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[0:00] We're going to be focusing on a study that I have called, we'll see if it comes up here.

[0:24] ! Not yet. Okay. No problem.! Here. Oh, I need to do something. Here, here. I know what to do. I know exactly what to do.

[0:44] Oh, it's up there. Oh, there it is there too. Good. So I can see it. I can see it here, see it there, and probably if I'm not careful, I'll turn around and look up here. You know, just to make sure that what I see seems to think... Anyway. Gospel on the goal.

[0:59] And that's what I'm calling this. And you may think that's kind of an interesting or strange kind of title, Gospel on the Go. But I'm taking this from, actually from, the Great Commission as it was given to us through Matthew.

[1:17] You know, a number of places in the Bible we have the Great Commission stated for us in Scripture. And Matthew 28, 18 through 20 is perhaps the most well-known.

[1:30] And it is there that I have come up with this title for my series, The Gospel on the Go. Because Jesus says in verse 19 of Matthew chapter 28, Go, therefore.

[1:47] Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

[1:59] And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And so it's a very familiar passage, isn't it? And so we understand this part about go, go. But what you may not know, and it may not have been explained to you, and I'm not going to make just a whole lot about this, I do kind of focus in my study of Scripture and in my preparation for preaching, I do spend a lot of time looking at words and the meaning of words and the grammar, and not the English grammar, but the Greek grammar, and noticing, paying close attention to the form of the word, and all these are important for preparation to preach.

[2:38] The word go is a participle. It's a participle, and we could actually translate this going, therefore.

[2:50] Going. The idea being, as you're going. As you're going, do what? Make disciples of all nations.

[3:02] And that's really the command of the Great Commission, isn't it? You've had that explained, I'm sure, a number of times, that the only imperative, the only command in the Great Commission is make disciples, which means it's really an all-conclusive kind of term or concept.

[3:20] It's not just simply sharing the gospel and winning them, as it were, to Christ by His grace through their faith, but it's also everything that happens afterward, including baptizing and teaching and discipling, and all of these things are included in making disciples, making followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[3:45] Now, we don't save them, of course. It's the Lord that saves through the proclamation of the gospel. But what I want you to focus on here is this word go, or, again, going.

[4:03] And so if the Great Commission is to evangelize as you go, if that's primarily the idea, then that's what we need to do.

[4:19] And so that makes it not just a program that we may organize and kind of incorporate into the overall ministry of our church.

[4:31] I've mentioned this a couple of times before. I don't know when it was that we as Baptists, or we as the modern Christian church in general, I don't know when it was that we kind of bought into this idea that evangelism is something we always organize to do as a program of the church.

[4:55] Now, it is to be done that way. I'm not denying that. I think it's important for a church to organize to evangelize. In fact, I have a book in my library by that title, Organize to Evangelize.

[5:09] And we do need to do that. I'm not denying that. And we have Grow, and I want you to participate with that. And soon in the near future, we will be moving into something else.

[5:23] But that, and we'll talk about that later, but this is a program of the church in a sense. Where we organize and we train. And, you know, even before that, we encourage people to commit to and be a part of.

[5:38] And primarily, it kind of looks like this, you know, on a certain night of the week. The church is involved in going out and visiting and evangelizing.

[5:49] And so it's a program. But when Jesus gave the Great Commission, He was giving it to all believers. And so it is something more than just an organized program, a specific set program.

[6:05] It is something that each of us are to do personally. And so that's why I emphasize the going. As you go.

[6:18] And where you go. Whether it's at work or wherever it may be. At the restaurant or when you have opportunity. And you ought to look for opportunities. We are to evangelize.

[6:31] This is the Great Commission. And so that's what our focus is going to be. And, again, I'm going to be using this book. And I'm going to not want to give these out right now.

[6:43] I've got them up here. In fact, Jonathan, maybe if you wouldn't mind, take these. I think you can handle all of them. And put them on the table out there in the foyer.

