textbook answer to the question, what is the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, it's that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose the third day. Now, you look at that, and I want you to notice that this gospel of Jesus is a statement of historical facts. Look at it. It's all about the past. It's all about Jesus, what he did. He died for our sins. He was buried, he rose from the dead. So what role do we play in this gospel of Jesus Christ? Do you see yourself in there? What do we contribute to the gospel of Jesus Christ? Sin. We contribute sin. He's the good guy, we're the bad guys. So Jesus died for awful, sinful people. So the gospel is about what Jesus did for us, not what we could do for him. When I wrote that line, I suddenly remembered President Kennedy's inaugural address. You know, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Well, don't ask what you can do for Jesus because you can't do anything. But you need to ask, what did he do for me? That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need him to do everything for us. And he did. And that's the good news. Now, the only thing that you can do with this statement of historical facts, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, you either believe it or you don't. Those are your options. Does that statement of historical facts ask you to do anything? Does it require a measure of performance for you to measure up to it? No, it's a statement of historical facts. You either believe it or you don't. And Paul makes this point in Romans, chapter one, verse 16. Let's take a look at it. One of my favorite verses, Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. And I can remember as a younger, believing, going man, I wish that was true for me because I knew the fear of trying to stand up and speak for Jesus in different environments. And I felt the trembling in various ways. And I wanted more of this. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why? Because it's the power of God to salvation. Wow. How? For everyone who believes, because that's all you can do with the gospel. God saves people through the gospel if you believe it. Now, I'm saying that friendship evangelism is something where we should use our friendships to plant seeds of the gospel. At the very least, if we find it challenging to say words to our friends, well, then we ought to try to bring them to church. Or you could always check with your small group leader about bringing them to small group. The moral of the story is always be thinking about how you could spiritually benefit your friends. And this would include relatives as well. You know, I know for a fact that most of you do this because you constantly write on your prayer cards on Sundays the names of people that you're praying for, that you hope God will invade their lives and save their souls. It's very moving to see week after week and month after month, even year after year, the consistent prayer that's taking place, that's a really good thing. Now let's look at the second approach to reaching people for Jesus. It's called direct evangelism. Now this is the one that takes some training and experience. Direct evangelism is when you directly and purposely engage someone with the gospel, concluding by encouraging them to believe in Jesus so that their sins could be forgiven. Now there are ways to skillfully and systematically walk a person through the gospel. And if you want to learn how to do this, it usually requires a commitment to take a course or something like that. But here is what I have learned. There are really two I would call more popular courses out there. One is called evangelism explosion. Have you ever heard of that? Called ee? And another one is called the way of the master. We've conducted this course several times here at GCC. But here's what I've learned about every evangelistic method. They all start with a question and then build from there. So I'm going to give you some starter questions this morning. I'm not going to develop them. I just am going to tell you how a spiritual conversation could be started with somebody. So, you ready? Here's my surefire one. What was your religious background growing up? I can happily report. I've never had anyone get mad at me for asking that question. People don't mind talking about themselves and telling their story because it's just their story. And in the process you'll learn a lot about them and it can help you decide what your next step might be in the conversation. But I'm not talking about the next steps, just getting it started. Kyle Brigantz, our missions pastor, gave me this one. What do you think is our greatest spiritual need? And here's another one. Do you ever think much about spiritual things? Now here's one that I've used with family members who are not saved, but they've already heard the gospel from me and they vindicated or flat out told me that they don't want to talk about spiritual things. Okay. Do you have anybody like that in your family? You feel like you've already done the initial job and now you're not sure what to do next? Here's what I can say to them. Just curious, has anything changed for you spiritually since we last talked? Now, about a year ago, I asked this of one of my lost family members and they got mad at me and they said, why do you keep asking me that? If anything changes, I'll let you know. And what I thought was so funny about it is I only ask this person once a year. Why do you keep asking me that? I'm apparently hitting a nerve. He wanted me to stop, so I did, and we get along just fine. But if something does change, I bet he'll tell me, don't you? Well, here's one of my favorites that I use with people who do home repair around my house or yard work or who are in any kind of sales. If I get a moment with them, here's something I like to ask them. Hey, in your job, do you meet and interact with a lot of different people? All the time. What do you think they say? Oh, yeah, man, all the time. Then I follow it up with, do people ever talk to you about religious things? And what do you think they say? Oh, yeah. And then I go, what do they say? And then they tell me a story or two about how people talked religion to them. And one guy said to me one