Auto-generated - may contain small errors. Always verify with the audio version.
How do we do evangelism? We've seen what evangelism is. It's spreading God's glory by proclaiming the center of God's glory,! which is the cross of Jesus Christ.
We've seen where it starts, where evangelism starts. It begins with prayer, and it begins with a visible life before men of righteousness. We saw last week some of the barriers that we are going to have to overcome.
There's barriers that the world produces, and then there's barriers in our own hearts that we have to overcome. Sinful tendencies that we have to overcome if we're going to evangelize.
But how do you do evangelism? That's the question that we're asking today. Pastor Aaron passed on something very interesting last week at the members meeting from David Vaughn.
David said that he goes into every situation where there could be evangelistic opportunity. And do you remember what he said he tries to do in that situation?
Dale. He tries to love them, and out of love comes the evangelism. And so love is sort of going to be the umbrella topic of what we're talking about today.
All evangelism, all proper and good evangelism, follows from us loving people. So we want to do evangelism in such a way that it expresses our love for the lost.
Jesus loved the lost, and all that he did expressed that love. And we want to do the same. This morning I'm going to paint with some fairly broad strokes.
It's not going to be a detailed nuts and bolts of, this is how you should do evangelism, and this is what you should say. We're just going to be talking about how we do evangelism, no matter what the concrete situation that we find ourselves in.
The possibility of details and all that, it's just, we really can't go there. Because your situation is going to be very different from my situation, and my situation is going to be different from your situation.
And so it's going to be hard to give any rules for that. So these are some general things. Well, how do we go about doing evangelism?
The first thing, we do it with balance. We do it with balance. And we want to balance between three things. Honesty, urgency, and joy.
Honesty, urgency, and joy. Let me ask you, what is the worst part about telling someone the good news? Yes, that is the bad part.
I don't like to do that. You don't like to do that. No one likes to do that. But if we're going to do evangelism, we have to be honest about that.
We can't cover up the truth. We can't soften it in any way. We have to be honest. We have to be honest with their problem. They're rebelling against their creator. They're not doing and acting, and they're not the way that they should be.
They're despising God, and there is a law, and they're breaking that law. And really, what I just said, that's actually the easy part of it, because most people will say, yeah, I'm a sinner.
But then we have to go further than that and say that you're not a good person who occasionally does bad things. You're a bad person at the heart level, and out of the evil that you have stored up in your heart, you bring out the sinfulness.
You have an evil heart. Then we even have to go further than that, and we have to say, all the good things that you think you've done, even those are tainted with sin.
All of our righteous deeds are filthy rags. So your wonderful love to your wife, it's tainted with sin. And your careful management of your family, it's full of arrogance and envy.
And the good things that you are doing are worthless in God's sight. And that is going to be hard. But we have to be honest about sin. Let me ask you, what else do we have to be honest about?
About their sinfulness? Dare. Okay. Actually, that's good. I didn't think of that. What else do we have to be honest about?
Right. God's attitude towards sin. God isn't this heavenly grandpa in the sky that just, oh, is okay with all of our faults.
We have to be honest about God's wrath. Sin is the road that goes to hell, and hell is a conscious place of torment. God will judge everyone.
And if they come to that day, as they are, it will be horrible for them. Will they like hearing that? No. Of course not.
But we have to be honest. What else do we have to be honest about? In this postmodern world, what don't people like but we have to be honest about? Yeah. Yeah.
People might be all good up to that point. You know, I've met people that are willing to say, I'm a sinner, and inside I'm a bad person, and, you know, I'm sure there's a judgment, and all that sort of stuff.
But when it comes down to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is the only way, that is tough for them. It's like taking a handful of nails and swallowing it.
It is not going to go down well. But we have to be honest. Jesus Christ is the only way. Whether they like it or not, whether we like to say it or not, Jesus Christ is the only way.
He's the only way that's been approved by God the Father. And we know that because He was raised from the dead. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He isn't equal to Buddha.
He's not on par with Mohammed. He wasn't just a good man. He's the Lord. And they have to throw themselves on Jesus Christ, the man who lived 2,000 years ago and who died and was raised from the dead, or they will be lost.
And we have to be honest about that. We have to keep a balance, though, between honesty and urgency. By urgency, I don't mean, hey, I told you the gospel now.