[6:56] And this is what I want you to do. I want you to take the book home with you. Now, there's enough, really more than enough, for at least one in every family to have.

[7:07] I don't think I have enough for every single person. Some of you may already have the book. If you do, then I'd appreciate you using your copy. But if you don't, then let's pick them up after the service tonight.

[7:21] And one per family. Okay? If you're single, that's you. You get one. All right? Okay. So we're going to be following that.

[7:31] And that will be our primary source. Well, here's that old computer I was talking about.

[7:44] Aha! There it is. There's the picture of it. Looks just like the one I have right here. It'll look just like the one you pick up on the way out. Now, when I say primary resource, don't get all tense.

[7:56] That, well, the pastor's not going to use the Bible. That'll be the primary resource, of course. And Mark Dever, of course, used Scripture as the basis for everything that he teaches in this book.

[8:10] Now, some of the things we're going to be looking at, especially tonight, are just very practical things. And, you know, so we're not going to be sharing a lot of Scripture. That's why I started out with a passage of the Bible.

[8:22] Couldn't bring myself not to at least speak on one passage in the Bible. But this will be our primary source. And I'll follow this book pretty closely. And yet, along the way, I'm going to be adding some things that I know and have experienced.

[8:38] The primary purpose, and this really comes straight from the book. First of all, it is to encourage you and me.

[8:48] Because what we're going to be considering and being challenged about is something I need and you need. And so it's an encouragement to encourage individual Christians, that's every one of you, to make evangelizing or evangelism a priority.

[9:10] Again, try to maybe create a new kind of paradigm or definition in your mind about evangelism.

[9:22] Because typically when we hear that word, we think of a group effort or a church ministry or even something even larger than that.

[9:33] Like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade or something like that. I talk about evangelism and I'm going to use that word a lot because that's the word that Dever chooses.

[9:47] We're talking about individuals. And we will say some things about the church corporately as a whole. But evangelizing is something that each of us need to be involved in and each of us need to make a priority.

[10:05] So that's primary purpose, number one, to encourage individual Christians to make evangelism a priority. Also, and this is what we're going to focus on tonight primarily, to refute the excuses that we frequently use for not evangelizing.

[10:26] Do you have any excuses? Do you make excuses for not being a witness? For not giving a witness or sharing a word about the Lord Jesus or even certainly a full-blown presentation of the good news of Jesus Christ?

[10:47] Do you have any excuses? We're going to consider some of those and refute all of those. In fact, there are probably many, many more than we'll consider here tonight. But there aren't any excuses, not good ones.

[10:57] And so we're going to have to learn to get those out of our vocabulary and our thinking. Also, to identify scriptural foundations for evangelizing.

[11:09] It is biblical, okay? Evangelizing the world is biblical. And not only the substance of our message certainly is biblical, but the mandate from Scripture that we evangelize, that God's people, the church, evangelize, that's very biblical.

[11:33] And the gospel, what is the gospel? We're going to consider that. Just what is this gospel? And what is it that I am sharing in particular from God's word?

[11:44] And we're going to discuss that. I think that's going to be very informative but also very practical. Also, to offer some practical advice and help on evangelizing.

[11:59] By the time we're finished, in fact, pretty soon we're going to be developing some little cards that the members of our church, you can have and you can give, just easily give to someone that will have the gospel on it, information, or rather it will have our church location on it.

[12:22] Some gospel tracks, some other tools that I want to make available to you that we're going to kind of design ourselves here at the church. But not just some help, some resources, but some practical advice on how to start up a conversation about Jesus, about the gospel, and so forth.

[12:44] These will be very practical, I think. All right, now, we're going to begin. I'm going to trip over this step here. I'm going to begin with, and you'll see when you look at the book, the first chapter is entitled, Why Don't We Evangelize?

[13:01] Why don't we do it? If we were to take a poll in here, a little survey, I think that it would be unanimous that we, it's our duty as born-again believers to share the gospel with people to evangelize.

