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[0:00] I wore my KU shirt tonight and I've already gotten a lot of grief from a lot of you but I don't care so I've got to rub it in while I can because I love my Jayhawks but I'm not real confident in this year's team. So this is training session number four of six and we'll meet the next couple of Sunday nights to wrap this up and I'm beginning to think about what our next study will be once Easter is over and to have that before Easter so that when we have hopefully some visitors here we can let them know what that study is going to be about and hopefully they'll be encouraged to come. All right one left? Wonderful. All right I know how many people are here then.

[1:19] Okay let's go through our review for session three if you want to fill in the blanks. The first few blanks there it says the three circles work best when someone shares a problem issue or concern. So when somebody comes to you and they're sharing a problem they have an issue they have or concern they have it's easy to be able to transition those kinds of conversations to gospel conversations. We live in a broken world. That's pretty obvious. Brokenness.

[1:50] I'll slow down a little bit. Brokenness gives us opportunities to turn everyday conversations into gospel conversations. Brokenness gives us opportunities to turn everyday conversations into gospel conversations because we're able to say hey look you know it's clear to all of us that things are not the way that they should be and we can explain why that is because the problem was sin and we can talk about how that wasn't God's will for us and how he has how he has provided reconciliation for our sins through Christ. A reconciliation means to take things that have been broken broken apart and put them back together. Reconciliation means to take things that have been broken apart and put them broken apart and put them back together. God has fixed us to be fixers.

[2:53] He has fixed us to be fixers. Right? Again talking about this morning's sermon he's made us disciples to be disciple makers. Fixes us to be fixers. The next part there asks you to identify different gospel hurdles that you might have. How much do you desire to tell others? The good news about God making a way for us to be right with him through the work of Jesus Christ. One, very little. Two, a burning desire. The second part there is how confident are you in your ability to communicate the gospel to others. One, not very confident.

[3:32] Two, very confident. And I think we usually see in the church like ours that there is a lot of desire but not much confidence and so that's why we're you know doing this tonight. That's why we've been training is to build that confidence. The third part of that is how often do you actually share the gospel? One, almost never 10 regularly and hopefully as we do more engaged things and we reach out to our community we become more regular sharers of the gospel. The next blank. We need a plan to transition the conversation. We need a plan to transition the conversation.

[4:11] We ask permission to share something that has helped us. We ask permission. So when we're talking to somebody and they've got an issue or a problem we have a plan for how we're going to turn that conversation to a gospel conversation and then we're still seeking permission. You know can I share something with you that has helped me and then you can go into the to the three circles. You can share what what Christ means to you with them. We practice in ideal situations so we can be successful in real world situations. We practice in ideal situations so that we can be successful in real world situations.

[5:03] Okay, we'll move on to lesson four. So to begin with just a reminder that how of how the gospel spread in the New Testament we have in John 1 40 through 42 Andrew is invited by Peter to meet Jesus in John 1 43 through 46 Philip invited Nathaniel to meet Jesus in John 4 28 and 30 the Samaritan woman invited her whole her whole town to meet Jesus Matthew Levi gave a feast to introduce Jesus to all his friends remember in Luke chapter 5 and Jesus was dining with with sinners and he was sharing the gospel with them and the Pharisees were upset by that in Acts 10 Cornelius invited his family and friends to hear the gospel and it says here God is making his appeal through his people 2nd Corinthians 5 20 prayer prepares the heart and so hopefully

[6:04] You know, you've been thinking about and praying about those people that God has put on your heart and for those opportunities I don't know if any of you have had the opportunity to do that yet, but I was going to share a testimony with you This is from I don't know if I've shared this testimony with you before but my my best friend in college he was my He was my best man at our wedding and we were just very close. We were roommates and we played baseball together He he left halfway through my college to go to another college because he Went to get a degree in turf management and he ended up becoming the the the grounds the chief grounds crew guy for the Chattanooga lookouts, which was the triple-a for the Dodgers And he did so well that now he is in Arizona and he runs the Dodgers spring training facility and so Back when we were in college We I shared