Make a decision right now. That's not what I'm talking about when I say urgency. I'm not talking about rushing through people. By urgency, I mean letting them know that we are deadly serious about what we're talking about.
That we are deadly serious about what we're talking about. This isn't something that they can think about in the by and by. And just whenever they get around to it, we have to let them know that they have to think about this now, and they have to keep thinking about it until they've come to some resolution.
And so we show our urgency by the words that we say. We need to be frank when we talk. We need to be clear and easy to understand, but we cannot be flippant.
Anyone can blow off a flippant person, no matter what they're saying. But if the way they're saying it, it doesn't show seriousness, then who cares what they're saying?
But you cannot blow off, no matter how hard you try, someone who is very urgent in their message to you. Ben Franklin, as most of you know, was an avowed deist.
He did not agree with Christianity. He didn't take it seriously. But did you know that he was one of George Whitefield's biggest fans? And one time someone saw Franklin running down the street to hear George Whitefield preach, and that person hollered at him, hey, I didn't think that you believed what he preaches.
And Franklin said, oh, no, I don't. But he does. He does. And so I go and hear him. George Whitefield was urgent.
We don't only show our urgency by our words, but by our whole demeanor. By our whole demeanor. It needs to portray urgency.
While we're talking about George Whitefield, it used to be said that when he would go into the pulpit, or when he would stand up to preach, people would begin to weep just before he even said anything.
And I don't know how to take all that, but people said that you could see how heavenly-minded he was, how serious he was, that he was someone who was alive, and God had anointed him, and he was saying something that was absolutely urgent.
And so, while we'll probably never be a George Whitefield, I mean, that's a once-in-a-millennium sort of thing. But in our demeanor, and in our words, we need to let people know that we're very serious about what we're saying.
The third thing that we need to balance. So we've talked about honesty and urgency. We need to balance that with joy. Now, if we don't include joy, if we're not a joyful person about our evangelism, then we're going to be a pretty grim lot of evangelists.
We're not going to come off very well at all. We're going to be telling them, hey, you're condemned. You're a sinner, and you're going to hell, and there's only one way, and his name is Jesus Christ, and you have to do something about it right now.
And if that's what you're like, then you're not portraying the fact that we're telling them good news. This is the gospel that we're saying, and the gospel should produce joy in our lives, and it should be the happy occasion for us to tell them the gospel.
We're offering people the grand love of God. We're telling them that God has loved sinners, and that he sent his son to die for them, even though they're so unworthy.
But we're not only offering in the love of God, we're offering them the joy of sins forgiven, and of reconciliation with God, peace with God.
We're offering them wholeness in their life, and meaning, and a relationship with their maker, and we should be happy about that. We have tasted, and so it should be our joy to tell others.
So joy should permeate our honesty and our urgency. People should see the joy in our faces. We should be able to smile and tell people the gospel.
The good news is a happy truth, and it needs to fill us, the people who are telling the good news, with joy. And joy makes the truth beautiful. It makes it attractive.
People are not going to be attracted to a bunch of people who are so serious and so urgent and telling them horrible things without joy. But joy has a way of taking up all those things and making them attractive without demeaning how serious we are.
There is such a thing as serious joy. A joy that leaves you serious-minded. Well, that's the first thing. We want to balance honesty, urgency, and joy.
And so that takes up, that's sort of talking about our personality when we do evangelism. Let me ask you, what would our evangelism be like if we lacked urgency? Yeah.
I mean, if we're not serious about what we're saying, then no one's going to take us serious, and there's no point to it. Where would we be if our evangelism wasn't honest?
What do you guys think? Would we have anything to say? Why? Well, we could probably say a lot of things that people are saying that just aren't true, and in the end, it really won't save anyone.
Well, I've already said that if our evangelism isn't full of joy, it's going to be harsh and grim, and so we need to balance those three. We have to find a way of mixing joy and honesty and urgency in an attractive package where the way we carry out our evangelism wins people to Christ.
Well, how do we do evangelism? Secondly, we do it by respecting the person that we're talking to and respecting the things that he believes.
So, when we love people, remember our big umbrella is love, we respect what they, who they are, and we respect what they believe. Now, that should be clear to everyone.
It should be very clear. I'm not saying we agree with them, or we're not saying I think they're a good person and that their beliefs are okay, but we treat them with the dignity that they deserve.