[13:19] I think we would all agree that it's not just a preacher's job, not just an evangelist, say a vocational evangelist or missionary job, or just those who are gifted in, you know, conversation, those who have type A personalities.

[13:36] It's not just select ones. It's every one of us. So why don't we do it? And here's where we get into some excuses. Excuse number one, and, you know, bear with me here because you're going to think initially, as I thought initially as I was reading through Devers' book, that some of these excuses just don't apply whatsoever.

[14:01] And here's the first one. I don't know their language. That's an excuse. Now, we've got ten people, counting myself, who in July are going to be traveling to Ukraine, and indeed, we do not speak Russian.

[14:15] Now, Rachel just got back from Mexico. Rachel, I don't know if you speak any Spanish. You probably picked up a little bit while you were there. Maybe some little courtesy words or important words like, where's the bathroom, things like that.

[14:31] But to be able to carry on a conversation with someone, a spiritual conversation, a biblical conversation, share the gospel with someone who does not speak your language is, well, impossible.

[14:43] That is, verbally. Now, I don't know if most of you ever have that occasion. Some working at ConocoPhillips or Phillips 66 might have run across someone working for that company who doesn't have really good English skills.

[15:07] Maybe I don't know from another country. But even they probably speak English quite well. We do have people living right here among us, here in Bartlesville, who are from Mexico and other places, who come here to work.

[15:24] And they speak Spanish, but they do not speak English. And so, that's a difficulty, isn't it? That's a major barrier. I would also tell you that there are some kind of segments of our culture that speak English, but they seem to have a different language when they speak it.

[15:43] And I don't mean to be ugly about it. I'm not meaning to be ugly or disparaging toward any ethnic group. But when I was in seminary, part of the requirement at Mid-America was to be a part of a practical mission, to go out and share the gospel through some various organized ways that it was done.

[16:07] And my choice was to kind of street witness there in the inner city of Memphis and to go to some of the housing projects and walk in there and talk to people.

[16:19] And we would go two by two. And I was very thankful one day as we were walking that I had a black man who was my partner.

[16:30] And so, we were together going out witnessing. And I met a group of fellows who were black, who were speaking English, but I didn't understand a word they were saying.

[16:42] I'm not talking about the way they spoke English, but some of the terms and words and so forth. It was a different language. And I was thankful that my partner knew exactly what they were saying.

[16:56] And he was able to share the gospel with them. We may have encounters where people don't speak our language or they don't know our terminology. And we could even go as far as that and say that a language barrier exists between two people who have a different frame of reference when it comes to the Bible and to Christianity and to certain terminologies within that.

[17:22] And so, there's a barrier there. And so, we might find ourselves saying, well, I just don't speak their language. And that is an excuse and I guess a very valid one, isn't it? But, evangelism is illegal.

[17:37] Excuse, basic excuse number two. Now, so far, none of these really hit you, have they? Do you consider evangelism an illegal practice here in Bartlesville?

[17:51] So, we can't use that excuse, can we? Probably didn't even think it. And yet, it is, at least a certain approach to evangelism is already illegal in many parts of our country.

[18:06] Not just in some other country. It certainly is illegal in China. At least in the sense of going out on the street and stopping people and sharing the gospel.

[18:20] Evangelizing in that way is illegal in China. In fact, about every opportunity you have to do any kind of overt evangelism is illegal in that country.

[18:31] Becoming illegal in many parts of our country. There are many places right now in America where you cannot go out and walk down the street and go door to door and talk to people about Jesus.

[18:42] Can't stand in the mall. In fact, most malls won't allow that. Can't go into apartment complexes and just walk, you know, in the apartment complex and stop people and talk to them about the Lord and so forth.

[18:55] And so, there's an excuse. Evangelism is illegal and yet we probably can't use that excuse, can we, here. Alright, so that one is out of there.

[19:07] You can't use that one. Excuse number three. Evangelism could cause problems at work. Indeed, it could. In fact, I would even suggest to you that you need to be very careful how you share the gospel while you're on company time.

