Video Transcript:
Daniel Wilson, State Missionary
– Thank you for joining us. I believe this is our first-ever virtual online training as an office of evangelism. So thank you for being a part of this Who’s Your One training. I wanna begin by introducing who our team is and again, my name is Daniel Wilson. I had the privilege of being the director of this office and I got three guys who I just absolutely love working with and you’ll get to hear from all of us during the presentation this afternoon. But Matt Burford is our apologetics specialist in the office. Terry long is our spiritual renewal and evangelism specialist in the office and then Sammy Gilbreath. Sammy is our event evangelism specialist and it’s my privilege to work alongside each of these guys. And again, you’ll hear from each of these men this afternoon as they really speak to an area that is in their specializations but I wanna give a few other announcements, and then I’ll begin with an overview of Who’s Your One.
I’m gonna talk about a lot of material today. And if you would like to get your hands on the material that we talked about or present, I’m gonna ask you when this is over with to send an email to one of our ministry assistants, we have two ministry assistants who work in our office. And if you call the office, you’ll probably speak with one of those two Laurie McGoon and Bailey Dixon. And I’ll be talking about Who’s Your One and the best news and giving an effective evangelistic invitation. And if you want the resources that we talked about today, I’m gonna ask you to send an email to Bailey Dixon. Her email address is [email protected] That’s [email protected] and because we’re all working remotely because of Coronavirus, as we are able to, as soon as we were able to, we will fill those requests and get the material mailed out to you but be patient with us because of the circumstances under which we’re working right now but also, next Thursday at this very same time next Thursday at one o’clock, we’ll be offering another Zoom webinar it will be called evangelism at time of social distancing. So how to do evangelism during this time when people are sheltered in place and understate orders Matt Queen, who is the evangelism professor for Southwestern seminary, he will be presenting on this very relevant topic. And then finally, all four of us this afternoon in the evangelism office are going to present and you may have questions and we want you to feel free to ask questions. We’re gonna save those questions till the end and then address those questions on Zoom. There’s a location called Q&A and we ask you to put those things questions in that Q&A location and we will answer those at the end of the session. Let’s pray and then I’ll begin.
Join me in prayer. Almighty God, it is with deep conviction this afternoon that we bow before you and acknowledge our, our need for you, God we are totally dependent upon you for everything. And we are aware of our frailty. God, our world is in need. Our world is hurting. We thank you that we have the hope of Jesus Christ to sustain us in times like this. We also know that it seems like right now people are hungry for a word of hope. And people are open to a gospel presentation so help us to be ready and willing and bold and courageous and compassionate to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. In these times in which we find ourselves. Lord, thank you for every person who has joined us this afternoon. They have needs and burdens and concerns of their own. And so I also lift those up this afternoon and pray for your peace and for your powerful presence be at work in all of our lives that which you know that we need you to do on our behalf. Now, we love you for that you make this time profitable and help us to be an encouragement and support to each other during this time. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.
Hey, if you have your Bible I wanna start by turning your attention to Luke 15, the 15th chapter of Luke which you know, as the parables that Jesus tells about lostness. Jesus tells three parables in Luke chapter 15 and I wanna pick about four or five verses out of that chapter and just to read those verses to you for about the next 15 to 20 minutes. I’m going to speak on Who’s Your One? Listen to what Jesus says in Luke 15:4, “What man have you having 100 sheep, “if the loses one of them does not leave the 99 “in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost, “until he finds it.” Within verse seven of the same chapter, “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven “over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine “just person who need no repenting.” Look at verse eight Jesus moves from the parable of the lost sheep to the parable of the lost coin and he says, “Or one woman having 10 silver if she loses one coin, “does not light a lamp, sweep the house “and search carefully until she find it.” Look in verse 10. “Likewise I say to you, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God “over one sinner who repents.”
So I just read four verses of scripture and those four verses of scripture, Jesus refers to one no less than five times. That’s because every one matters to Jesus and therefore, everyone needs to matter to us as well so Who’s Your One? What if every member of your church? Well, what if every believer in Alabama could answer that question? Who’s Your One one? One sheep, one coin, one son, who is that one person that you are praying over, that you are thinking after, that you are looking for opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ? Yeah, and now Who’s Your One is really not a program and it’s really not a method or what Who’s Your One really is a lifestyle I think you would agree with me when I say that the lost thing the Bible says is just an under prepackaged shrink wrap program. I wanna give you a quote by E.M Bounds. I don’t think anybody has meant more to my spiritual life as far as authors than E.M Bounds has. Listen to what he said and then he just kind of contemporize the language, he wrote this 150 years ago but you’ll hear what he’s saying. He says, “What the church needs today is not more machinery, “not new organization, or you and more methods. “But what the church needs today is men who the Holy Ghost, “can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer, “the Holy Ghost does not flow through methods “but through men, the Holy Ghost does not anoint plans “but men.” And so what we need, is we need something more than just a new method. We need something more than just a new program. What we need is men and women of God with a burden and a heavy heart for the lostness that is all around us. Probably almost 100 years ago now, 80 years ago that we still say Lord, lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me and help me bravely do my part to win that soul. That’s the heartbeat of the true one. In it’s incompetence in the words of that Lord lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me. Here’s what you should be wanting so I’m gonna break this down into five simple steps. Now I’m gonna send you the kit, new kit. I’m gonna send you this kit in the mail as soon as we can get it to you. But I wanna take this initiative and give you five words that encompass Who’s Your One is about. And they all start with the letter I.
First of all, Who’s Your One is about identify, we want every single person to already begin to pray and ask God who their one should be. Anyone who is outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ is a candidate but you remember Henry Blackaby, and when he wrote experiencing God in the seven steps in experiencing God. one of those steps that Henry Blackaby wrote about was this. He said find out where God is already at work and join him where he is already working. And so hey, thank you David, I’m gonna try to, again I’m at home in my study and so trying to work off this WiFi here. And so I hope that my sound can get better but Henry Blackaby be saying, find out where God is already at work and join him where he is already working. In other words, pray about who it may be that you need to choose as your one. Andrew in John 1 and the Bible says that when Andrew met Jesus Christ, it says in John 1:40, the very first thing that Andrew did was that he went and he first found his brother Simon and introduced his brother to Jesus Christ. And so I believe for a lot of our people, as you are trying to identify who your one is, you may find out that your one shares the same last name as you and for many of our people their one, they even share the same mailing address as themselves. We’re just teach your people to identify who your one is.
