Evangelism: How, When, Where

But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

! Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.

With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city.

Then over to chapter 11, verse 19. Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews.

Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. We've been learning about evangelism on these Sunday evenings, and we want to continue tonight, wrapping up tonight the how of evangelism and moving on to the when and the where.

There's just one aspect left to the how that we want to think about tonight. We've seen the means for evangelism. The Holy Spirit and prayer. The message of evangelism, which is the gospel.

The method. It is by both word and deed, through evangelistic conversations, through the giving of tracts, using the opportunities that God has given us to say, to speak that message of the gospel.

And tonight, we want to think about the manner of our evangelism. How we go about it. The attitude that we take with us. The words that we use, and the way that we speak them.

You'll remember that when Jesus was sending His disciples out to go and do the work of proclaiming the kingdom, He says in Matthew 10 and verse 16, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves.

Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. That's our aim in discussing this matter of how to do evangelism. We want to be wise.

We want to be shrewd. We want to be careful. We want to see those opportunities and take advantage of them. We want to be wise about the way we do it. Even thinking of some of the things that Brother Ken Sandy said in the adult Sunday school class this morning.

Being wise in the way and in the timing in which we approach someone with the truth. Shrewd as snakes, but also as innocent as doves. I hope you've seen something of the wisdom in having a careful method.

And tonight, we want to see the importance of having an innocent manner. Innocent as doves. That we be not offensive. Not with the message because the message is offensive. But that we be not offensive in our manner.

In the way we present it. So several things to say about our manner tonight. The first, I was helped with by Mark Dever in his little book on evangelism. And he encourages three things.

He says, be honest, be urgent, and be joyful. And be all three of those things and not just pick and choose among them. Be honest, urgent, and joyful.

You have to balance honesty where you don't pull any punches and you don't sugarcoat. And you don't hold anything back because you think the other person won't like it. Jesus is a stumbling block. And so we can't hold back talk of sin and judgment.

You remember Peter in Acts. Boy, he doesn't sugarcoat anything. Does he? He says, this Jesus whom you crucified. He showed them their sin. He was honest with them.

And so we balance that honesty with urgency. It's today is the day of salvation. We don't have forever. We don't know when that person that needs to hear the gospel is going to leave this earth.

And so there must be urgency to our message. But there must be joy as well. It is good news after all. The gospel, to evangelize, the word evangelize has the word good in it to proclaim the good news.

And if there's good news to be had, then we should be joyful about it. We should be glad to give them that message and show them how they can be glad as well. Now if you get an imbalance of these things, you start to have trouble.

If you have honesty and urgency, but you don't have any joy, then you get sort of a grim determination. You just get gloom and doom. Our man forgets that it's good news that we're telling them.

And you can get people that only talk about, you hear about hellfire and brimstone preachers. And you know what? That needs to be preached. People talk about that in a derogatory way, but it's in the Bible.

And so it needs to be preached. But if that's all there is, if there's no joyous good news, then we've fallen off the road on one side. Or if you have urgency and joy, but you don't have honesty, then you get distorted claims of immediate benefit and no negatives, health, wealth, and prosperity.

We can twist the message to become man-centered when there's no honesty. And when truth is sacrificed, you're not evangelizing. You're deceiving. So you must have that honesty.

But honesty and joy with no urgency, and then we'll be careless with respect to someone. I think we have all the time in the world if we're not urgent. We might never even actually get around to sharing the Gospel with someone if there's no urgency to our message.

And if we do get around to sharing it, it may come across as something that's sort of a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, no big deal, whatever you want to do, when the reality is that it is a big deal.

And their response to it is the difference between life and death. And so we balance in our manner all three, honesty, urgency, and joy. Something else to say about the way we present the truth is that it must be clear.

Our manner can't be one that's confusing or will defeat our purpose before we even begin. Define your terms. Know who you're talking to. Make sure they understand. Don't dumb the message down, but make sure they understand it.

Use language that's appropriate to their age, to their maturity, to their background, to their experience with religion and Christianity if they're total strangers to Christianity.