[19:32] You don't want to undermine the whole effort to share Christ. And for the message of the Lord Jesus Christ to be valid to people, you don't want to undermine all that by robbing from your employer.

[19:53] So, you need to be very careful about this. So, those of you who are in the workplace most of the time during the day, there are ways that you can do that.

[20:03] And times that you can look for where it would be perfectly permissible to have a short conversation with someone. But, you know, on the one hand, be careful, be honoring.

[20:19] But on the other hand, don't use this just simply as an excuse for not evangelizing. Because it might cause problems at work.

[20:30] And not just simply in the, you know, the context of employee-employer problems. But even some difficulties between employees. You know, you get, you know, somebody you work with all the time.

[20:44] And you might be thinking, well, if I try to share Jesus with them, then it will kind of destroy our relationship. And maybe our work won't be as good and so forth. And so, that's just not a valid excuse.

[20:56] Not one that we should use. Basic excuse number four. Other things seem more urgent.

[21:10] Boy, this is, this is one, isn't it? We're busy with other things. And so, we don't have time to set aside.

[21:22] We're going somewhere. I've used this all the time. You're at Walmart. You know, and you and that clerk. And you don't have time to say anything.

[21:34] Because you've got to get on. There are people waiting. And you do need to be, I think, aware of causing other people problems who are waiting.

[21:45] I mean, the line's already long. And so, you need to be careful about those things. But overall, in a general sense, we could use this as an excuse.

[21:56] I'm just too busy. Or we're too busy doing the work of the Lord. You know, too busy with the other things in life to squeeze any kind of evangelism in there.

[22:10] And that's a major excuse that you'll find yourself using. Number five, I don't know any non-Christians. I started to say, raise your hand if that's one of your problems.

[22:26] But I don't want to embarrass anybody. We don't. We tend not to develop any relationships outside of those people who are like-minded in faith.

[22:42] Those people who are believers. Some of you might have, say, if you've been saved late in life, you carried on a remnant of friends from, you know, your unsaved days.

[22:56] And maybe you continued those relationships. And maybe you have developed others. But most of us, we could use, rather, this excuse. I just don't know any unsaved people. Here's some excuses, and I think it's very interesting how Debra does this.

[23:16] Excuses concerning them. That is, it's kind of your excuse, but you kind of transfer it to the other person.

[23:28] Problems you might think others would have with your witnessing. You know what I'm talking about? You're just kind of thinking, well, I know what they're thinking.

[23:38] I know what they're going to do or not do. And I know how they're going to react and so forth. And so these are excuses concerning them. They don't want to hear it. Have you ever?

[23:54] You know, they don't really want to hear this. I can just tell. You know, I just, you know, I can just tell and look in their face. You know, they don't really want to hear this.

[24:05] So why bother? It's an excuse concerning them. They probably already know it. I'm growing up here in America, and America is a Christian country, and people have already been introduced to Jesus and the Bible and the gospel.

[24:20] And so, you know, I don't need to tell them about it. They already know it. They just need to believe it. So, you know, the onus is on them. They already know about it.

[24:32] It's kind of an excuse concerning them. It won't work with them. Not just that they don't want to hear it, but I just know that they're going to say no.

[24:47] I just know they're going to reject it. It's not going to work with them. That's an excuse. They'll be angry with me. Or not like me.

[25:03] They might even say something derogatory toward me. Do you handle rejection very well? Most of us do not.

[25:15] We want to be liked. We want to be accepted. You know, so sometimes it's difficult to kind of carry on and even conceive of a very peaceful, very gentle, very, you know, two different opinions and just very peacefully talking it over.

[25:35] We have a hard time conceptualizing that scenario. We more often think, well, they're not going to want to hear what I have to say and they're not going to react very well.

[25:48] And so I don't really want to get into that rather uncomfortable situation. I don't like conflict, you know, that kind of thing. They will laugh at me.