[7:07] The gospel with him. There was one night. We were in our garage. I don't know how We ended up in the garage to have this conversation, but we talked for a good A long time at least three hours and you know, we were just talking about life We're talking about what we believed and I and I told him and I remember I don't remember much of that conversation, but I told him, you know, uh, joey is my friend's name I said I can tell you this And I know this with all my heart that jesus christ is the son of god and that he is lord And so I got a message from him last week because I found out Uh before coming here. I think right as as as we were preparing to come to to highland park Uh, somehow his wife found out that we were coming and she you know Congratulated us and and you know was was just Saying nice things and then I found out Because they weren't after even after this conversation joey he didn't accept christ, you know And then I always felt like man. I I messed up because You know, I why didn't he why didn't he accept christ that day and so I throw so throughout and now this was a while ago um

[8:14] And so I always thought man, you know, I I messed it up and then I've whenever I get a chance to send him a text message or When I feel convicted, I always you know, try to reach out to him and joey, you know, I love you and jesus loves you Jesus loves you more And uh, and just trying to have those trying to to keep those little touches Well, I didn't know what happened and come to find out. So fast forward um I I Had a conversation with his wife over facebook and she said that Uh, that they were going to church and I was like, oh, that's awesome and they got baptized together last easter And man that filled my heart with joy because I was like, oh that is That's such wonderful news because you know, it's a reminder that we don't save people. That's god's business, right?

[8:59] We use us he uses us to plant seeds to water Um, but i'm so glad that they're in church and so I got a message from him last week and uh And basically what he was saying is, um You know, that was one of the the best nights of my life when we when we sat in the garage and when we talked I've never forgotten that conversation. It's always been with me all since that time and so you know, I thank god for that, you know, so All that to say Uh, when we go out and we engage and when we meet with people it may not happen right away Um, but man, we might plant seeds or we might be Encountering people who that seed has already been planted but like my friend joey they just They haven't they haven't made that decision for christ yet and hopefully god will use us to bring us the rest of the way So god's in the business of saving people, right and we get to be used by him in that process And thank god that he he chooses us for that wonderful privilege. So let's go ahead And watch uh video session four

[10:01] Welcome back to the fourth week of our gospel conversation training Today we're moving on to the third of our three gospel conversation hinges So go ahead and get your guidebook and write this down We're practicing t G I because every day we have opportunities to transition the conversation to the gospel and Invite people to repent and believe in jesus We've worked on our transitions already and our gospel presentations We've gotten in our reps presenting the whole gospel which is why don't you go ahead and say it out With me jesus died for our sins was buried and god raised him from the dead

[11:06] In this session, we're going to work on our invitations Now I don't know about you, but I like to be invited places even if I can't go. It's just nice to get invited I really like to get invited to weddings. My wife always comments on the invitations themselves The really nice paper the printing the ribbons and the bows I just look forward to the party and what we're going to eat A wedding invitation is actually a great gospel analogy at least jesus thought so Jesus once told a parable about a wealthy man who decided to throw an extravagant party for all of his closest friends He wanted them to enjoy the best he had to offer He sent out the invitations and made all the preparations He imported the finest foods and hired the best private chefs He laid out a lavish table complete with china and fresh flowers This banquet would have rivaled that of today's fanciest hotels when everything was ready the host sent out his own messengers to gather the guests One by one people started making excuses

[12:09] Some were too busy tending to their own affairs or conducting their own business One said he couldn't come because he had just gotten married. In other words. It just wasn't a convenient time This made the party host angry So he sent his messengers back out to invite broken people the poor and crippled and blind and lame Many of these people were thrilled to accept and they eagerly came But there was still room for more so the host sent out his messengers again Urging them to go further from his home and compel more people to come He wanted his house filled with any who would accept his invitation and enjoy his elaborate party This parable is called the parable of the wedding feast In this parable, Matthew says the extravagant party is actually a wedding feast for the man's son Some of jesus's parables are difficult to understand But this one is simple The wealthy extravagant man inviting people to his party is god The son is jesus the people being invited are all kinds of people from all walks of life

[13:12] The people doing the inviting are those who already serve the host. They're like The believers like you and me and god is now making his appeal Through us We are god's messengers God invites everyone the deal maker the homemaker and the homeless He invites the mainstream and the marginalized Jesus personally invited many to follow him These followers in turn extended the invitation to others The bible tells how jesus saw philip and simply said to him follow me Philip then went and found his friend nathaniel invited him to come and meet jesus When jesus saw nathaniel he already knew his heart and said that he had seen nathaniel under the tree Jesus knows who belongs to him. He calls people by name and they follow him We are his mouthpieces. He's counting on us to issue the invitation The bible says god is making his appeal through us