time, oh, yeah. He said, this lady one time just flat out said to me, are you saved? Do you know Jesus? And I went, wow, that was really direct. What did you say? I'm having a blast. See, at this point. And he hesitated and he said, well, I told her I was saved, and I did believe in Jesus. Now, he didn't sound too confident to me, so I was at a moment of decision, was I going to be sneaky for Jesus, or would I just flat come out and tell him I was a Christian, too? So what do you think I decided to do? I wanted to be sneaky for Jesus. So here's what I said. I said, hmm, wow. So you believe in Jesus. You know, I've been thinking about this a lot. What does it mean to be saved and to believe in Jesus? See, I just gave this guy who claimed to believe in Jesus permission to evangelize me, which is a real twist when you think about it, because I was exploring evangelizing him. He kind of started to stumble with his words. I could tell he really wasn't sure what to say next. So then I let him off the hook and told him I was a Christian and just having a little fun with him. But then I asked him when he thought he had become a Christian, and it went from there, and we ended up having a conversation. Here's one I've heard our pastor use. Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how to receive eternal life? You know, there's lots of ways to start spiritual conversations. I've just given you a few the goal is to try to have a polite, meaningful conversation about who Jesus is and what he did for us. Now, I want to list them all for you. I put them in your worship guide also. That's what those questions are. And one of our greeters this morning from the stage was Bill Jones. He was standing here, and before the service started, I said, hey, Bill, do you have any kind of opening line that you use with people to start a spiritual conversation? And he said, yeah. He said, I say, how's the Lord been working in your life lately? And I started writing it down. He goes, whoa, whoa, whoa. Am I gonna get in the sermon? I said, well, I guess you are. So there it was, Bill, hey, how's the Lord been working in your life lately? My point is, there's lots of ways to start a spiritual conversation. But if you look at all of these different questions that I have given you, which I thought were going to be up on the screen, you can remember them, there they are. As you look at those, do you know what's wrong with all of these questions? See, if you were to ask one of these questions to someone, guess what's going to happen. They're going to answer you, and then what do you do? Just take, for example, the last one, Trevor's. Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how to receive eternal life? And they say, no. And you say, well, I hope that happens for you one day, because I sure can't do it for you. That's the problem with these questions. People are going to answer them, and you may or may not be prepared for the answer. That's one of our fears. This is why it takes more than just having an opener, a starter for your conversation. And it's why people need to get some training to engage in direct one on one evangelism. Now, I'm going to show you, like, three more powerhouse questions you could ask a person. But before I do, how would you like to hear the absolute worst opening question I've ever heard? A rousing, tell us, please, don. Well, back in my day, people used to hitchhike a lot. And for you young folks, you can google it, hitchhiking, one word and see what that's all about. But I had a friend, he was actually my pastor, and he picked up a hitchhiker. And once the guy got in his car, he turned to him, and I kid you not, this was his opening question to the guy. Are you prepared to meet God? That was not the right time to use that line. You can let me out right over here. That was the worst. Let me tell you what are considered the best, most thought provoking powerhouse questions to spark spiritual conversation. Now, the first one comes from a course I mentioned, the way of the master. And it starts like, do you consider yourself to be a good person? Now, I've asked a lot of lost people this question, and guess how they all answer the question? Well, yeah, they always say, yeah, I'm a pretty good person. Hey, but I'm not perfect. I say, oh, my gosh, thank you for telling me that, because I would have thought you were perfect if you hadn't alerted me. So they'll say, yeah, I'm a pretty good person, but I'm not perfect. And then I follow it up with this question, well, did you know there's a good person test? Would you like to take it right now? And then it goes through a process where you systematically lead a person to understand their great need for a savior so that hearing about Jesus is meaningful. I need a savior? These next two questions come from evangelism explosion. Here's the first question. Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die tonight, you would go to heaven? Or would you say that's something you're still working on? You know how most people answer that question? Yeah, I'm still working on it. But it's opened the door. Yeah, I'm still working on it. Well, that sets up the next question. Suppose you were to die tonight and stand before God and he were to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven? What do you think you would say? Man, I have heard and seen it all on that question. But their answer will help you to understand how they think you get into heaven. And then you can tailor your discussion to move in that direction. Look, I know this can seem complicated, even daunting, because it does require some commitment and training, which is why people take classes and they practice all this. But guess what? I have some good news for you. There is a third approach to sharing about Jesus, and it's the easiest one. It's a personal testimony. This is when you simply tell someone what you think the Lord has done for you. It's not direct. It's indirect. Now, I'm not going to directly talk to you about Jesus. I'm simply going to tell you something that I believe the Lord has done for me. This is the training wheels of evangelism, but it's also incredibly powerful. It is a gift from God to every one of his children to say, ask me for the courage to just tell your