Here’s a second I, I wanna talk about. The second I is intercede. By that I simply mean pray, pray for the lost. I’m gonna give you a verse of scripture Romans 10:1, remember that Paul himself was an Israelite. And so here’s what Paul said. He said, “Brethren, our heart’s desire and prayer to God “for Israel is that they might be saved.” And so Paul was praying for his kinsmen, for his kinfolk that they might be saved. And if that was the prayer that Paul prayed and certainly it’s also appropriate for us to pray for the salvation of those who weigh heavily on our hearts. So number one identify who your one really are. And then number two intercede in prayer on behalf of who your one is. I wanna quote E.M Bounds once more as I talk about this. Here’s what E.M Bounds said about the link between prayer and evangelism. He said, “Talking to men about God is a great thing “but talking to God about men is greater still.” So you see the first part of that is evangelism, talking to men about God that’s evangelism. But talking to God about men that’s intercessory prayer. And so he states talking to men about God is great but talking to God about men is greater still. And then E.M Bounds ends by saying this, “You’ll never have real success talking to men about God “unless you first learn the well “how to talk to God about men.” So you’ll never have evangelistic success until we first of all learn how to pray effectively for the lost and that’s why later in this training this afternoon, Terry’s really gonna come along behind me and follow up and he’s gonna do some training on how to pray for the lost. So number one identify who your one is, number two intercede in prayer on behalf of your one. Acosta never had evangelistic success and to first of all learn how to pray well for those that were lost, here’s the third I.
The third eye in Who’s Your One is invest or investing in relationships. And so what I simply mean by this is we got to look for ways to build and to strengthen the relationship that we have with that one that we wanna share Jesus Christ with. Find out what they enjoy doing and show some sort of personal interest in it. Now right now for just a moment, I want you to go through a mental exercise with, I want you in your mind or if you have a scratch sheet of paper. I want you to scratch out a tic tac toe board. Not gonna play Tic Tac Toe but this exercise came out of a book called “The Art of Neighboring. I think it’s helpful for us in evangelism and especially helpful right now while we’re sheltered at home. But draw out a tic tac toe board and put an X in the middle square, that x represents your house where you live. If you live in an open country somewhere, this exercise may not be as helpful but most of us have neighbors. And so think of all of those squares on the tic tac toe board surrounding the middle square. I think of those other squares as where your neighbors live. What can you tell me about your neighbors? Do you know their name, their first name, their last name? Do you know their children’s names? Do you know where they were? Do you know what their hobbies are? Do you know if they attend church, where they attend church? Do you know if they’re saved? Do you know if they have pets? See most of us do not know in the fast paced world that we live in a good many of us have not taken the time to build and strengthen the relationships around us like we all do have and I’m guilty, I myself am guilty of that. So how can we pray for our neighbors well? Or how can we show that we really care about our neighbors, and about their spiritual condition and where they’re going to spend eternity, if we’ve never even taken the time to learn what their name is and so part of Who’s Your One, it’s just being a good neighbor, is strengthening and building relationships with the person that we want to share Jesus with.
Now that leads me to the fourth I, and the fourth I we’ve identified who our one are by praying about it. God show me where you’re already at work and help me to join you where you’re already working. We interceded on their behalf, we talked to God about them before we talk to them about God. And now we’re growing this relationship, this relationship is developing. Now the fourth I is the word invite. Invite and right now we can’t invite anyone to go anywhere with us. But even though we’re shoved at home or socially distance oriented or whatever you want to call it, we can still invite, we can invite people to watch our churches livestream services. We can start a watch party and have people join us watching our churches live streaming services. So there are still ways to find but the I, fourth I invite simply means that you find something you invite your one to where you know there’s gonna be a clear and compelling gospel presentation given. And so it might be any event that your church posts at once we returned back to you in person services to be thinking about evangelistic events that you might be able to hold back to school live parties, fall festivals, 4th July celebrations, all these things that we do, think about these events that can be effective evangelistic tools that your people can invite the one to where the gospel is going to be clearly shared. Now the fifth I that I wanna give you is the word introduce. And so just because I’m encouraging you to invite your one, to an event that the church is hosting that doesn’t mean that we’re off the hook from being able to share the gospel ourselves. All of us who are believers, a need to be equipped and able to introduce others to faith in Jesus Christ.
So the fifth I is introduced. And here what I mean is, as you have identified who your one is, and you have you have spent much time in prayer for them. And you have you have worked on strengthening your relationship with him. Now what’s gonna happen is you’re looking for an open door at some point, when you will be able, intact in conversation just to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and of the overflow of the relationship that you already have with him. And so, but in order to be able to do this, our people have to be trained in some form of sharing the gospel. That’s why I also wanna make sure every church gets this presentation right here. Normally I would go through this presentation. I don’t have time this afternoon, but this is called “The Best News” evangelism training, and really it was written, and this kit has been put together by James Merritt. It is a great four week training tool that you can use in your churches that will teach your people and how to give a simple, but an effective and clear gospel presentation. So everybody in the church can be trained, in how to simply introduce a lost person to faith in Jesus Christ. This is, it’s not rocket science, I know, it’s simple, it’s a lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle of asking God to burden us over the spiritual condition and the lostness, of someone that we know and love that needs Jesus. I’m gonna close in just a minute. But I wanna remind you Luke 15, I read about four verses in these four verses the word one was used five times. I want you in your own sometime if you will go back through chapter 15 and highlight all the times the word one is used. I’m looking at verse four, through verse nine, I see the word lost used four times in about six verses. that we’re lost. In Luke chapter 15 is the same Greek word that is translated perish in John 3:16. That’s why Jesus was so concerned about going after the one lost sheep. That’s why Jesus was so concerned about going after the one lost coin at the cost of the lost, as Jesus says, is to be perishing. It is to be destined for destruction and every one matters to God, everyone matters to us. That’s one of the most important question we can begin to ask our fellow believers is this question. Who is your one? Who are you seeking after, who are you searching for? Who are you praying over? Who are you looking for opportunities to sow this seed of the gospel into their heart, lest they perish without faith in Jesus Christ.