[14:13] We don't just want to give the information. We always want to give the invitation But we're only responsible for the invite We have to remember that we can't control the response Just as many in jesus's story refused the invitation to the great banquet Some will refuse our invitations. This shouldn't keep us from inviting Instead we need to let the gospel be the filter This means we have to let the gospel be the deciding factor. We can't let our fear be the filter We can't let our lack of experience be the filter. We can't let our suspicion that they won't be interested be the filter Too often we're guilty of prejudging people and assuming that they won't respond to the gospel But god tells us that the gospel is the power of god for salvation to everyone who believes We're going to train you to issue a two-step invitation First we want to invite the person to identify his current location in the three circles diagram

[15:15] Since we've transitioned from conversations about people's problems issues or concerns It's likely that they will either identify a brokenness or the squiggly lines of other coping mechanisms If they don't you can gently redirect them to what started your conversation in the first place That was their problem issue or concern Secondly once the person identifies a brokenness we say Is there anything that would keep you from repenting and believe in the gospel right now?

[15:46] This is a very important question and guess what we need to do with it We need to practice it. I'm going to say it again Is there anything that would keep you from repenting and believe in the gospel right now?

[16:00] Finally we want to help people invite Jesus to save them from their sins This means we're going to lead them in a theologically accurate prayer Now hear me carefully I'm not suggesting that there are some magic words people need to say in order to be saved But the bible does say that everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved It also says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is lord and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead You will be saved With the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved So there's a heart component that we can't see but there's also a mouth component that we can't hear So when someone tells us they're ready to repent and believe the gospel We can help them confess it out loud We can lead new believers in a simple prayer that reflects the decision they just made I like to tell people what the prayer is going to say and then ask them to pray it with me

[17:01] I tell them the prayer goes like this God I know i'm a sinner Please forgive me and make me clean on the inside I need you to heal the broken places in my life I believe jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead I'm repenting of my sins right now and believing in jesus Help me recover and pursue your design for my life I ask them if that prayer reflects what they are thinking and feeling if they say yes Then I ask them to repeat it after me Again, this isn't a magical prayer that seals the deal on someone's eternal destiny We know we're saved by grace through faith However, the prayer is a way to help people confess their inward belief So can you guess what's next?

[17:48] That's right It's your turn I want you to partner up and practice giving the invitation Just give it your best first shot You're going to transition to the three circles Go all the way through the three circles with your complete gospel presentation And now you're going to issue the invitation using these two questions One, where do you see yourself in this diagram?

[18:11] Two, is there anything that would keep you from repenting and believing the gospel right now? Then you will explain what the bible says about calling on god What your prayer is going to express and then lead them in that prayer The questions and the sample prayer are in your trainee guide to help you Once you've finished some reps your facilitator will give you time to work on your prayers Share your stories and assign you your personal training practice Let's practice being really good inviters in here So we can be really good inviters out there Let's go Let's start getting those reps Okay, we'll go back over the blanks in case you missed any So the first one we practice TGI Because every day we look for opportunities to transition the conversation to the gospel And invite people to repent and believe in Jesus

[19:12] We practice TGI because every day we look for opportunities to transition the conversation to the gospel And invite people to repent and believe in Jesus The next one we are God's messengers messengers We don't want to just give the information We always want to give the invitation We don't want to we just we don't just want to give the information. We also want to give the invitation Let the gospel be the filter Let the gospel be the filter Okay, and then this two-step invitation First, we invite the person to identify His or her current location in the three circle three circles diagram We invite the person to identify and then second Is there anything we ask them?