[26:00] This is very similar to the other one, only it's different, isn't it? They might laugh at me. They might think I'm silly, crazy, and ridicule me and so forth.

[26:12] So these are excuses. And we can name some more, really. You're probably thinking of some. And we'll get into some here in just a moment.

[26:25] Well, in fact, I forgot. I've got a sixth one. I don't know enough Bible to convince them. And that's, I would say, a very typical excuse.

[26:38] I just don't know what to say. I don't... I'm not as well versed on Scripture. And maybe I could tell them some of the basic things about Jesus and about what He has done and what they must do according to Scripture.

[26:56] And I know some of those basic things. But what if they get me off my subject? And what if they ask me a question I can't answer and get me flustered? And I guarantee you that's going to happen. I think I've told this story a number of times.

[27:12] I don't think I have here. But Adrian Rogers, and, you know, I quote him quite a bit. He said he was talking to a fellow one time and talking to him about the Lord.

[27:23] And this guy tried to get him off subject. And he said, well, you know, I just believe whatever is going to happen is going to happen. And that's what he said. And Dr. Rogers said, he said, well, you know what?

[27:35] I believe, I believe whatever is going to happen has already happened. And the man looked at him and said, what do you mean? What's that mean? And Dr. Rogers says, I don't know.

[27:45] But anyway, let me tell you about Jesus. You know, you don't have to answer all the questions. In fact, you can say, I don't have any idea.

[27:56] I don't know. I'll go check on that. But let me tell you something about Jesus. And so, but this is a major excuse, isn't it?

[28:07] I don't know the Bible to convince them. That is what I know they won't be convinced by. It won't work because I'm not telling them all the right things.

[28:19] And so success, then this is really what we're saying. Our success is based upon us and our knowledge and how convincing we are and what kind of communicator we are and so forth.

[28:33] That's an excuse. The answer really at all that is, well, in the first place, why do we think that we would respond to the gospel, but someone else wouldn't?

[28:46] See, so what we're doing, we're getting into another person's mind and we're thinking for them and we've already made up our minds about what they're going to do or won't do and, you know, they're not going to.

[29:00] I can just tell. I can just look at their face. They're not going to receive this. Well, why do we think we would respond to this gospel, but someone else wouldn't? What do we know about that anyway?

[29:10] Anyway, God saves some of the most unlikely converts. And the reason why we have never experienced that or seldom experience it is because we don't make the attempt.

[29:34] We don't make the attempt to share the gospel because we think, you know, this person is a hard heart.

[29:45] There's no way that this person is going to be. We have people stop by the church. Usually I think because Jonathan's office is closer to the main office, he's the one that gets them most of the time.

[29:58] On occasion, I get them. I even had them come to that side door near my office. And many times, to my shame, I have not gone that extra step to share the gospel with that person because it just seemed, in my way of thinking, in my view, it seemed that there wasn't any way that their life is, that they're going to receive this, that this is just not going to work for them.

[30:30] You know, why bother? Or I might even, and I have, have said, you know, this guy's brain is so fried, there isn't any way he could even, even in any way process this information.

[30:48] How in the world could he be saved? It's ridiculous, isn't it? It's just to think that. God saves some of the most unlikely converts. In fact, I like, I didn't give you the whole quote.

[31:00] You can read it for yourself from Jonathan Edwards. And actually, he was speaking of some accounts of the Great Awakening. And he called them accounts of surprising conversions.

[31:17] Surprising conversions. That's what we're talking about here. That God can save the most unlikely converts. And the reason we don't see that is because we don't even attempt it with those that we've already determined are beyond reaching or there's no way that they would ever receive it.

[31:34] But Edwards talking about surprising conversions and Devers says that all conversions are surprising. Now, think about that.

[31:48] All of them are. Not just those that we kind of categorize, you know, in a group all by themselves. Those from all appearance and from our evaluation are the hard core, the hard nots, as sometimes we have called them, that are so down the path in sin, there's just no possible way.