So, let me ask you, why should we treat people with dignity? Yeah. Yeah, pragmatically. I mean, we're going to talk about a few examples, but pragmatically, if we don't respect that person while we're talking to them, we're not going anywhere with them.
We might as well just stop. Why else should we respect people? Yeah. It shows that we love them. When we love people, we naturally respect them.
Why doctrinally should we respect people? Mark? Yeah, they're made in God's image. What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
Yeah. There's a lot of debate about it, but if you just sort of boil down the biblical evidence, it means that we're children of God. It says that Seth was made in the image of Adam.
Seth was Adam's child. And somehow, we know that God is sort of the generic father of all people, because we're all his image bearers.
It also means that we're rulers of God's place. We're meant to reflect his glory in this world and show his authority. Jesus Christ, he's the king and he's the son, and that's why he's the perfect image of God.
And so, every person that we meet, they're made in God's image. They're made like him. Even in their fallenness, they're made to reflect his glory.
glory. Well, so there's honor and there's dignity and respect inherent in every person because they're created in the image of God. And that's why in Genesis 9, God institutes the death penalty for anyone who murders.
He says this, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man. So this is after the fall, this is after the flood, when it's been proven that every intention of man's heart is evil all the time.
So despite all that, despite of their fallenness, despite of their sin, they and we remain image bearers. And so we need to remember that when we're talking to sinners, that they are worthy of respect because of who they are as God's image bearers.
They're not animals. They are humans. They're God's special creation. They're God's rulers on this earth, and they will live forever and ever.
C.S. Lewis said, there are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal, and their life to ours is like the life of a gnat.
But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
He said in another place that if we were to see how people are going to be in eternity, we would be shocked at their horrific nature if they're in hell, and we would be tempted to bow down before them when we saw their splendor.
we don't talk to ordinary people. Every person that you talk to, every person you're sitting by, is immortal and will live forever and ever.
So people are worthy of dignity, and Jesus shows us that all the time. So he's talking to Nicodemus, and he doesn't berate Nicodemus for being confused.
He doesn't sarcastically answer his questions. Jesus wasn't that kind of evangelist. As Jim said, he was winsome. He respected people.
Or you could think of the woman at the well. He treated her with honor and dignity, and that she was worthy of, even though she was a sinner. He didn't shame her or ridicule her.
He treated her with dignity. And now we need to go a little bit further than that and treat what they believe, even if they're false beliefs, with dignity. Now we disagree with them.
And we don't for a second say that they're true or they're just as true as what we're saying or anything like that, but we can't be sarcastic about what people believe.
That's not how Jesus did it. He didn't mock Nicodemus for being confused. He didn't ridicule the woman at the well because she was thinking and believing wrong things.
he taught them. He loved them. And that's not how Paul acted. Paul's the greatest Christian evangelist and we should learn from him. That's not how Paul acted.
Turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17 verse 22. The context is that Paul's been brought before the Areopagus and that was like the Harvard or Oxford of the ancient world.
that's where all the elite philosophers came day after day and they talked about all the latest ideas. And he's brought before them and he begins his gospel message to them with verse 22.
And that's the only verse we're going to look at. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious.
I see that in every way you're very religious. What did he mean? Was he being sarcastic about that? No, he wasn't.
Was he showing flattery? No. Historically, flattery was strictly outlawed at the Areopagus. You didn't flatter people and sarcasm would have just made them angry.
In a certain way, he is commending them for their religiosity. Was it wrong? Yes, it was. But he could at least say, you're taking it seriously.
And so he just gave them what respect he could. Well, Paul didn't mock the false beliefs of unbelievers in Ephesus either. Turn over a few pages to Acts chapter 19.
Now, there's been a riot against Paul and his companions. It was stirred up by the silversmith named Demetrius. And he's drug in front of this crowd of shouting people in this theater.
And for two hours, people were shouting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And finally, the city clerk stands up. He steps into the scene and he must have been a man's man for sure.
Because he goes in front of this crowd of shouting people and he quiets them. Now, look at verse 35. The city clerk quieted the crowd and said, Men of Ephesus, doesn't all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven?
Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and not do anything rash. You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess.
Obviously, this guy is an unbeliever. He's obviously an unbeliever. But he could point to the fact that Paul never, Paul and his companions, never robbed temples nor blasphemed Artemis.