story. Now, a personal testimony can either be a salvation testimony or it can be a blessing testimony. Now, salvation testimony is when you tell people how you believe the Lord Jesus saved you. A blessing testimony is about some interesting or difficult time in your life and how the Lord interacted with you or helped you. It could be a healing story or a breakthrough story. Anything you believe the Lord has done for you or to you. Now here's the secret to any type of personal testimony. And you may think I'm crazy when I say this, but this is the secret. Don't leave Jesus out. I can tell you that over the years when people write out testimonies to join our church and I read them, I can tell you for a fact 50% to 60% of people never mention the name Jesus in their testimony. Now, I've talked to them personally, so I know they're thinking about Jesus, but they don't ever actually say it. When you do a personal testimony, salvation or a blessing testimony, you need to realize that God doesn't save people with your story. He saves people with Jesus's story. So somehow you need to make sure you actually get Jesus in your testimony. He's a celebrity. He's the person they need, so don't leave them out. And the other thing to think about is your testimony. Whether it's a salvation or blessing testimony, it's your story. But what are they going to argue with? What are they going to object to? I mean, it's just your story. That's why it's so easy. The hard part is to make sure you mention Jesus because your temptation will be to leave him out. I want to give you an illustration of a simple blessing testimony. Okay? Let's say a lost friend or a family member shares with me that they're going through a tough time in life. I mean, they're struggling. As I listen, I'd probably ask a few questions, and of course I'd want to be sympathetic. And at some point I could say something like this, man, I'm really sorry that you're going through this. You know, I've had some really tough times in my life, so I feel like, in a sense, I kind of know what you're going through. You know, in times like this always challenged me and it even made me revisit my faith. You know, when I came to believe that Jesus loved me and gave his life for me, I guess I just thought he was always going to fix my problems after that. Sometimes he did, but actually, I learned he was more interested in fixing me than just changing my circumstances. Do you think the Lord might be doing something in your life? There it is. That's actually powerful. What could they say? I mean, it's my story, short and sweet, and it included Jesus by name. And the question on the end was non threatening. And however they answer, we're just talking, right? And if they say, man, I have no idea what's going on. I'm just confused and hurting, then I could say, hey, I understand. Would it be okay if I just prayed for you right now? And if they say yes, and I'm telling you, in my experience, most say yes, then just keep it short and sweet. Lord Jesus, my friend is struggling, and I want to thank, I want to ask you to have mercy on him like you've had on me so many times. Thank you, Lord. Amen. You just used personal testimony to represent Jesus, and the power of the gap will have an impact because you included some of the saving elements of Jesus. And here's some advice for you. Practice in front of a mirror, saying Jesus name out loud in sentences so you can get where it doesn't sound all weird and religious. You don't want to say, you know, I remember the time Jesus helped me. Glory to God. Praise his name. Amen. And maybe he could help you too. See, that's not good. Or you don't want to be able because you're kind of embarrassed about it. You don't want to go. You know, I remember the time Jesus saved me, and maybe he could help you too. Cause I'm telling you, ask people that know you and say, do I ever say the name of Jesus out loud? And you're gonna discover you don't say it out loud very often. And saying at the end of a prayer in Jesus name doesn't count. Okay. I'm saying we need experience. We need to practice actually saying his name comfortably and casually within sentences. And ask God to give you the courage to do that, because if we leave Jesus out, it's just a story about you. Now, the apostle Paul, who gave us the technical definition of the gospel in one corinthians, gives us his personal testimony, and it's in Galatians 220. This has become, like, my favorite verse. Now I want you to see the end of Galatians 220. Paul says, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now some of you are going, ah ha. Paul did not say Jesus. He said, son of God. And I'll note that he'd already written Jesus name five times before he got to this verse. And he used Jesus name 17 times in the galatian letter. But of course, we can use different ways to refer to the Lord Jesus. Paul here used son of God. Paul loved the name of Jesus. Now, just a moment ago when I shared that sample testimony of a blessing testimony, remember when I did that? I just used Paul's words for his personal testimony and my personal testimony. Jesus loved me and gave himself for me. That's the gospel. That's Paul's personal testimony of his faith. And it's, I believe that Jesus loved me and gave himself for me, that he died for me. I believe Jesus died for my sins. I want you to notice that Paul went from Christ died for our sins to I believe that Jesus died for me. You see how it became real personal. So if I were talking with a lost person and I were doing direct evangelism, I might say, hey, Jesus died for sinners just like you and me. But actually, when a person becomes a Christian, it's not when they hear the gospel. It's when you become aware. Your soul opens up and you go, oh, my. Jesus loved me and he gave himself for me. And when that happens, your soul then cries out and says, I believe you. And that's how a person is saved. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, I actually know some of you at various times doubt whether the Lord even likes you, much less loves and adores you. And it's because we still sin. Sin is a big deal, right? If it wasn't for sin, we'd be fine. Sometimes I wonder how God can even stomach me, much less love me. God knows I'm a disgusting person.