I know, I’ve spit out a bunch of material here, we’ve got bookmarks. And, this bookmark is a step one and two of what I just went over. The top part of this bookmark is a is a card where you write the name of the person that you’ve identified as your one. And the bottom half of this card is a bookmark. It is a 30-day prayer guide about which for 30 days, it guides you in how to intercede, how to pray for your one. So the top part of this card identifies who your one is, and the bottom part helps you intercede on behalf of your one for the next 30 days. We can also get you, these prayer chords, these prayer bookmarks, as well as the kit and other training materials. Thank you for hanging in here with us. We’ve got some more great presentations to give you. I’m gonna now kick it over to Matt, who’s gonna talk to us about a biblical world view. We gotta understand the people who we’re trying to reach, and how to reach them with a biblical world view. Thank you.
Matt Burford, State Missionary
– Good afternoon, thank you, Daniel so much, and what a great opportunity it is even if it’s short, to showcase what it is that our office has done. Both Sammy and Daniel have done such a fabulous job setting this up and putting this together and actually charting a really great Jesus Christ model for our office. And it is a wonderful time for us to be thinking about who’s locally that we can reach. I know, we’re all sheltering in place, and it’s an interesting time for us to live. But we’ve heard two words over the last couple of weeks. Essential and nonessential. Think about that for a moment. What are those things in your life, those questions in your life that you’re asking yourself right now in shelter in place, those fundamental questions that you or your spouse or even trying to teach your children, What are those things you’re thinking about when it comes to what is essential for us in terms of being life sustaining? Well, that’s kind of where I come in. I do a lecture called the Five Big Questions of Reality. It’s taken off of a little bit of what RZIM has done is a little bit off of what Summit Ministry has done, and I’ve kind of made it into my own. And we look at these essential questions that we all ask as you’re thinking about who’s your one if you’re thinking about that person that you wanna reach. And you’re thinking, I don’t know if I feel equipped right now to be able to reach out to those, I’ll pray for them, I’ll dedicate my life, my family’s life to reach this person or persons. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. God has created us all individually made. But also, as G Campbell Morgan says, he’s made us all individually, like, individually made like a fingerprint. But yet we’re all kind of created in his image to pursue and look at the world and be curious about the world. And we don’t have a default way by which we interact with the world. And what do I mean by that? I mean that we as image bearers go out into the world and we ask questions, we’re very curious, and there are essential fundamental questions that every normal reasonable person asks himself.
This is kind of what I want to bring even quickly to you today, is the idea of Worldview. The idea of Worldview and the definition of Worldview basically is how do we see the world, how do we perceive the world, what is that filter about which comes in into our brains and into our minds and we think about the world, we all do it. All reasonable people do it. So I’ve bulled down using some other strategies in my own. I’ve boiled down to four fundamental questions and one big fundamental question. But let’s just read tool that a bit, not just fundamental questions, a central question, since that seems to be the vernacular that we’re all using, because that person that you’ve dedicated your life to reaching over the next year and who’s your one, they’re asking these questions. In fact, now that we’re all sheltering a place globally, we’re all being affected. I actually had a meeting with an IMB missionary in Japan, two days ago over Skype. And we were talking about this particular lecture. And what was interesting was he even said, in Taka, Saki, Japan, some of these fundamental questions, in fact, all these fundamental questions are being asked even in the community that he is in. So what are those fundamental questions? Well, those fundamental questions start with origin, origin meaning morality, and destiny. That’s the OMD strategy. Let’s break it down a little bit. Usually this this lecture takes about three or three hours, two or three hours. But let’s boil it down.
All the essential questions are in regard to where did we come from, what is our meaning, What is our meaning and purpose? The third M is where’s our morality? What is good and evil? And the last one is destiny. Where do we go after we die? Think about that for a second. Reflect on it for a second. Those really are the core essential questions that every image bear that is on the earth, was on the earth and will be on the earth have asked themselves one time or another. And then there’s quietness and in this time of self reflection, these essential questions always boil up to the top. So what do we do as Christians? Well as Christians our goal and our job as ambassadors for him, for Jesus Christ, our Lord who sits on the throne, is to go out into the world and speak to those questions, not just speak to those questions, but speak speak to those people that are asking those questions. Because what I would say and in my lecture, I end up getting to the fifth fundamental question, which is who is Jesus? I say that Jesus actually answers every one of those fundamental questions. But let’s look at it real quick. Origin, where do we come from? Well, just look at the Bible. I mean for the Bible for instance speaks to this in many many different ways. Genesis one in the beginning what, in the beginning God, that specifically puts us in a different place with a lot of people on the planet. At the very beginning Christianity and the Judea Christian Worldview states that thing right at the onset. In the beginning God, not in the beginning creation, not there was only but creation not in the beginning God’s plural in the beginning God. We have put our, we have planted our flag in that mound and we all as Christians say we answer the question of origin, first and foremost as something bigger than this Cosmos created this cosmos. That’s where we’ve gotten. Well, where else do we see it in the Bible? The revelation in the mysteries of the God head were unfolded in created in Jesus Christ and so much in John 1, we have an answer to the question of origin. In the beginning God comes to in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So now Christians are now pulled apart and now different than Judeo you know, the Jewish Worldview and now even the Muslim Worldview ’cause what we’re saying and planting another flag in is at the beginning, at our origin God, but now God is Jesus right, is unfolded in the mysteries of who he is, Jesus told us and proclaim that he was the Messiah, that he was related to God in a certain way that we are not. He was all man but he was all God.
Now you’re starting to get a picture of how I start to try to help you think about the world that you’re in right? This Who’s Your One idea of that neighbor, that person that you’re thinking about? They’re asking these questions, where did I come from? Are there so much more to say about this right? But not only origin, but what about meaning and purpose. What is our meaning and purpose? We find that all through scripture as well, that God gives us as purpose as Christians to go out. In fact, Jesus gave us a command even at the very end when he ascended, he told us all to do something particular which is the baptizing his name and to create disciples and make disciples. Our purpose is actually two fold. If we watch Jesus and He is supposed to be our model then how did he live? He lives on an x-y axis where his entire eyes were set upon God the Father, in his hands of service were prepared for the ones that were in front of them. So in other words, he tree showcase true humility. And true humility is where you disappear not in value, but in fact, you disappear as your eyes are on your way and your hands of service on somebody else. That’s Jesus’s life in ministry, when he was here and in fact, that’s his life in ministry now, as he goes to prepare a place for us, the hope that’s there right, for that unbeliever who’s thinking right now, I have nothing to give, my job is non existent, my family doesn’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow or our hope is regardless of what happens in terms of COVID and pandemic. The reality is, God has a plan and a purpose for you. Origin, we have a God that created this whole cosmos and not only that even before the cosmos, he has a specific plan in for you because he loves you.