Paul's method of evangelism wasn't to go around and to ridicule all the gods and goddesses. Because Paul knew that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
And so, the things that he thought about the gods and goddesses, he probably just kept to himself until he had reached out to them. He respected people and at least to some degree respected their beliefs.
And I read of a man just lately who calls himself an evangelist to the Muslims. And his method of evangelism is to go onto a college campus and he puts advertisements all over.
And the advertisements are to draw in, to attract Muslims. And when they sit down at his meeting, he begins to berate Islam. And he calls it blasphemous and utterly false.
And he rails against Muhammad and the Quran. And the campus police most of the time have to drag him out just for his own protection because they're about to riot. And this man thinks that that is a victory for the gospel.
He thinks that he is now evangelized. And there's no doubt he's zealous. There's no doubt he's zealous. But Proverbs teaches us that pleasant words lead to instruction, but a fool stirs up trouble.
Well, how do we evangelize then? Well, we show respect. That's just part of loving people. You show respect and you show grace despite their sin and their false beliefs.
And that's love. Thirdly, when we're doing evangelism, we want to understand them. We want to understand them. If we want to see God's glory, if we want them to see God's glory, we have to understand where they're at.
Okay? We are lenses for them to look through in order to see God's glory. And if we're going to be the right kind of lens, we have to understand where they're at.
Did they lose a brother or sister when they were a teenager? Has a child, have they lost a child at a young age? Were they abused or mistreated by their parents?
All those things are going to shape them. It's going to shape what they think about God and what they think about this world and what they think about rules, what they think about life and death. So we have to be aware of that as much as possible so that we can shape the gospel message.
The gospel is the same, but so that we can make the gospel message what they need to hear. Did they have a previous religious experience that just didn't work out?
Did they have a previous confession? Did they previously profess Jesus Christ at one time or another? Did they have some sort of intellectual hang-up? Are they the philosophical type that they have intellectual problems?
Are they just scared to try new things? Are they that kind of person? What is their understanding of Jesus? We can't take any of that for granted. We want to be able to address those concerns and those events in their life in an informed way.
And that's how we love people. Now, if you have time this week, a great exercise is to look at how Paul addressed and shaped the gospel message in Acts chapter 14 and Acts chapter 17.
In Acts 14, he has this long gospel message to the Jews in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch. And then in Acts 17, he has a long gospel message to the philosophers at Athens.
Very different people. Very different backgrounds. Very different concerns. But Paul took the time to understand where the Jews were at. He probably knew that from his own youth and his own background.
But he took the time to read and understand the philosophers that were going around in Athens at the time.
And so he shaped the message very differently. In Acts 14, he talks about, he quotes the Old Testament numerous times.
In Acts 17, he doesn't quote it at all because they don't know it. But he took the time to understand them and he shaped the message to what they needed to hear.
Well, when you love someone, you try to understand them. And where they're coming from so that you can be the biggest help to them as possible. It's just loving someone.
Knowing what they need. Knowing how you can best present Jesus so that they can see the glory of God. Well, the fourth and last thing that we're going to talk about when we do evangelism is to show our love.
And the way that we show our love is to contextualize. Contextualize. And that's a $10 million word. And it just simply means this.
We want to adapt to change in whatever way possible to win as many people as possible. So it means we want to adapt to change in whatever way possible to win as many people as possible.
people. And let me tell you this right from the start. This is a hot button issue in the Reformed Baptist world today. And not only in the Reformed Baptist world, in the Reformed world at large, in Christianity at large.
If you go online and look at various Reformed Baptist blogs, people are having all sorts of conversations about this, heated discussions about this.
And good men are lined up all over the place. It's a huge spectrum on this issue. And the wide, just why is there such a wide spectrum?
Because there's really a lot of tricky questions that need to be answered. So should we contextualize? Should we adapt to the world? Some say yes, some say no.
What is good adapting? What is bad adapting? When is it going too far? When is it not going far enough? What does this mean for the public worship?
Should we change what we do here to agree with the world? Should we not? How do we sing? How do we pray?
How do we preach? What instruments should we use? What sort of technology should we use? People are asking all sorts of questions. There are all sorts of tricky questions.