[20:14] Is there anything that would keep you from repenting and believing the gospel right now? We want to help People invite Jesus to save them from Their sins We want to help people invite Jesus to save them from their sins Romans 10 13 for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved And Romans 10 9 through 10 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord And believe in your heart that that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart One believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved Okay, so we're going to spend some time Working on those repetitions There's a part here where it asks you to write your prayer Um And here's what I want to say about that, you know, because I think he hit on a good point and we've talked about this a lot at At men's night is that uh, the sinner there's there's no sinner's prayer in the bible You know, we don't ever see that in the bible where you okay now repeat after me word for word

[21:17] Okay, if you repeated that prayer, then you're saved I mean the bible doesn't say that salvation works that way at all And so, uh This is what I think is the better way a more biblical way And this is the way that I would recommend uh, that you handle this should you lead somebody to that invitation um, and they're they're saved I tell them kind of you know, okay First of all because i've already explained the gospel to you. You know that you're a sinner You know that jesus christ died for your sins, right?

[21:48] Uh, you understand what it means for him to take his sins and to put his righteousness on you And so what I ask them is I say, you know, I will i'll begin the prayer But then I want then I want you to pray then I want you to talk to god And so I begin and I just pray and I you know, thank you for this person um, god and what you've done in their life and now I'll say, you know, like if i'll say You know dan talk to god and then it's amazing When you hear people pray to god for the very first time, um The the words that that they speak I mean, it's um It's awesome and it doesn't have to be long In fact, most of the time it's short And that's fine, but usually it's an acknowledgement of their sin. It's acknowledgement of their need for a savior and uh, that they you know, are just very thankful for god and what he's done So I don't want us to I don't want you to write out a prayer. I don't want you to spend time on on that part because uh We don't want to confuse anybody into thinking well. I prayed that prayer I said those words because it doesn't work that way And if they're truly saved and you ask them to talk to god, I mean, you know now they have the holy spirit

[22:52] I mean those words those words come out and um, and it's it's it's It's The way I think it ought to be I had a I had a A woman who uh three three years ago she um She was married to one of our congregation members and her in-laws also went to the church and uh, she would always we'd always kind of see her in the distance she would drop off their kids with uh, her mother-in-law who was a member of our church and so she kind of was floating around on the outside and I noticed She'd start paying attention a little bit more whenever she would come and and one time she heard Uh, we did something called singing on the grounds where we would have just like a big concert out in our parking lot And she heard a testimony And then she showed up to church that next sunday and then you know, she we talked to her she was saved Then she came to me she came into my office After one sunday evening Uh, a few weeks later and she said pastor mike I never prayed the prayer And I was like, well, what are you talking about?

[23:54] And she's like I never I never prayed that sinner's prayer and I said, well, do you believe that jesus christ is your savior? She said yes, I do and I was like, so you understand you're repenting of your sins She's like, yeah, I have I was like, you don't need to there. You don't need a sinner's prayer. You're you're a christian right now I was like i'll pray with you right now if it'll make you feel better But I want you to know that that's not necessary at all And so, um, when we're when we're sharing with people. Yeah, it's good to say, you know Give them some idea, you know, hey Pray and thank god for what he's done in your life, but but not to say okay, you know Here's the first sentence. Okay, repeat it after me Okay, if you if you've said these words, then you're saved Because we don't know that that's the case and I think in fact we're finding out a lot Uh now that a lot of people have prayed that prayer But uh, they never truly were saved They just repeated the words and they thought that it was kind of like a magic spell, you know You repeat these words like a magic spell and god automatically is like obligated to save you because you said You know the the the right words. It doesn't work that way So, uh, let's work in

[24:55] Uh groups again, and we're going to practice going over the three circles And uh, and here's a scenario that they've given you. So if one of you wants to Uh, be the presenter uh presenting the god the the three circles and then you can switch But uh, the person that you would be presenting it to here's a scenario if you want to use it Um, your mother just found out she has cancer and she is very scared You don't know how to help her or what to say to her So if somebody that you know a neighbor a co-worker a friend of yours a family member who's not saved comes to you and says I just found out that my mom has cancer Um Then how would you transition that conversation into a gospel conversation?

[25:41] And once you've transitioned that into a gospel conversation you go through the three circles and then once you've gone through the three circles How are you going to then lead them into that invitation those two questions that he Gives us are great. Uh, the first is to invite the person to identify where they're at on the three circles diagram Hey, where are you at?