[32:08] But really, all conversions are surprising. What is conversion? It's when enemies are loved. God loves His enemies.

[32:22] Where they alienated or adopted. That's all of us. We were alienated from God and God adopted us by His grace.

[32:34] And where those who should be punished instead, what? Inherit eternal life. See, that's what makes then conversion always a surprising thing.

[32:47] That God would save anyone ought to be surprising to us. Like I have heard one of my professors say concerning Esau and Jacob, the Bible says that God hated Esau but loved Jacob.

[33:03] A lot of people want to focus on how in the world could God hate Esau but the most amazing thing is that God loved Jacob. That's the most amazing thing. That God would love any of us.

[33:16] And so all conversions are surprising. And so, then this section in the first chapter, plan to stop not evangelizing.

[33:28] I would have worded that differently. But who am I next to Mark Dever? Plan to stop not evangelizing.

[33:41] And I get his point. I'm just being silly. And he gives 12 things I want you to think about. On kind of 12 steps on stopping not evangelizing.

[33:54] That's even worse. Number one, pray. Pray. Pray. And for opportunities. Pray for power.

[34:07] You see, to not evangelize usually is pointing to our trusting self rather than trusting the power of God.

[34:23] And then sometimes when we do give a witness, we don't pray about it. We don't, we just kind of do it in our own strength, in our own ingenuity. We need to pray for opportunities and power and success.

[34:34] Now, I'm not talking about success in terms of, you know, Mark won here for Don Coleman. He got somebody saved. I've never gotten anybody saved. Success in the sense of glory going to God that, and glory to Him not only for the saved soul, but glory goes to Him that He would use me to reach that person with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

[35:06] And I would also add to that that we ought to, really, this ought to go first. We ought to pray that God would forgive us for our guilty silence. that we're too timid, too cowardly, too uninterested, too wrapped up in our own schedule and time, and too, you know, succumbing to our own personality, you know, that we're just quiet people, and so that's why, you know, we need to ask God to forgive us, and then pray for opportunities and power and success.

[35:49] That's how to plan to stop not evangelizing. Then the word plan. Plan the substance, the substance of your evangelizing, and there are many ways to do it.

[36:04] All the way from some plan to give a witness in a short space of time, like a little spot thing, to a plan for a full-blown gospel presentation, a plan related to the substance of those things, what scriptures are used, and so forth, and just make a plan, and you can use a little tract, you can use a little card that can aid in those things.

[36:41] That's part of a plan and also plan the time. We're all busy people and we have to schedule some of these things and allow some of these things to be interruptions to our schedule.

[37:00] That's probably one of my big hang-ups. I'm doing something else right now. And so, you know, if you're like me, you just hate things interrupting your schedule.

[37:14] Anybody like that? Nobody? Just me? All right, Amy, thank you for being honest. So we have to plan for those things.

[37:26] Accept. These are all Devers' words. I would have tried to figure out some way to alliterate these things. Now, I don't know, 12, that's a pretty tall order, 12 things all starting with the same letter, but I think I could have done it.

[37:40] Anyway, accept, accept, accept that this is our job, our calling, I guess would be a better term, our calling.

[37:53] And really, we can't escape the command of the Lord Jesus Christ. Understand, is number four. Understand what this is all about.

[38:06] Not just, we're not just talking about understanding what the gospel is. Now, we need to understand that, and we're going to talk in some detail about that next time. But understand your role in this.

[38:20] understand that you've been called to this. And it is your responsibility. Understand that. And understand, then, that it's more than just a gift.

[38:34] Sometimes, we're waiting for the gift of evangelism. And there is a bonafide gift of evangelism. I personally think that they are missionaries.

[38:45] I think that's the gift of evangelism in our day, but that, notwithstanding, there is a gift to evangelism because the Bible tells us so. And so, if there is a gift, a specific gift, then that means not everybody has it.

[38:58] But that, in a strict sense, is true, but in the broader sense, every one of us has been called to be evangelists. And so, we need to understand that and not excuse ourselves from it.