And just let me say right from here, I don't want to go there. I really don't want to go there. In this class, I don't want to... Let's just look at the Bible and just draw a few conclusions about what we should contextualize and what we shouldn't as it holds to personal evangelism.
evangelism. So that's what we're just holding our discussion to, personal evangelism. Take your Bibles and turn in them to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And this is a well-known passage, but I think it gives us a lot of clear direction on what we should be looking at and thinking about as we do evangelism, because this is what Paul is saying that he does in evangelism.
1 Corinthians 9, look at verse 19. Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
To the Jews, I become like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law, I become like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so as to win those under the law.
To those not having the law, I become like one not having the law, though I am not free from God's law, but am under Christ's law. So as to win those not having the law, to the weak, I become weak to win the weak.
I become all things to all men, so that by all possible means, I might save some. I do this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
Well, what conclusions can we safely draw from this passage? I think we have three. The first is that any adapting that we do, any contextualizing that we do to the gospel, needs to be done with a servant's heart.
With a servant's heart. Look at verse 19. Though I myself am free, so Paul's free, he belongs to no man, I make myself a slave.
To who? To everyone. To win as many as possible. Love is not self-seeking. Love is not self-seeking. We don't change selfishly, and we don't stay the same selfishly.
Whatever we do, it needs to be done out of love. So Paul says, you know, I'm free, but I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
Paul adapted because he wanted to serve. That was his, that is what was driving him. He was looking at other people and what they needed, not his own concerns, not what he preferred, what his preferences were.
He adapted because he wanted to serve. And so when we're evangelizing, we shouldn't be saying, well, this makes me uncomfortable. I don't like doing things like this. I don't like this.
This isn't what I want. I want my way. They have to be like me. We aren't the masters. That's what Paul's saying. We aren't the masters. We're the servants and we serve everyone.
So we do it out of a servant's heart. Second, we need to adapt to win as many as possible. We need to adapt to win as many as possible.
Five times Paul says win in this passage. He wants to win. He wants to win, win, win, win, win more people. And so he says, the way I do that is I adapt.
I change. Now, there's some people that say, that look at the sovereignty of God and they look at what we believe about Calvinism and say, see, it doesn't matter what you do, how you do evangelism.
We just need to preach the word and that's enough. God will save who he wants to save. We don't have anything to do with it. Our methods don't have anything to do with it. We don't have anything to do with it at all.
Our behavior doesn't have anything to do with it. I can act and I can say and I can do whatever I want and God will do what he wants. And that is hyper-Calvinism.
That sounds good. It sounds God-honoring. And I'm sure you could say all those words and actually mean good by them, but you could say the same words and be stepping over the line.
Paul doesn't agree with that sentiment. And he wrote the book on the sovereignty of God, didn't he? He wrote Romans 9.
He wrote Romans 8. He is the clearest that we have on election. And God's sovereignty and God's freedom to do what he wants.
But Paul says in verse 19, I adapt to win as many as possible. He's saying, I know I will win more if I adapt.
So when I'm around Jews, I act like a Jew. And then when I'm around Gentiles, I act like a Gentile. Because I know if I act like a Jew when I'm with Jews, I'll win more Jews.
And if I act like a Gentile when I'm around Gentiles, I will act, I will win more Gentiles. And to the weak, I'm going to act weak so that I can win them. And when I'm with the strong, I'm going to act strong so that I can win more of them.
He says, I become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. And so we just can't say, well, I'll do whatever I want.
I'll act however I want. And I'll use whatever words and I'll do whatever I want and I'll leave the results up to God. Paul says, if we adapt, then we're going to win more.
We'll see more saved than if we don't adapt. And Hudson Taylor learned that. You guys know Hudson Taylor. He was like the European missionary that broke open China, created the Inland China mission.
When he went to China the first time, he came looking, talking, dressing like an Englishman. And he preached the gospel and people didn't want to hear him at all.
They didn't like him. He brought medical supplies and he helped the sick, but people still didn't want to hear him. Why? Because he was preaching a gospel of freedom.
He looked like the oppressor. And so people saw his black suit and they called him the black devil. And when he walked by, they would throw stones at him and throw mud at him.
They didn't want anything to do with him. They didn't want anything to do with the gospel. Then he decided, it clicked in his mind, I have to dress like these people. I have to act like these people.