Origin meaning morality. The Bible says so much about morality. We know that even from the, I guess ultimately Old Testament we have what we would consider the law. When that law was incarnated in the word and the logos in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, and he’s pretty much said, I’m the way I’m the truth, and I’m the light. So in other words, them the ethic and morals and the way that we think of good and evil is all encompassed in Jesus Christ in himself, right? So the ethical systems that we follow has to comport with who Jesus was, he was our model, but he’s also more than that. He’s our word, he’s the logos, meaning that all truth has to comport to the reality of who Jesus Christ is. I mean, we can’t. There is no postmodern idea of ethics, where every culture gets to make up their own. No, in fact, that’s, that doesn’t work that way at all. In fact, there is an objective moral reality that came from our Creator that unfolded itself. It was created through the Spirit and unfolded himself, it himself through the life of Jesus Christ. Origin meaning morality and destiny. Destiny is a big one destiny is where our hope lies destiny tells us and answers the question in the Bible, Where do we go after we die? We are embraced by death, you have kind of a death kind of a death Wish and not death Wish, but we kinda have, we have to think about death from early on, you know, my I got two children and they’re thinking and talking about that way. We think about death because we’re embraced about death. We’re in a culture and in a world that’s going to entropy is being broken up. This is a sinful and broken world. We’re seeing that, right? But the hope is that Jesus Christ who showcased himself and who he was died for us, and rose again and actually as, at a place where he’s preparing a place for those who accept him in what he did that where do we go after we die is we go to be with our Lord, right? At the very beginning of our story in the Eden was he always wanting to be with those that He gave His image to. And then we broke that off and created the world that we live in today. But our hope is in Jesus Christ that he is preparing a place for us, a new heaven and a new earth. Origin meaning morality, destiny. And what I do in the lectures, if a church invites me or a school or somewhere else invites me to come is we go deep into this. And the last one, which is the greatest one, which is where do you get your authority?
All of us through testimony, that’s the way most of us gain our wisdom and our knowledge from other people that we trust. Think about that. In the world that we live in right now. Who do you trust? What an essential question right now. You know, we have authorities that are saying things that are different. We have people that are supposed to be authorities in their field, they really don’t know really what’s going on in the world. This is an ecclesiastical moment for us on the planet, God is showcasing back to us that we’re really not as smart as we think that we are. We’ve gone so far as a Western society, technologically looking at the things that we’re doing, it’s so impressive. But a small little RNA bug can bring us to our knees. What a humbling experience for us to see our authorities who we have so much trust in and we should pray for, to those that are supposed to be authorities on their field, really not knowing what tomorrow is gonna bring. But that’s okay for us as Christians, because we take that question that Who’s Your One fundamental, essential question of who is Jesus and we can go and tell somebody, Jesus is the answer. Who do you trust? My trust is in Jesus. Why, because he was there at the very beginning. Why, because he charged us to do something and only did he give us purpose he gave us a life to live and follow. A life to live and follow our eyes and our minds and our soul and our spirit is directed towards your way. But our hands of service is directed towards that neighbor, to the point where we would die for our neighbor, because that’s what our Jesus did. He was there, he gave us a purpose. He is our light to the world, meaning that all moral systems all ethical, good and evil, all are showcased in a life of Christ in humility, while he sits on the throne. And finally, where do we go after we die? Well, that last question of who do you trust? Well, I trust that Jesus did it and he finished it on the cross and God the father raised him. Who do I trust? I trust that Jesus is who He says He is. And if he is who He says He is, then my hope is found in him. You see what we have?
In all Worldview, we’re looking for Worldviews that are consistent and comprehensive. That means when I go talk to my neighbor, if they don’t know anything about Christianity. I know they have questions and I know they have answers about these essential questions. What I also know is if they’re not a Christian, then unfortunately, their Worldview is not gonna work, it’s not gonna be consistent. In other words, those questions are not gonna be consistent. So I look for inconsistencies there, just by asking, right? Just by gaining and getting in a trust relationship with that person. We want a Worldview that’s comprehensive. That means that my Worldview speaks about all things, and it can speak to all things. Well, guess what, that’s what Christianity does. The Christian Worldview is the most consistent is the most comprehensive Worldview because it’s the truest Worldview. And the wonderful thing about it is our Worldview is just not a set of propositional knowledge, our Worldview is set on a person, a God man who chose us even and chose his father, over all the riches in the glories that he could have to come in becoming flesh followed the mission his father gave him and he died on the cross and was raised to life for us. All right, so now we’ll go from ours. Daniel, I guess back to you or do I give it to Terry?
– Pass it on to Terry. Thank you, Matt. Great work.
Terry Long, State Missionary
– Okay Matt, that was great. It’s hard to follow. A guy like Matt, he’s such a Brainiac and I’m just a cornbread and turnip greens, country boy. But we work so well together and Daniel and Doc Gilbreath are just great leaders. So I’m just blessed to be a part of this team. And I’m really happy today to be able to share with you what is the most exciting thing God has taught me in the last four to five years. I get to pick up where Daniel left off and a little bit where Matt left off and talk about how to pray for that one.
How once you’ve identified them how to really bombard heaven with prayer for them until they get saved. And this is something that God has just really built into my life in the last four years, and I’ve seen it work in a tremendous way. And I’ll share some testimonials about that in a moment. You know, Matt started his speeches his message off with asking talking about things that are essential versus nonessential. Well, I don’t think there’s anybody here that would say prayer is nonessential. I think we would all agree that prayer is important. But the question that I wanna ask you today is do you believe that prayer is not just important, but is it essential? And if you’re going to pray, you need to pray like it really means something. I’m not sure, those of us who believe that prayer is important that all of us believe that prayer is essential and yet it is. The Bible says you have not because you ask not. I love James 5, where Elijah on Mount Carmel has prayed the fire down and James 5 says beginning with about verse 16, it says, “Confess your trespasses, one to another “that you may be healed, “and pray for one another that you may be healed.” And it talks about Elijah praying. And for three and a half years, it didn’t rain. And then he prayed again, and it rained. And it says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, was not because Elijah was such a super spiritual person. The Bible actually says there that he was just a normal guy, he was just a regular guy like the rest of us. But he knew how to pray and he knew how to pray effectively. And so, in that passage, prayer is mentioned four times. And if you go back and look at this, these four words, it’s all the same word in the Greek language. And I wanna tell you what that word is and that is the most exciting prayer word in the New Testament. It’s used 127 times.