You'll have to work harder to define words like sin and Savior that might just roll naturally off your tongue but might be totally foreign to them. Be clear. Another aspect of our manner.

Be winsome. It's a word that we don't use very often anymore, but it's a good word. Winsome. It's attractive. It's pleasing. It's not obnoxious. It's not something that makes people want to run the other way.

Some people are more naturally winsome than other people are. Some people you enjoy talking to and other people not so much because they're not as winsome, attractive, appealing in the way they communicate.

You say, well, I'm one of those people. I'm one of those people that's not winsome. That's not an excuse to not do evangelism. That's something to work harder at that you might be appealing in your presentation. You can be assertive and urgent without being obnoxious.

There's a friendly, appealing way to go about evangelism and there's the sort of way that we heard J.I. Packer describe last week. The indiscriminate button-holing.

The intrusive barging into the privacy of other people's souls. The thick-skinned insistence on expounding the things of God to reluctant strangers who are longing to get away. Don't be that kind of evangelist.

Be winsome. Don't hit people over the head with your Bible. Don't be the kind of person that people can't wait to get away from. Remember the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and every one of those things should mark the way you do evangelism.

And if they do, it will make your manner one that is appealing. Not harsh words. It's not an in-your-face sort of attitude. It's the positive contact we talked about last week that's the first stage in an evangelistic conversation.

A megaphone in someone's face shouting about them going to hell is not positive contact. It's not winsome. Imagine with me for a moment a salesman.

And he goes door-to-door selling mouthwash. And the product is nicely packaged and his presentation is polished.

And every day he goes around talking the latest, greatest way to keep your breath fresh, clean, and pleasant all day long. But when you open the door for this man and he opens his mouth and he begins to talk, his breath stinks.

It's like noticeable, like you take a step backwards, his breath stinks. Obviously, that's not winsome. That's not the point. But you say that's far-fetched. But don't ever let that be said of your evangelism.

That you're presenting this marvelous thing and it hasn't changed the way you live. This man's selling mouthwash. And either he hasn't used this stuff ever or even brushed his teeth in several days or it doesn't work.

One of the two problems. Don't let that ever be said of your evangelism that you haven't experienced the message that you're speaking or that it hasn't changed your life. You're presenting the solution to their greatest problem and really all of their problems.

And a dull, uninterested tone is the best that you can do. See, the man's selling mouthwash that hasn't changed his breath. Are you sharing a Christianity that hasn't changed your life, the way you live and made you attractive and pleasing, given you that fruit of the Spirit?

Some Christians can do this without ever opening their mouths. It's known that they're a Christian, but people are turned off to Christianity just by observing them.

It's not having that life that's in accord with the words that you speak. But they know you're a professing Christian and they see your day-to-day discouragement and depression and dragging and no joy and complaining and all of these bad attitudes and they think, man, if that's what Christianity does for you, I don't want anything to do with that.

He's got bad breath. I don't want what he's selling. That's not winsome. And our presentation in the Gospel cannot be that way. It can't be contradicted by the way we live or even the manner in which we present it.

If you're going to be this way, your timing will be important. Be aware of the circumstances that you find yourself in. You're on a flight with a person, a two-hour flight, and you've had some sort of friendly chit-chat and small talk and you're thinking all the while, I want to share the Gospel and you're trying to get your courage up and trying to find that opening in the conversation and somewhere along the line he's told you that because this flight is late, he's in danger of missing his connection.

He's only going to have five minutes when he gets off the plane. The thing to do is not to wait until you're both getting off the plane and walking down the breezeway into the airport and say, you know, I really want to take a few minutes to tell you about Jesus.

That person is going to be so upset with you because you're contributing to them missing their flight. And you had this two hours before that where you could have done that. That's not a winsome manner.

He's going to say, if that's what it does for you, I don't even want to hear you or I don't want to listen to you. He's going to be mad that you're the cause of missing his flight. Do it sooner than that or make sure he's got a track to take with him to read on the next flight.

If you're in line at a checkout counter and there's a big long line behind you and you're going to stop and take five or ten minutes to share the gospel with somebody, you're going to make a lot of people mad. And that's not winsome. It's not attractive.