[39:11] Number five, be faithful. Be faithful. More than sensitive sensitive What was I trying to write there?

[39:26] Well, I don't know what I was trying to write there. I know what I was trying to mean. That we are more sensitive to what man thinks, how a person will react to our witness than we are for the honor and glory of God.

[39:49] We are more concerned about, more focused on, you know, having our character assassinated because we are telling people about Jesus than we are about the Lord and about His glory and about the greatness of the gospel.

[40:12] More concerned about man, more sensitive to what a man thinks than we are sensitive about what God thinks. So we need to be faithful to God first and foremost.

[40:24] So if we are convinced that old so-and-so over there is not going to believe what I've got to say, so why bother? Then we have really assaulted God in that because He has called us to be faithful witnesses to everyone.

[40:46] Risk. Be willing to risk. Take the risk. Is there risk involved in being a witness for Christ?

[41:04] In this country maybe not risk to body and limb and there is risk not being liked.

[41:17] You know, I've often thought, you know, if we were to kind of list some of the things that might happen to us if we were faithful witnesses, I wonder how those would stack up next to the list of things that Paul said he endured because he shared the gospel.

[41:34] And I kind of visualize, imagine sitting down with Paul and having him ask me the question, well, how's it going? And I were to say, you know, it's tough being a Christian in our world.

[41:47] Oh, it is, he says. Tell me about it. And so I said, well, you know, they laugh at us and they, you know, ridicule us and they get angry at us and so forth, slam doors in our face.

[41:59] Paul, you just wouldn't believe how terrible it is. Can you imagine him reacting to that, you know, stoned how many times, whipped near death, many times in prison, so forth and so forth.

[42:13] We need to be willing to take the risk. This is how we plan to stop not evangelizing. Prepare. You know, you would think that would be number one on the list. Prepare to share the gospel effectively and we do need to prepare.

[42:27] I'm going to share with the team to Ukraine how they can mark their New Testament with just the simple Roman road and, you know, and just simply share the gospel starting with Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[42:44] And going on from there, a very simple way, and you can put together a plan like that or you can plan to use a gospel tract or if it's just simply a quick little witness or a little something, you know, that you could give to somebody, it would be part of the plan.

[42:59] Number eight, look. Look for opportunities to evangelize and we actually try to look the other way so that we don't have to do it. Love is the supreme motivation for evangelism, love of the Lord first and foremost, but love for all those whom He loves.

[43:18] And ten, fear. We just really do need to learn how to fear God. Fear God in the sense of not just simply respect.

[43:33] A lot of times we opt for that word, respect, to respect or reverence God. It's much more than that. We're to actually fear God, fear offending Him, fear dishonoring Him.

[43:47] We need to have a healthy fear of the Lord. Number eleven, stop. Stop using God's sovereignty as an excuse. God is sovereign in salvation, sovereign over all things.

[44:07] God is the one who saves and we can talk about our theology all we want to and you know mine, but how quickly those of us on the reform side primarily will use that theology not to witness and we need to stop using God's sovereignty as an excuse.

[44:33] Well, if God wants to save them, He will. Right? That's an excuse. You know, that's God's business and so we need to stop doing that and knowing that God has chosen to use us as the instruments of the proclamation of the gospel and God works His grace through the proclamation of the word faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

[45:03] And who is it that shared? Now, God could thunder from heaven if He wanted to. God could just choose to save whom He wanted without any gospel presentation if He wanted to, though that would contradict His word and He's not going to do that.

[45:18] Number twelve, and finally consider what God has done for us in Christ. Consider what God has done for us in Christ. Make that personal.

[45:30] What God has done for me in Christ Jesus, what all that means, what Christ suffered for me, that I might be saved.

[45:43] If we would consider that, I think we would tend to ignite a fire passion within us to share the gospel with others.

[45:58] God for to to to to! God to to to to!

[46:08]  God to God to to to