I was in Richmond, Virginia at the IMB Learning Center when I first heard this word, I did study Greek in college and in seminary, but I heard a speaker talking about prayer at a missions College in Richmond, Virginia. And he was talking about prayer, and it was all good, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before until he mentioned this word. And the word that he mentioned was proseuchomai that is the Greek word proseuchomai. And he defined that word as pleading in prayer, pleading the case for someone or prosecuting the case. In fact, if you listen to the Greek word proseuchomai you will hear a English word prosecute. And he said that’s exactly what that Greek word means to prosecute the case or to plead the case. So I came home, I was so intrigued by that word, the fact that I’ve never heard that word before. And I began to study that word and look through the Old Testament and New Testament for illustrations and examples of it. And I’m gonna tell you, it’s all over the Bible. It’s there. Now, if you’ve not familiar with the the idea of pleading in prayer, I want you to hear a quote from Charles Spurgeon. Here’s what Spurgeon said. “It is the habit of faith when she is praying to us please, “mere prayers Sayers who do not pray at all.” You get that “Prayer Sayers who do not pray at all, “forget to argue with God. “Those who would prevail bring forth their reasons “and their strong arguments, and they debate the question “with the Lord. “Faith’s art of wrestling is to plead with God “and say with holy boldness, “let it be thus and thus for these reasons. “All Brethren, let us learn this, “to plead the precepts, the promises “and whatever else may serve our turn. “But let us always have something to plead. “Do not recon you have prayed unless you have pleaded “for pleading is the very marrow of prayer. “And he who pleads well knows the secret “of prevailing with God.” That’s Charles Spurgeon. Well, I began to study this word, proseuchomai. It’s really made up of two parts that prefix pros is used all through the Bible. And pros means close, upfront, personal contact. Close, upfront, personal contact, and it’s used in various ways through the New Testament. For example, in John 1:1 with that wonderful verse that we love says “In the beginning was the Word” and that’s Jesus we know. “And the Word was with God, and the Word was God” That word, with, where it says the word was with God guess what? That’s pros, close, upfront, personal contact. That’s a reference to the Trinitarian harmony between God the Father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit that is existed for all eternity. So it’s a precious, intimate relationship that they share. In fact, one commentator translates John 1:1 this way, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was face to face with God. I think that’s a beautiful translation of that verse. Interestingly, Paul uses this word pros, and this is the first part of that word proseuchomai. And Paul uses it this way, in reference to demonic spirits, believe it or not. Paul says, “Well, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, “but against principalities, against powers, “against spiritual wickedness in high places.” And he talks about he uses repetitiously that word against. Well, that word against is the word pros remember what it means close, up front, personal contact. And in that warfare passage in Ephesians 6, Paul is telling us that we’re we’re in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy over the souls of men. And he said, and that’s why he uses the analogy of wrestling. And he says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood” because it’s hand-to-hand combat and wrestling is a close personal contact sport. And so that’s exactly what that word pros means. Now, when you combine the word pros, with the basic word for prayer in the New Testament, which is uche, or seuche , proseuchomai, proseuche you have a word for prayer. That is the predominant word in the New Testament. And it means to plead the case. The word for prayer means a strong desire, a strong wish. It has the idea of leaning forward leaning into something like the woman who crawled through the crowd to just touch the hem of His garment and knew by faith that she would be healed if she could. That’s the idea of prayer the word for prayer, combine pros with uche proseuchomai and you have the idea of pleading, prosecuting the case.
Now guys, this is all over the Bible. I began to get so excited when I saw this, the many places that you can see examples of this. Let me give you just a few. I want you to think about Moses in Exodus 32 when he comes down from the mountain where he’s been 40 days 40 nights with God, the children of Israel and Aaron have given up on him. They’ve decided he’s going forever. So they, the Bible says they rose up to play, they built the golden calf. And Moses comes down the mountain, and stops, he sees what’s going on. And God sees what’s going on. And God says to Moses, “Do you see what your people are doing?” And Moses said to God, “I see what your people are doing God, do you see what your people are doing?” And I never caught this until about a year ago. The sin of the Israelites was so, so disgusting that neither God nor Moses wanted to claim the Israelites, Lord, “Do you see what your people are doing?” Moses, “Do you see what your people are doing?” So neither one of them wanted to claim ’em. And so, as a result of that, God says to Moses, I’m gonna destroy ’em, Moses you get your family and get all back out of the way. I’m gonna destroy this rebellious people. No, I’m glad Moses wasn’t like Terry Long because I know What I probably would have done I would have gotten my family got off to the side and said to the kids, hey, look, keep your eyes up. There’s about to be a firework show like you’ve never seen God’s gonna smoke. I mean, I will say get them God, that might have been what I would have done. That’s not what Moses did. Here’s what Moses did. He fell on his face, and he began to plead their case with God. He said, Wait a minute God you can’t do that. Wait a minute god let’s think about this, or let’s reason this out God. What are the heathen gonna say about a God who destroys his own people? What about your reputation God? And he reasons with God. And here’s the amazing thing. The Bible says God relented according to Moses prayer and did not destroy the people. My friend, that’s power in prayer. That’s pleading the case. God respects that God loves that, in fact, all through the book of Isaiah, he’s pleading with people to come before him and plead their case. Actually listen to Isaiah 41:21. God’s speaking says, “Present your case, “bring forth your strong reasons, sayeth the Lord.” And then in Isaiah 43:26, he says, “Put me in remembrance, “and let us content together, “state your case, that you may be acquitted.” God is calling us to come forward and state our case and plead our case before him. That’s Moses. Think about Abraham. With Sodom and Gomorrah, God said, I’m gonna destroy ’em for the wickedness of their sin. And Abraham says, Wait a minute God wait, wait, let’s talk about this. God, let me reason with you. Would you destroy the righteous with the unrighteous? He says, God, what if I can find 50 righteous in that city, will you spare the cities? And God’s said yes. Now he’d already said he was gonna destroy ’em. But here’s a man pleading to their case, and God hears him. He says, but God, what about 45 What about 30, God says yes. What about, what if I can only find 20? Yes. What if I can only find 10? Yes. And God followed Moses all the way in his prayer to 10. Now, we really don’t know why, I said, Moses, I meant Abraham. We don’t really know why Abraham stopped at 10 What if he’d gone on to five or three? Perhaps Sodom and Gomorrah would have been spared. But he stopped at 10 and they couldn’t find 10. And so God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
You see this pleading thing, it’s all, think Jacob wrestling with the angel. And it’s getting daylight and angel says, you’ve gotta let me go. It’s daylight, I’ve got to go and Jacob says I will not let you go until you bless me. And the angel, you know, it’s really an amazing thought that a human being could hold down an angel. I like what Ron Dunn says about that. He says that that fight was rigged, it was rigged. There’s no way a human being can hold an angel down if that Angel wanted to get away, don’t you think he could have gotten away. I mean the Bible records where one Angel slew 186,000 people in just a moment. So that fight was rigged. And Ron Dunn said that angel said to Jacob, you’ve gotta let me go, but under his breath, he was saying, but I hope you don’t. I’ve got to go and you’ve got to let go of me. But I hope you’ll hang on till you get the blessing. And I wonder how many of us praying for lost people give up too soon. And that’s what proseuchomai is. Proseuchomai is taking that one that you’ve identified and declaring that you’re gonna pray for them until they get saved. And this is all through the Old Testament New Testament and there’s so many examples of it. But here’s the question I wanna ask you today. This got me now guys. I’m just gonna get honest with you. This nailed me to the wall. Whose case are you pleading before God today? Whose case are you prosecuting before God today? See, that’s what Who’s Your One is all about. And once you identify that person, then you begin to pray for them and plead their case and determine that you’re gonna pray for them not just a week, not just a month, not just a year, but you will pray for them until they get saved. You’ll take on the attitude of Katherine Booth, the wife of the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth. She said to God, one day in prayer, God, I have five children, and I absolutely refuse to come to heaven without all five of them. And guess what? They all five got saved. George Mueller, the great prayer warrior of 1800s that had the orphanages. George Mueller prayed for five people, children of friends of his. Five people for 57 years without fail every day, and they all five got saved. It took 57 years for the last one, but they got saved.