Be aware of where you are, the timing of it, or your message won't be received at all. Well, someone says, you know what? Sharing the gospel just seems so forced to me.

It's unnatural. And so it's hard for me to be attractive and winsome because it's not natural for me to talk about. But we need to eliminate, dear people, in our own minds the distinctions that we make between here's church and the gospel over here.

And here is my work here. And here's my home life here. And here are my children over here. And here's my sports. Or whatever else it is that we do. My marriage over here. And we put all these things into compartments.

And the gospel stays over here. And it never gets into these other areas of our life. And if that's the case, it won't be natural to talk about it. It's not part of the way you think about work and kids and sports and everything else.

But instead, the gospel needs to permeate everything that we do, everything that we think, everything that we say. When you're thinking about your family, think about it in terms of the gospel.

Those in your family that know Christ and that don't and how the gospel has changed the way you relate to the people in your family and what Christ has done for you and your family. And think of that in terms of your work too. How it's changed your relationships at work.

How God has given you the ability to work for His glory and to fulfill your calling in life. Think of everything in terms of the gospel and what Christ has done for you. Don't leave the gospel over here.

It's for Sundays. It's for church. Or even for when I have my devotions. I'll think about God and His Word then. But you don't apply it to all the other areas. It should infiltrate every part of our life.

And if that's the case, if we're always thinking about our life in terms of Christ and what He has done for us and what the Word of God has to say about it, then it will be much more natural in each of those settings to open our mouth and to speak about it.

It removes some of that lack of comfort if it's the way we naturally think. It's what we're always doing. How we're always thinking of things. If you're at ease with the message you're speaking, the person you're talking to is much more likely to be at ease as well.

And if you're going to be winsome, it's going to have to be important to you. If you can tell that someone doesn't really care about something they're talking about, you won't care about it either.

And if the person you're talking to can tell that you're not really gripped by the message of the Gospel, they won't be either. And so, we need to be gripped with the truth that has saved us.

And then let our presentation of it be gripping as well. We must be winsome in the way we do evangelism. Still talking about the manner, I want to talk for a moment about our mind, our emotions, and the will.

There are parts of this, part of what we're made up of. We have minds that we think with and we have emotions by which we feel and experience things. And then we have the will, which is our chooser.

It's what we choose to do with. I decide today that I'm going to do this. We choose right or wrong, good or evil. This or that. And so, the mind, the emotions, and the will.

And a Gospel message has to be directed at all three. It cannot omit any one of these. And I'd encourage you to get Will Metzger and read him on this. I'm going to quote him here, but he's very helpful.

In the mind, we've already really talked about that because we've talked about how the message is so important. It's the words that God has given us in Scripture. The Gospel. We're communicating truth in words and therefore, it must address the mind.

It's got to be able to be understood. You have to understand it and so do they. And so it's directed at the mind. He says, Metzger says, the very vehicle by which God gave His revelation, words, assumes engagement with our minds.

Many people will try to bypass the mind, whether it's in witnessing or in worship even, and just go straight for the emotions, stir up the emotions, get an emotional response, but you cannot, we must not, miss the mind and omit the message.

But some folks, in overreacting to all of the emotionalism, only direct their efforts at the mind. It's purely intellectual. Here are the facts and you should believe them.

And they forget that the emotions are part of who we are. And listen to Metzger on this point. Emotions are part of the image of God in us. Emotions have a valid place in our lives, but they are not to lead our lives.

Truth is to lead with emotions and will conforming. We must allow truth to grip us. In witnessing, we must be emotional. How can we not? We're talking of the deepest love in the world.

We're pressing on the conscience the awful anger of God against personal sin and social injustice. We're communicating the reconciling peace of God. Our theme is the liberating joy of no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

The Jesus who wept over Jerusalem's unbelief. Have you? It's said that some of the Puritans stained the floors with their tears as they prayed.

Is there pain and unceasing sorrow in your heart for anyone who is yet unconverted? If there is, then you can't help but appeal to the emotions of that person that is lost.