[26:02] You know and they say i'm in that brokenness part. I'm You know, i'm i'm pursuing all these different things to try to help me out or you know Uh find out that way and then the second the second question is there anything That would keep you from repenting and believing the gospel right now Okay, so let's uh pair off or group up and we'll work on that for about 10 minutes or so And then we'll come back together All right, I still hear some people talking but uh Go ahead and come back together So you're starting to feel a little bit more comfortable a little bit more confident you can uh if I Gave you a blank sheet of paper and a pen you could go through all the different circles and you could draw the arrows and you could write all the words All right. Well, there's still time keep working on it I do have one of these left if anybody wants it. I have one more I can get more if we want anymore But uh, the other thing is there is if you have a smartphone you can get it on your phone and you can uh, you can slide right through

[27:08] And it's great And wes loves it And uh, if you go if on your app store you type in Three circles you'll find it you'll also find a game but you don't want the game you want the three circles and what's it sarah?

[27:23] What's the and what's the name of it? Do you guys know the name? life conversations so if you want it to go right to it go to life conversations And uh, you can pull out your phone and then you can swipe Life on mission. Okay life on mission. No problem You can just swipe left and it will go through instead of you drawing it. It'll go through all of it for you And so that will help you if you have not a very good memory like me um Okay, so Uh, the last assignment we're going to end a little bit early tonight um, the last assignment for you is just to be praying for um Pray for engage because we will interact with people and we will have these conversations and um Just pray that you know, uh It would be a day that we are used by god to be a blessing on our community and That uh, you know, this will just be the the first of of many to come where we're

[28:25] We're we're reaching out and our desire is to be used by god and and if that's our desire You know, like we saw again going back to this morning, you know the disciples weren't much um They were definitely if if you were putting together If you're looking to put together a group of of people who would have that kind of an impact On the world you wouldn't you wouldn't go looking at like guys who are fishermen and you know a tax collector I mean these guys They got these guys there wasn't much about them that was um In and of themselves that was powerful or or or attractive, but it's because of what jesus Was it was doing through them And so uh, you believe that god wants to do Things through his church today I do I do I know that he does you read read the bible Uh like dan and I were talking about if you want to hear The voice of god don't go to the beach and listen to the waves Uh open the bible and read it

[29:26] And read it out loud Maybe that'll help you actually hear audibly god's voice. You know what i'm saying? So be praying for our engaged be praying for the people As you've been going through this that god has placed on your heart family members neighbors Um, I still have my neighbor and I think about him every day I drive home if he's going to be out there and um And i'm just praying for that opportunity to talk with him uh Family members Co-workers whoever it is just keep praying And when uh, you get that opportunity Uh, and and one of the other things I wanted to say too before we wrap up, you know We're talking about transition statements If somebody like in the in the scenario we had where somebody comes to you and they say their mom's dying of cancer and they're scared Don't just Go oh, let me tell you about let me tell you about these three circles. You know what i'm saying?

[30:17] Listen to the person Listen to what's going on, you know and and have a conversation It's going to take a it's going to take a while but be there for them If you show that you care and that you're concerned Uh as that conversation Plays out you get that opportunity or it might be the case where it's somebody you know and you just you just You it's it's a conversation you have over a series of conversations. You know what i'm saying?

[30:42] I'm praying. Hey, i'm praying for your mom and for you tell me how things are going Um, and just keep at it and just keep at it and like, you know I bring up the situation my friends, you know, that was 15 years ago We had that conversation and And uh, it was over a long period of time. Just don't give up right Just keep being faithful to what god's called you to do and trust him to do what what we're unable to do Which is to save people through having them repeat prayers Uh, so with all that being said let's close in prayer Lord god, thank you so much for your word Thank you for the opportunity that you've given us to share it God we uh, we know that this is a mission that you've called us to And uh lord as we are preparing for the 31st when we go out into our community and we engage Our neighbors that uh god you would bless that time We pray that we would be a blessing to those that you would have us encounter We pray lord that we would have conversations uh that lead to us

[31:45]  Uh sharing the good news of of jesus christ with them that they would see That we uh love you that we love them Because you love them and lord we pray that uh That as a result of engage in the things that we're doing and moving forward lord That we would be a church that uh Makes disciples in a place where people can come and be enlightened by your word and equipped for uh for for the life that you've called us to live Uh in this world God we pray that as we go from this place that you would be with us throughout this week And again open our eyes to the uh the opportunities that are around us to Let our light shine that men and women and children might have the opportunity to See and to hear What you have done and accomplished Uh through them through your son jesus christ in whose name we pray amen Thank you