So here’s the thing I want you to understand today. God is not some glorified bellhop running up and down the corridors of heaven to find the things that you want with every whim for every whim and walk that you have. He’s not a glorified, sanctified Santa Claus. He’s not a grocery store clerk, just waiting for us to give him our shopping, our grocery list of things that we want. Now it’s good to ask for those say God wants us to ask, he tells us to ask and you shall receive. But I wanna tell you, the real heart of prayer is intercession. It’s praying, it’s pleading to the case for lost people. That’s the real heart of prayer. And I’m gonna say this. It’ll be the hardest work you’ve ever done. Prayer is the hardest work you’ve ever done. You know why? Because the devil knows who you’re praying to. Even if you’re not sure that God can do it, the devil knows he can. And you know prayer is so powerful the devil, it’s warfare, Mickey Monitor used to say, and Manley Beasley used to say, “All prayer is warfare”. Because listen, guys, hell doesn’t tremble when we have discussions. Hell doesn’t tremble when we have committee meetings. Hell doesn’t tremble when we go to worship, but hell trembles when we pray, because they know the demons of hell know, the devil knows who it is we’re praying to. Sometimes I don’t know if we realize that we have God and we say I don’t have time to pray like that. Preacher, I don’t have time to pray like that. I’m too busy. Well, let me ask you this. Who is it that you need to talk to that’s more important than God? Intercession is taking a person in need, and introducing him to the one who can meet their needs, the only one who can meet their needs. So you take a person in need by one hand and you take the Lord with the other hand and you bring the two together. That is intercessory prayer. And let me ask you this, if you don’t have time to pray for that one last person, who else is going to meet their need? Who has better resources to meet their need than God? Who has better answers than God? Who is more connected that you know, than God? Why would we not spend time with Him in prayer? Because prayer is that powerful. And prayer is that important. Now, I believe evangelism is important, I do. I’m an evangelism guy. I work with evangelism guys in the evangelism office, but I wanna tell you something.
As Daniel said in the beginning, we need to learn to talk to God about men before we talk to Man about God, that’s where the power is. The battle for souls is not one on the battlefield of evangelism. Hear me well, it’s one in the prayer closet of intercession, pleading for their soul, being filled with the Spirit of God so that when we go out to witness we go in his power. And when we plead and win the battle in the closet, then evangelism just becomes the mopping up operation after the battle has been won, in prayer. All battles are one in the prayer closet, and the accoutrements of the church, the physical accoutrements of the church, our buildings, our organizations, our Sunday school, our visitation, our outreach. All of those things, Vacation Bible School, are the trucks that we drive on to the field of battle, to scoop up the spoils that we’ve won in the battle ground of prayer. I wanna challenge you to pray for your one. I wanna challenge you to learn to plead, plead for their soul. My son was running from God harder than anybody I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anybody run from God as hard as my son from age 18 to age 27, he ran, he ran, nothing we could say or do could faze him. He had no interest in the church when he was young, nine or 10 he had he saw the ugly side of church, how many of you know there’re sometimes is an ugly side of the church. And it damaged him, and my son was running. He wasn’t mad at God. He was just, he just didn’t like the church. And at 27 is when I got a hold of this concept to pray. We had prayed for him for nine years. No, never saw one thing, one movement one iota of conviction in his life. But three months, guys, three months of praying, like this Proseuchomai type of pray, holding his name before God, praying before I’d go to sleep praying when I’d wake up, not just spending hours and hours in prayer but just holding his name and saying God, you have to save. You’ve gotta save him. I can’t come to heaven without him God.
We have four children, my three daughters had been saved we’re living for the Lord, but he ran. Some of you may have a child that’s running or a brother that’s running or a daddy that’s running or a daughter, granddaughter. I’m telling you this is the most effective weapon you have. This type of praying is the smart missile of the church. My son came to spend a weekend with his mom and he was so depressed. I mean, he would have depressed the devil. He was so depressed, he depressed us and we love him to pieces. But that weekend he went out on the back deck and sat down on the steps and I was watching through the glass. And I thought he was out there to take a dip of snuff ’cause he liked to dip. And but he put his face in his hands and began to cry big six foot, one 195 redhead with with the lumberjack beard, sat there and bawled like a baby and I, the Lord spoke to me and said, now, you’ve been praying for him for three months now. And I ran across that deck and sat down beside him and said, son, I will be honest with you, you can get mad at me if you want to, but I don’t believe you’re saying I know you had an experience when you were 14. But it hasn’t changed your life. I believe you need to be saved. He looked at me said Daddy, I know what to do. He fell into my arms weeping and he gave his heart to Christ that day in 2017. I knew this principle worked. My little nine year old granddaughter got saved two weeks after I began to pray for her. The owner of our Mexican restaurant here in Butler, Alabama, I prayed for him three months and had not said a word to him but one day as we were leaving God said, now’s the time. So, I shared the gospel with him and he got saved. And I now just have a prayer journal. In fact, this is what my prayer journal looks like right here. And I put names in here only names of people that I wanna see saved. And by the grace of God, I’ve been able to check them off one by one.