You can't bypass the emotions. To center on them will mislead. It will generate false professions of faith that are not based on truth. But to avoid the emotions altogether will produce a sterile, dull presentation of the Gospel that will interest nobody except perhaps a pure intellectual.

But there isn't such a thing, is there? Because even those folks have emotions and a will. And then the message must be directed at the will as well. It's that call to respond in repentance and faith.

You say, but we're fallen. We can't ever choose to follow God. Well, that's true. But the Scriptures set both truths side by side, don't they? Right there in John 6.

And again, Metzger says, Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. So why should I say, come to Christ if I know that person can't come to Christ? Well, because they're commanded to come to Christ.

Just later than that, Jesus says, in the same chapter, a few verses later, whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. And so it's your responsibility to come to Christ.

And so you appeal to that person to come to Christ in repentance and faith, the same time praying that God will draw them. You make that call for a response. You address the mind, the emotions, and the will.

And so these things make up the way, the manner of our evangelism. So how do we do evangelism? We've seen the means, the message, the method, and the manner.

Whatever we do, God says we must do evangelism, and so let us be about the work of doing it. Taking these things and putting them into practice. But we want to move on now to the question of when.

When should we do evangelism? You remember the urgency that we spoke of earlier. Now is the time to do it. What does Paul say to the Corinthians?

2 Corinthians 6, verse 2. For he says, In the time of my favor, I heard you. And in the day of salvation, I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor.

Now is the day of salvation. If today is the day of salvation, and it is, then today must be the day for evangelism. Not tomorrow.

Not putting it off for another minute, but now. Hebrews 4, verse 7, quote, Psalm 95. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And maybe, it just doesn't seem that urgent to me.

You keep saying, life is short, and death is sure, and life is uncertain. You don't know when the end is coming, but I'm still here. And sometimes we get frustrated, don't we, with unbelievers. People that are right here in our midst that have that attitude.

Say, you keep talking about how urgent the message is, but I'm still alive and I'm still okay. And they don't see the urgency and they don't come to Christ. Aren't we troubled when people don't see that urgency and they don't believe and they don't repent?

I'm troubled by it. It's troubling to my soul that they don't face the stark reality that death is coming and it could be as soon as your drive home tonight. I don't understand.

They don't come to Christ now. But do we, who profess faith in Christ, make the same error in judgment with respect to evangelism? We don't really buy into the urgency of the issue.

We fault our children for the same thing, but we don't either. And so we don't see the need of doing something now. Remember what we talked about when we talked about the motive, our love for God and love for men.

And we talked about our love for men, talked about how many people in the world die each day. Every day, over 57 and a half million people die and enter eternity.

Of those, at least 48 million die and go to hell. As one of those people that died today, someone that you could have shared the gospel with, but you didn't.

Today is the day of salvation. Tell people today so that they can call upon the name of the Lord now while there's still time before it is too late. The urgency doesn't just apply to the one who needs to come to Christ.

It applies to us who have already come and need to share that message with those who have not. What would you think of a state government that lives down on the Gulf Coast like Texas who knew a hurricane was coming?

They knew it was going to be of catastrophic proportions like Ike was forecasted to be. They knew it would not only bring destruction of property, but loss of life as well. What would you think of a state government that wasn't real urgent about getting the warning out?

It sort of lackadaisically warned people. It's a big storm. It's dangerous. You might want to think about moving inland. No urgency. Nothing mandatory about the message.

Or a government that failed to warn people at all. We'll get that evacuation notice out tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be too late. A government like that would be condemned.

And so instead, they warn with urgency. And those who fail to heed those warnings do so to their own peril. Ever since Katrina, the warnings more urgent, more heated, the response to them better.

And I wonder why that isn't the case with us. Warnings have been issued here. And death has come. People have died unexpectedly. Some of our young people here were at a conference in Arizona and met a young man named Jamie, 18 years old, who went home to be with the Lord Friday night.

A sudden accident. And it wasn't expected. And things like that have happened to your classmates from high school. And to people in our own congregation, their lives have come suddenly to an end.

Warnings have come and we've seen the reality of this. And yet, when further warnings come, many still don't heed the warning. They don't come to Christ. And we aren't any more urgent about warning them.