 

 

Come and join us this Sunday at the Great Commission Church for a truly remarkable and uplifting experience. Great Commission Church is not just any ordinary place of worship; it's a vibrant community where faith comes alive, hearts are filled with love, and lives are transformed. Our doors are wide open, ready to welcome you into the warm embrace of our congregation, where you'll discover the true essence of fellowship and spirituality. At Great Commission Church, we are more than just a congregation; we are a family united by a common mission – to follow the teachings of Christ and spread His love to the world. As you step inside Great Commission Church, you'll find a sanctuary that nurtures your faith and encourages you to be part of something greater than yourself.

We believe in the power of coming together as a community to worship, learn, and serve. Whether you're a long-time believer or just starting your spiritual journey, Great Commission Church welcomes people from all walks of life. Our vibrant services are filled with inspiring messages, beautiful music, and heartfelt prayers that will uplift your soul. Every Sunday at Great Commission Church is an opportunity to deepen your relationship with God and connect with others who share your faith and values.

At Great Commission Church, we believe that faith is not just a solitary endeavor but a shared experience that strengthens and enriches us all. Our church is a place where you can find purpose, belonging, and the encouragement to live a life in accordance with Christ's teachings. Join us this Sunday at Great Commission Church and experience the transformative power of faith in action. Be part of a loving and supportive community that is committed to making a positive impact in our world. Together, we strive to fulfill the great commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations. We look forward to having you with us at Great Commission Church this Sunday, where faith, love, and community intersect in a truly amazing way.

Great Commission Church is a non-denominational Christian church located in Olive Branch, Mississippi. We are a short drive from Germantown, Southaven, Collierville, Horn Lake, Memphis, Fairhaven, Mineral Wells, Pleasant Hill, Handy Corner, Lewisburg and Baylia.

See you Sunday at Great Commission Church!