I wish I could tell you more stories. We get a chance to come in your church and share with you I’ll share with your stories and with your people stories, and we’ll help them identify their one and pray for them. But let me just share this with you. Prayer is the most powerful thing you can do. Because from the place of prayer, wherever you’re kneeling, you can touch three worlds at one time. You touch the world of heaven, God hears your prayers he dispatches angels and the Holy Spirit to answer your prayers. You touch the world of earth because man’s lives are changed, souls are saved marriages are rescued from the brink of divorce, families are restored, when you pray you touch the world of earth. And thirdly, you touch the world of hell. As I said a moment ago hell doesn’t tremble when we have committee meetings, but hell trembles when we pray. Brothers and sisters, plead the case. Who’s your one? Whose case are you pleading before God? Remember, we do what we believe. We say we believe in prayer, do we really pray? We do what we believe. But everything else is just religious talk. Thank you for letting me share with you.
I’m going to kick it over to Dr. Sammy Gilbreath. And you’ll hear what he has to say about how to invite people to Christ for the same.
Sammy Gilbreath, State Missionary
– Thank you so very much for letting me be a part of you guys. I love doing this even if it’s by Zoom and we’re not together in person. It is a privilege of mine to talk to you this afternoon about the effective evangelists invitation. Now, this is not an attempt to debate whether we should give an invitation or should not. This comes with a presupposition that we’ve already made the decision that we’re gonna give an invitation. And what we wanna do then is partner together to learn how and gain insight on how to give the most effective invitation we possibly can. There are seven aspects really that I just wanna give an overview, and then I wanna talk about six elements of that invitation. But the first one is, the invitation must begin with conviction. Secondly, it must burn with compassion. Number three, it must be bold because of consecration. Number four, it must be beautiful because of clarity. Number five, it’s born through claiming others to be saved. Number six, it’s backed by counselors and I use that word cautiously, and we’ll talk about in the book how we will not wanna use that Word, because that’s a legal term. But number seven, then it’s bathed in celebration. Those are seven aspects of the invitation that I deal with in the book and just give you the topics this afternoon. And then you can dig into that a little bit later on. But now I want to talk to you about the elements of the invitation itself.
Number one is the voice. Now, you understand, and I haven’t had to learn this, that raising your voice is just as effective as lowering your voice and vice versa. So if you’re like me, you’re animated, you’re talking fast and you’re allowed, maybe for emphasis, you need to slow the speech down and lower the voice. They kid me that I preach 140 words a minute, with gusto 165. So when I get to the invitation, I realized I need to slow the rate of speech down, lower my voice, and that sends a message to the congregation that we’re making the transition. We’re moving from that sermon that God burned in your soul to the invitation that you hopefully prepared alongside the very notes that you were working on through the week. And that’s so important in giving the effective evangelistic invitation that we develop the invitation alongside the sermon, they’re hand in glove.
Secondly, not just voice, but be patient. I confess to you this afternoon for years, I would be in my study, and I would pray and I would dig into God’s word, I would read everything I could get my hands on. And I would put the notes together for the sermon that I believe God just burned on my soul. And I would come to the pulpit and I would preach that, like I was on fire. And many times I would glance down to my watch and realize it was about two minutes to 12 and I happen to be pastoring those churches that traditionally got out at 12. And if they didn’t get at it, well, someone’s gonna read you the riot act, and so I’d looked at my watch, and I really Last my time was over. And then I hurried through an invitation, poorly thought out, poorly worded, not even sometimes related to the sermon that I just preached. And I realized that I was wrong. And I realized that if I prepared my sermon and invitation together, then I knew exactly how much time I had and I could allow plenty of time for my invitation. And then I didn’t worry about that, because I had allowed ample time. I didn’t get nervous and trying to hurry up the Holy Spirit of God. I had patience, allowing him to do what only He can do.
So not only voice and patience, but number three, dealing with distractions. I really had to struggle with this. When I began to do the research, I decided to go back and pull a lot of videos of men that I love, men that I’ve watched down through the years, and I realized that sometimes I’m my own worst enemy, I was creating my own distractions. I have a phobia about my tie hanging straight under my suit when I preach many times when I’m preaching and my hands are moving, I’ll reach down and straighten my tie. I had received the letter not long ago from a gentleman was very complimentary he’d watched me on television and was thanking, well for the service. But when I opened the letter, there was a tie tack in the letter down near the end, he said, I noticed you were fooling with your tie maybe this will help you. I thought, my soul if my distraction was that obvious, then I need to do something about that. But there were other distractions I noticed one guy had a, always a glass of water or a bottle of water as he was preaching any turn he did walk from the pulpit, he’d have a bottle of water and when he turn, come back and shift hands and he’d sit on the pulpit and walk away. But when he came back and pick it back up, and you can see the people saying he’s gonna drop it, he’s gonna spill it, he’s gonna spill it. They were more concerned about the water that they thought he was gonna spill, than he was, what he was saying, the water became a distraction. I noticed one guy, like me, wears glasses. And throughout the sermon, he would take them out and take them off, take them on, take them off 30 something times he would put on and remove his glasses, I wanted to say put it over take ’em off but leave ’em alone. Only to realize he was creating his own distraction. And I’ve done that down through the years. Be aware of the surroundings. Be aware of what the choir is doing behind you, if they’re still sitting there. Just make sure that you don’t create distractions that take away from what God’s given you and the work of the Holy Spirit during the invitation. Sometimes I was guilty of knowing that my notes had gotten to the end, I was about through I would start picking up my notes and shuffling them back in my Bible and closing my Bible. What I had just done is I had sent them a message. Hey, we’re through and so they turned everything off. They were through also, he’s always come back to get people notes you know, he’s got on the bag and get your Bible. Just be careful that we don’t sin and allow distractions that take away from that invitation.