Now is the time. Today is the day. When do you do evangelism? You do it now. Another answer to that question of when is at every opportunity. It's something we've thought about already.

Ephesians 5, 15 and 16. Be very careful then how you live. Not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity. Because the days are evil.

Or Paul writing to the Colossians says something very similar. We've noted this, but notice that Paul doesn't ask us to do anything that he's not doing himself. And he even prays that God would give him help.

Or ask them to pray for him. That he would be helped. He says, devote yourselves to prayer. Being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too. That God may open a door for our message.

Give us an opportunity for the message. So that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I'm in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly. There's that aspect of our manner. It must be clear.

That I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be full of grace. Seasoned with salt. So that you may know how to answer everyone.

When do you do evangelism? At every opportunity. Another answer to the question. You do it now. You do it at every opportunity. We should do it constantly. It should be a way of life for us.

Acts 5. Verses 41 and 42. The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering. Disgrace for the name. Day after day.

In the temple courts. And from house to house. They never stopped teaching. And proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. Day after day. Without ceasing.

That's when we do it. Always by the way we live. The things we say. Bearing witness to the Savior who's delivered us from our slavery to sin and a certain penalty of death.

When do we do it? We do it until Jesus comes again. When Jesus gives the Great Commission His promises. Surely I'm with you always even to the end of the age.

And the commission lasts then until the end of the age to go and make disciples. When do you do it? You don't stop until you're dead or Jesus has come back. We do it today.

At every opportunity. We do it constantly. And we do it until Jesus comes again. And that means several things for us. It's not something you can put off until later.

We're good at putting things off, aren't we? I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it the next day. The next time I see Him. The next time I talk to Him. That person you're thinking of could die without hearing the Gospel unless you tell them.

And so do it today. If people are to seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near, then they need to find Him today. There's no guarantee that God will be found tomorrow.

And if they can't call unless they believe and they can't believe unless they hear and they can't hear without a preacher, then you need to go and tell them. Don't put it off any longer. It's also not something that we can relegate to a certain part of the month or week.

Once a month, on the third Saturday of the month, I'm going to find somebody to share the Gospel with. That's good. It's a step in the right direction. But this is to be a way of life for us.

You can't compartmentalize again your life like that. The Gospel affects every area. And so every person you come into contact with should see something of the Gospel in you. And as opportunity arises, hear it from your lips.

Day by day, without ceasing. Not all of it will be sharing the message of the Gospel. Some of it will be living it before them, conversing with them, turning that conversation like we talked about last week, laying a foundation from which to share the Gospel.

But never let the Gospel be far from your aim. As you have these opportunities, always be ready to give the answer. It's not something that you're too old or too young for. I'm too young to share the Gospel.

No, you're young and vigorous. Now is the time to share. Ah, I'm retired. Well, you never retire from being a Christian, do you? Or from the duties that come with it. It can't be something that we're too busy for.

It's something that we do as a part of our life. And you can't say, well, it's too late for me to start. I'm too old. I'm too set in my ways. I'll never be effective. I don't know how.

Too late for me to start. No, not while there's still breath in your lungs. As long as it is called today, you still have opportunity to share Christ. We do it now.

We do it at every opportunity. We do it constantly and until Christ comes again. And so lastly tonight, where? Where do we do the work of evangelism?

In some ways, this also answers the question to whom do we share the message of the Gospel? To whom do we give the message of evangelism? The two are obviously closely related.

Where you go and who you talk to. It depends on where you go, who you encounter. And so they're together in this question. And Jesus answers the question for us.

Where do you share the Gospel? Gospel as He's about to ascend and He's talking to His disciples in Acts 1. He says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And they were in Jerusalem at that moment. That's where they lived. That's where they were and they were to start at home in Jerusalem. And then Judea was the region that Jerusalem was in.

It was the southern region of Palestine. Judea's in the bottom and Samaria in the middle and Galilee at the top. And so He says, Jerusalem, your hometown, and then Judea and then Samaria and then from there the ends of the earth.