And so he wore traditional Chinese garb. He shaved the front of his head. He grew a ponytail out the back. And people started to hear him. They realized that he loved them.
That he wasn't hung up on being an Englishman. That he really loved them. And he didn't want to take advantage of them. And so they heard him gladly and he won more.
He became a great missionary, a great harvester for God. And most of the other missionaries said, no, you shouldn't do that. That's sinful. That's wrong.
But he did it anyways. And he won more people to Christ. Did Taylor believe God was sovereign? Yes.
Do we? Yes. Did Paul? Yes. Does God save whoever he wants? Yes. Yes. But 1 Corinthians 9 reminds us that God uses means.
God uses means. And one of those means of doing successful evangelism and loving the lost is adopting and adapting to their culture. So that's the second conclusion.
You'll win more if you adapt more. The third conclusion. This is sort of on the other side that we can draw from this passage. Not all adapting is good.
Not all adapting is good. Do we contextualize the gospel to sin? No. Paul said here, I'm still under the law of Christ. The goal of adapting, the sake, the reason he's doing it, if you look at verse 23, is I do all this for the sake of the gospel.
The gospel is overshadowing this whole thing. The goal is to win the lost. And we can't win the loss if we are living sinful lives. We'll win them to our own sinful lives, but we won't win them to the gospel.
We can't win the loss unless we're visibly different. Does that mean we dress differently and act differently in a lot of ways? No. But it does mean we live righteous lives.
We don't adapt into sin. And some people have gone off on the deep end. In our culture, in our country, they've seen, yes, we need to adapt.
And so they've adapted and adapted and adapted. And now they've adapted themselves. So they are the world. They have nothing to offer. And that's not, that's clearly where we can't go.
It's a spectrum that we have to get on. And we can't stay, or we can't go that way. We're adapting into sin. But we can't stay all the way over here where we say, oh, we don't have to.
We're children of the light. And we must live as the light. And so Paul says here, by all possible means. By all, by all possible means.
Some things are not possible. Sin is not possible for a Christian. We can't get drunk with a drunk person in order to win them to Christ.
We adapt by all means possible. And that's going to rule out sin. It's going to rule out godless foolishness. Foolishness. And it's going to rule out doctrinal error. We're not budging on any of those issues.
Now, some people are just saying, oh, it doesn't matter. You can believe what you want as long as you're in my church building. We can't go there. We're not going there. But don't let the excesses of others deter you.
We need to be constantly asking ourselves, how can we change? Paul said, Paul was always asking himself, how can I change? How can I adapt to make the gospel more clear, to make my evangelism more successful, that I could win more?
And praise God, he is sovereign. If it was left up to us, no one would be saved. We can't save anyone by any of these means. But God has elected whom he wants to save, and he has set up the means how he's going to call them to himself.
And one of the means that God has set up is that his people live in the world, but they're not of the world. They live culturally relevant lives without being in the world.
So we need to ask ourselves, how can I be a better instrument for God? And I need to constantly ask myself, how can I be a better instrument for God?
What ways can I change? What ways can I adapt to the culture to get closer to it, but not sin? What can I do to win more people to Christ?
And that was Paul's concern. That was Paul's desire. I want to win, win, win, win, win more. And so that's a question we should be constantly asking ourselves, because Jesus' last words were, go and make disciples of all nations.
That is our responsibility. That is the church's responsibility. That is your responsibility. And that is my responsibility. It's everyone's responsibility.
We're to live for the glory of God. Remember, that's where we started this. We are meant to live to glorify God. And one of the best ways that we can glorify God is by showing people Jesus Christ and the gospel.
And when people, when sinners hear the good news and they see Christ crucified by faith and they forsake their idols and turn to the living God, God is glorified.
And that is what we're after. And that's what we need more of. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would seal these things to our hearts.
We clear away any misunderstandings. Will you keep us from stepping in places where we should not step, going down roads we should not go down. But Father, will you bring us closer and closer to where you want us to be?
Will you change us? Will you help us to be wise in how we adapt? Will you help us to be selfless in the way we adapt? That for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the lost and for your own glory, that we would be willing to become all things to all people in order to save some.
Will you put that desire more in our hearts and will you take that desire and bring that desire and bring it to fruition with lost sinners being saved. And we pray this in Jesus name and for his sake.
Amen. Amen. Amen.