Next is music. Music is so much a part of our worship and a part of our invitation. And I want to tell you, I’ve had to learn the hard way, that it’s my responsibility as the speaker to make sure there’s a clear understanding of the music. Over the years, I’ve had crazy things happened to me during the invitation. One in particular comes to my mind, had preached the message like it was on fire, and I got ready for the invitation and I motion to the Minister of music. He stood up and turned to the pianist and said, let’s sing 240. And she said, I can’t play 240. And so back and forth, they begin to discuss what she could play and I’m trying to extend an invitation. You and I both know the invitation is over. They’ve destroyed that. I have to take the responsibility there, I should have cleared that with him before that service began, whether it’s a paid staff member, or whether it’s a volunteer, you make sure that you work out with them how you want that music done. Another thing that I’ve had happened to me is the Lord just begin to work in a powerful way during the invitation and they sang all the way through that hymn of invitation, maybe three versus four verses. And so he stopped then he said, let’s switch to number 270. Well, now she’s got to find that page number the congregation has got to find that they’ve gotta put it up on the screen if they’re using visual aids, the invitation’s over. You’ve distracted from everything. I don’t care if they sing the same hymn 50 times my instruction to the volunteer music person, or the staff person, don’t change the hymn. You just continue to sing as long as God is at work.
Next is variety. Don’t be afraid to vary your invitation. Several years ago, I was pastoring in Sumter, South Carolina. God was just doing an incredible job there. We were seeing people say that altars were full every service. On this particular Sunday, I was going over to one of our other buildings I was gonna visit our youth worship before coming back and preaching the second time in that morning service. One of our young men and I promise you he was a good young man, a godly young man, great, fantastic parents. He was not being ugly, he was not being disrespectful but he was really telling the truth. So as I walked in the other building, I came in from behind him, and he was standing in front of the youth saying, come quickly. And I realized he had it exactly right. I did that every time I gave an imitation. You see, if you’re that predictable, they get ahead of you. And when they get ahead of you they’re not listening to you, and they’re not listening to the Holy Spirit of God. So don’t be afraid to vary your invitation. Sometimes you may ask for raising of hands, and you may lead them in a prayer right where they’re standing. Other times, you may have prayer warriors to come and let them come and be talked with and prayed with that way. But don’t be afraid to change the type of invitation. It keeps them in tune to what you’re doing and saying, and listening to the Holy Spirit of God.
Next, urgency. Well, I know you think you know where I’m going with that. You’re thinking, might be someone’s last opportunity to hear. No, here’s where I’m going with that. What if it’s your last invitation to extend. When you stand before God’s people this coming Sunday, whether it’s by Zoom or YouTube or live streaming, or when it’s we get together in person, what if that’s your last invitation? And what if you knew it was your last invitation? How would you address that? Now the other side of that coin is true also, it just might be someone’s last invitation that they will ever hear. So come prepared with a sense of urgency. It’s not a time to tell jokes. It’s not a time to beat people up. But it’s a time to impress upon them the need to come to know Jesus Christ as Savior Lord. Seven aspects of the invitation and six elements of that invitation are discussed in the little book, “The Effective Evangelistic Invitation”.
Daniel has already mentioned, we’d love to send you these resources when all of this pandemic is over and we can get back in our offices. Now, I’d be honored for you to have that. Let me encourage when you get the book, near the end of that is a worksheet. Make a copy of it, don’t write in it because then it’ll be gone. But make a copy of it and have it laying beside your Bible and your notes as you pray about the invitation that you’re going to give. You build that invitation, hand in glove side-by-side, with the sermon Gods pouring into your soul. I pray the next time you stand before God’s people, and share the Word of God, that you will come with a great harvest. As together we’ve learned how to give an effective evangelists invitation. Thank you for letting me share with you today. Daniel, thank you for allowing me to continue to serve in the evangelism office. I love serving you guys. God bless you, Daniel, take it from here.
Daniel Wilson, State Missionary
– Hey, brother, Sammy, thank you so much. It is my honor to be able to continue to serve alongside of you. Hey, I wanna address a couple of questions. And again, thank you Matt, thank you Terry, thank yo Sammy and thank you to everyone who’s been a part of this very first online Zoom webinar that we’ve offered. I wanna make sure I cover everything. The title of Sammy’s book is “The Effective Evangelistic Invitation”. Now, here’s what we’ll do, again, if you will word an email to our ministry is this famous Bailey Dixon I think put this up for everyone to see for our email [email protected]. And when we are able to get to the office and put everything together and I guess we will get it to you as soon as we can. But we were listening to this, James Merritt, “The Best News” We also send “Who’s Your One” that you can read more, we can send you, just tell me how many of these you need and we’ll try to get you as many of these Who’s Your One bookmarks that we can. And also, hey, if you’ll tell me what your shirt size is, only go up to two weeks but I’ll get you an evangelist office t-shirt, that are evangelism logo on it. It says evangelism and below it says everybody and that is just to remind us that everybody living on this side of heaven needs to be concerned about everybody living on this side of hell. And that’s the importance of that word everybody, you know, everybody who’s saved, concerned about everybody whose lost but huge Bailey, we’ll get your these resources. We’ll do our best to get you whatever you need. Just know how best we can help you.
All right, hey, I hope that everyone could hear and see everything that was going on. Again, I apologize, I was, I’m actually I said, I’m in a study. I’m actually in my closet, turned my closet into a study and so because of that, there’s probably some echo and stuff that doesn’t go well. But thank you for joining us again next Thursday at this same time we’re gonna have another Zoom webinar and Matt Queen who is the Scarborough professor of evangelism at Southwestern Seminary. He’s going to teach for about 45 minutes on how to do evangelism in a time of social distancing. And you’ll also have a chance to interact with him. And he’ll be happy to fill any questions that you may have related to evangelism. I wanna pray and then we will dismiss and let’s just pray and commit ourselves at the end of the Lord.
Almighty God, thank you for your faithfulness, for your promise of Scripture that you are our ever present help in time of trouble. God, we thank you for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for the the blood that he shed on the cross for the victory that he won over the grave, and for the promise of everlasting life in heaven which is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. Help to cherish and to celebrate our salvation. Help us to hear it and to boldly proclaim it far and wide as we have opportunities. God, I pray that you have a soul for our labor. I pray that you might burden our hearts with the names of people who we know and love, that will spend eternity separated from you unless something changes. God, thank you for the tools that you’ve given us to share the gospel. Thank you most especially for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God that hasn’t worked in us and through us, as we are your ambassadors in this world. Now God we thank you for the time together. Bless every participant in their home and their family as we depart from this meeting, in Jesus name we pray, amen.
Thank you all for joining us. Now we are done.