It's concentric circles working outward. And so what does that mean for us? For us too. It starts where we live. You can even start not just in Bremen but right in your own home.

It starts with your family, children, and parents, and siblings, and grandparents that need to know the Lord. You can move out to your neighbors or others that you might see on a regular basis.

I think it's Metzger that makes the point that most people are members of some sort of group. Family is a group or you might be members of a team at work or a team that you play sports on or you're members of a class at school or members of your neighborhood.

You all belong to certain groups and it's within those groups that you start. The people that you know. The people that you see that you have contact with on a regular basis. And then out a little bit broader.

People that you don't know maybe but that you do come into contact with and have opportunity with. And then abroad to the ends of the earth. It's the work of missions. Taking the Gospel to lands where it is not known.

Another way of describing this is going to the next towns. It's what Jesus was always doing. Luke 4.43 But He said, I must preach the good news.

And that's our word. Evangelize. The good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also because that is why I was sent. Luke 8.1 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another.

Proclaiming the good news. That's evangelizing. The good news of the Kingdom of God. And then we find that the apostles did this too. They fulfilled their Lord's Word to start in Jerusalem.

And you see Peter preaching in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. And many are added. And then you see them spreading to Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. Acts 8.25 When they had testified and proclaimed the Word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem preaching the Gospel, evangelizing, and many Samaritan villages.

Samaria. That's where Jesus told them to go. Philip appeared at Azotus and traveled about preaching the Gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. When Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says, I don't want to stop at Corinth.

I want to use that as a launch pad to move out from you and to proclaim the Gospel. 2 Corinthians 10. 15 and 16. Our hope is that as your faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will greatly expand so that we can preach the Gospel, evangelize, in the regions beyond you.

Begin to see how the local church should function. It's a launching point to send the Gospel to the next town and the next town. Missions should work this way. You want to see a church built up, established in one town and then move on to the next.

Might not literally be the next town, but the next place nearby where there's opportunity to establish a church. And so with you, as you have opportunity to present the Gospel, do so.

But then don't stop and rest satisfied. I did it! I finally shared the Gospel with somebody. Good. A little sow for my conscience. I did it. And I'm good to go. Move on then.

Don't stop with that one. Go on to the next town or the next person. You might do well to have a list even of people that you'd like to share the Gospel with.

And as you create and God gives opportunity, you do that and then you don't rest there. You move on to the next person on your list.

And don't use that list exclusively. And you meet somebody and you have an opportunity to say, oh, well, they're not on my list. I'm not going to share the Gospel. That's not what I mean. But you move on to the next and the next person after this.

Don't be satisfied with just one or two. On and on. Sharing the Gospel. So where do we do it? We do it at home and then working out from there with one person and then the next.

Evangelize wherever you go. We read in Acts 8 and verse 4 those who had been scattered and it wasn't the apostles. It was everyday ordinary Christians. Those who had been scattered preached the Word.

That's our word. Evangelizing. Those who had been scattered evangelized wherever they went. Wherever they went. Like I said, it doesn't have to be the person on your list. It can be the stranger that you've met.

Wherever you go, be watching for. Using those opportunities. And then we read in Acts 11 those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch, telling the message only to Jews.

Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also. Telling them the good news. Evangelizing. About the Lord Jesus.

Jew and Greek alike. Don't be hindered, dear people. And people say that we've moved beyond racism and prejudice, but I wonder sometimes if deep in our hearts we don't still harbor some of it.

If not intentionally, maybe practically, don't be hindered by a person's race, nationality, economic background, neighborhood, or age.

Poor people need Jesus. Rich people need Him. Middle class people need Him. Kids need Him. Adults need Him. Elderly people need Him.

White people, black people, and every other color of skinned people need Him. Healthy people need Him. Sick people need Him. Muslims need Him.

New Agers need Him. Illegal immigrants need Him. Dirty people need Him. People who have made bad choices that we profoundly disagree with and are troubled by need Him.

And we must be the ones to tell them there is no place or no person that should be beneath you in spreading the gospel from your yard to your workplace to your school to the local rescue mission.

say, I don't go to some of those places. And you said wherever you go, you need to share the gospel. Well, maybe you should go to some of those places where you encounter some of these people.

Maybe you should spend a little time in a rescue mission. Spend some time volunteering with those who have less than you do. Take some time in a nursing home.

Find some immigrants. Where are you? Where are you going? Who are you seeing? Wherever it is and with whomever you find yourself, be about the business of sharing the gospel with them regardless of whether they're Jew or Gentile or whatever else, whatever other obstacle there is for you.

Tear that obstacle down and be willing to share the truth with them wherever we go. Those scattered ones, those Christians from Jerusalem evangelized wherever they went.

Could the same be said of you or me? And finally, we must evangelize where Christ is not already known. So it's the great passion of the Apostle Paul.

He says in Romans 15, it has always been my ambition to preach the gospel, evangelize, where Christ was not known so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. It's the perspective of a pioneer church planning missionary to go where Christ has not been named.

To tell of Him to those who have never heard. It's why we pray for and support and send missionaries to the darkest parts of our globe. You know the work has not been finished yet.

Jesus told us to go and make disciples of all nations. This is what is written. That Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning in Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things. That hasn't happened yet. And so Christ still needs to be named where He has not been heard. And we think of dark jungles in Africa and places in China where the Word has never come.

But there are individuals in your life that have never heard the truth that need to hear it. or maybe there will be someone here who's called not just to evangelize people at home but to take that gospel to the ends of the earth.

To take that gospel to somewhere where it hasn't been heard before. I pray for that. I pray that God would raise up from this church people that would take the gospel and proclaim it where people haven't heard it before.

And that's a hard thing to pray. It's a hard thing for a parent to pray because that means that we'd have to give up somebody from this church. We'd have to let them go. You might have to let a family member go.

A son. A beloved. A beloved. Person. But isn't that the commission that Christ has given us?

To go and to take that gospel to where it hasn't been heard. So ask yourself could God be calling me to that work? And you don't have to be a young person to ask that question. We're to name Him and proclaim Him to those that have never heard.

And finally Isaiah 40 and verse 9. You who bring good tidings. That's our word. Evangelizing. You who bring good tidings to Zion.

Go up to a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem. Lift up your voice with a shout. Lift it up. Do not be afraid. Say to the towns of Judah, here is your God.

Don't whisper your message. Don't proclaim it in a way that it will never be heard. Don't live your life in a way that nobody can ever see it. Don't hide that light under a basket.

Don't hide your message by never opening your mouth. Go where you can be heard. And proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ, the only Savior of sinners. This is our duty, dear people.

I hope we've seen that previously. Who should do it? We should be about the work of evangelism. So may God help us to be faithful witnesses of His truth. The next time we come to this, I think will be the last time we'll think about the outcome of it.

What comes of evangelism? Well, people either believe and so are saved or they reject the truth. And they'll be doomed. And I hope when we look at that that we'll see once more, one last final time, the significance of what we're talking about.

This is life and death, dear people. It's not something that you can write off because it doesn't fit your personality. I hope you've been convinced as we've studied from the Scriptures that it is our responsibility that we have every motivation in the world to do it.

That if we love God and we love our neighbor, we will do it. I hope you've been given some helpful ideas about how to do it. But the fact remains that wherever it is that you go, whoever it is that you talk to, you must do it.

And so may God make us a people that love His Word and love to tell others about it. Our Father, we pray that You would use us to send the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

We pray that redemption freely purchased would win the day because You've used us to proclaim that redemption to those that are in such desperate need. We pray that You would help us to be faithful proclaimers of Your truth, faithful evangelists, and we pray that You would give us grace and the fruit of the Spirit to be winsome as we present Your truth.

We pray that You would give us a sense of the urgency of the matter, that life is short and death is sure, so that we might proclaim to people their sin, the cause of that, and Christ the cure.

We pray that You would embolden us. We pray that You would give us grace to always be looking and taking advantage of the opportunities You give us wherever we go to whomever we meet.

We pray that You would make us faithful witnesses. Help us to that end and encourage us in these things and use us to extend Your kingdom, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen.