SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: God, I think if um if we listen to those lyrics, if we read those words, that um that word somebody should be replaced, if we're believers in you, should be replaced with our name specifically.
SPEAKER_00: God, it's not just anybody that you called to tell them it is somebody and that somebody is us if we're believers in you.
SPEAKER_00: God, that's our our that that's your charge and that's our privilege.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, as we talk about that today, Lord, I pray that you would land fresh on us.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would move in this place and if there's someone here that that doesn't know you as Savior, God, I pray that you would reveal yourself to them and let them know that the lost are saved and the debt has been paid.
SPEAKER_00: And I thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00: For it's in your name that we pray these things, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Wade Burgess, and I'm the executive pastor here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_00: I was telling the other service what that means in a nutshell is I take all the credit when things go well, and when things go wrong, I blame others.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a pretty good gig.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if if if you don't know, I uh uh I came on staff about a month and a half ago, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm in charge of all the ministries and kind of operations here at the church and all.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I always consider it a a real privilege to be in front of you all.
SPEAKER_00: And um you all are very hospitable about that.
SPEAKER_00: You're very gracious when I'm here, and so so thanks for for letting me be in front of you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Um I uh I appreciate Lindsay doing that song.
SPEAKER_00: That song and the lyrics kind of always get me get a little choked up, but I thought it was maybe just the smell of bacon this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you've smelled that, you're not exaggerating.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Waffle House.
SPEAKER_00: We've uh we've got bacon on sale in the back.
SPEAKER_00: So if this thing goes off the rails here, we'll all eat bacon in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Now we've got a class upstairs.
SPEAKER_00: They're actually it's a series uh that's being taught, and part of that series, uh, I don't really understand how to explain it except that it involved bacon.
SPEAKER_00: So just go with that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh and by the way, if you want to know where to get good bacon, I'll tell you at the end of the place if it's any upstairs is not left over.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, anytime I get a chance to teach or or preach and I'm given the opportunity to kind of select, if you will, my own topic or whatever, um, I always like to land on something that I need work at.
SPEAKER_00: I I never want to preach to you.
SPEAKER_00: I kind of want to share with you uh areas that maybe um that I'm working on, things that I could get better at.
SPEAKER_00: And today is no different in this topic that I've entitled Everyday Evangelist, this idea of how do we everyday be evangelist in that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to start off by reading uh in Matthew this idea of when Jesus gave the Great Commission to his followers.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is what he said.
SPEAKER_00: This comes from Matthew 28.
SPEAKER_00: So we're at the end of Matthew now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus has already died and risen again.
SPEAKER_00: He has met his disciples and some of his followers, and now he's preparing to make his ascension into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to give this charge of the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me warn you, we're going to use a few things in the Bible today, not necessarily to be a sword drill so much as just I want to reference a few things, so don't get lost in that.
SPEAKER_00: All the words will be on the screen behind me.
SPEAKER_00: But I think it's important that we start out here with this idea of the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Matthew 28, 16 through 20 reads.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion.
SPEAKER_00: The moment they saw him, they worshiped him.
SPEAKER_00: Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge.
SPEAKER_00: God authorized and commanded me to commission you.
SPEAKER_00: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of age.
SPEAKER_00: This day after day after day is really the commission, I think, that can be summarized in that title, Everyday Evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to talk about how do we accomplish that charge.
SPEAKER_00: And the way I want to do that is I want to use the Apostle Paul as our instructor.
SPEAKER_00: How did Paul do it?
SPEAKER_00: What lessons can we learn from what how Paul did that and what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: Because everything Paul did after his conversion, now you you you you likely know well the story of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He's a kind of the the Jews of the Jews, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he is upper echelon, he's kind of the Christian assassin almost.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he's holding coats while they stolen Stephen, the first Christian martyr back in the day.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is always out to get Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He's always got a stack of arrest warrants and always doing things, anything he can, to get in the way of Christianity being spread.
SPEAKER_00: You know that uh Saul is on the road to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to get more Christians, and he's blinded by a light.
SPEAKER_00: Three days he's blind and he gets converted.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus appears to him and talks to Saul about this idea of why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: Saul changes his name to Paul and becomes one of the greatest apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he writes a lot of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I wanted to use him as our instructor is everything Paul did, whether it was teaching, preaching, starting new churches, missionary journeys, even his work as a tent maker, everything Paul did was about somebody else's salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, just to kind of show a history nerd that I am, uh, Stanford University has developed a program that you can plug in certain missionary trips and how much it cost, how you would have gotten around in the Roman Empire in around A.D.
SPEAKER_00: 200.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just for date reference, Paul was doing a lot of his writing, most of his missionary work between about AD 52 and about 6768.
SPEAKER_00: But I think this still applies.
SPEAKER_00: So when you plug all that in, what that program tells us is that Paul traveled about 10,000 miles in his three major missionary journeys.
SPEAKER_00: And on average, he spent about a year's wage in doing each one of those trips.
SPEAKER_00: I was telling somebody earlier, I can't even hardly get out of my house.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can't get down to the local elementary school sometimes to do kids' hope or certain things.
SPEAKER_00: We can't get, and here's Paul doing 10,000 miles of these missionary journeys and spending up to a year's wage every time he went.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I think Paul is a great instructor for us, but because everything he did was about evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to give you a definition of evangelism that kind of brings you to the springboard of what we talk about today, and it's fairly simple.
SPEAKER_00: It's the spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we're not going to talk about public preaching, but we are going to talk about that idea of personal witness.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe Paul was doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I believe everything Paul did was related to evangelism, and I think he did it in two ways.
SPEAKER_00: And it's two of the same ways we should be doing that.
SPEAKER_00: First, it's through long-term relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Every place Paul went, every time he spent time with people, he was investing in them all for their investment in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's three things that come out of our efforts of long-term relationships.
SPEAKER_00: First, it builds trust.
SPEAKER_00: When you are able to spend time with someone and you listen to them and hear their problems, work through that with them, you support them in various aptitudes and environments, we build trust in that.
SPEAKER_00: That is necessary for us to share the gospel with them, for us to share what we believe and why we believe it.
SPEAKER_00: So building trust is a key part of these long-term relationships.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing long-term relationships do for us is it gives us, I think, some credentials, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: It allows people to see us in everyday life.
SPEAKER_00: It's the people maybe you go to school with or you work with, or maybe you even live with, that can look at you and say, How do you behave when life happens?
SPEAKER_00: Just that day-to-day life struggle.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, I think it's as important for us to demonstrate our belief in the good times as it is the bad.
SPEAKER_00: Now you might think, well, wait a minute, you got that backwards, isn't it the bad times as it is the good?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I've what I've noticed.
SPEAKER_00: Those that don't even believe in God, they claim, those that don't necessarily pray or believe in prayer, when something bad happens, go to them and say, hey, would it be okay if I prayed with you?
SPEAKER_00: They'd say, Yeah, you bet.
SPEAKER_00: I guarantee you it's all right.
SPEAKER_00: I have never experienced anyone that was going through something difficult that didn't mind you praying for them.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing, when it goes good, that's usually when we forget about God.
SPEAKER_00: That's usually when we try to take credit ourselves, right?
SPEAKER_00: Man, it's going good.
SPEAKER_00: I must be, boy, I am something, huh?
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting this thing done.
SPEAKER_00: And then it goes wrong, that's when we go, oh, I guess I ought to.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think people are looking at us in these long-term relationships for the credentials that say, do you believe what you say you do, and do you believe it as much in the good times as you do the bad?
SPEAKER_00: That idea of credentials, just letting them see you, letting them see your witness in the way that you interact with the world around you.
SPEAKER_00: I think the third thing that long-term relationships do for us is that it gives us multiple opportunities to witness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is an area I'm probably the weakest in.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll spend time with you.
SPEAKER_00: We'll work together, we'll play together, uh, I'll listen to you, I'm available to you, all of that.
SPEAKER_00: But I rarely specifically bring Jesus into those conversations.
SPEAKER_00: Um I uh I don't know, I guess it was a few years ago that I was uh uh racing mountain bikes, and uh I um I developed a friendship with someone that was that was doing that with me, and so we would go to these different venues and we would exercise together and we would go on rides and all this stuff, and as I got to know this person, I I realized he really didn't go to church very much and didn't really have a faith base, and and so uh every time that we would get together, I would think this you know what, I'm witnessing to him just by him seeing me.
SPEAKER_00: Just that that's all I need to do.
SPEAKER_00: He just needs to see me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to do anything after that.
SPEAKER_00: And what I realized is that I continually failed to specifically bring Jesus or my belief system into that conversation, into that long-term relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I think here's what I do.
SPEAKER_00: I have a tendency to say, well, hey, when I meet you or we spend time together, I want you to like me.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at me, and hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to separate us too much, so I want you to think that I'm just like you so that you'll get to know me, so that then you'll know I'm not just like you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, huh?
SPEAKER_00: We I uh often I think what I do uh it wrongly is that I leave to their own curiosity why I act or do or don't do certain things in order for us to begin a conversation about faith instead of specifically mentioning it.
SPEAKER_00: My uh my previous employer uh would have uh meetings from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think we we almost made a career out of meetings, and uh almost every time after one of these meetings there'd be a social gathering and there would be opportunities for uh for these uh uh various liquid refreshments.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I uh I never partaked of those, but I would always attend those events and I always enjoyed those and all that.
SPEAKER_00: But I developed a reputation for being the guy that doesn't drink.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and it wasn't that I had anything particular against alcohol, I just wanted to be careful that I didn't overindulge.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be careful that when they looked at me, they saw something different.
SPEAKER_00: And so typically what would happen is we'd go to one of these social events and somebody would come up to me, wait, I see you're not drinking.
SPEAKER_00: What is a religious issue?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, it's not about religion, it's about relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, okay, good to see you.
SPEAKER_00: Or they'd come up to me and they'd say, Wait, how come you don't?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, good gosh, you're the life of the party, but you don't drink?
SPEAKER_00: My goodness, I'd like to see you with a drink in your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm trying to put stuff good in my body instead of, and therefore good things will come out of my body, and so that's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: I just saw you eat three pounds of chocolate.
SPEAKER_00: What about that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm over there at the brownie bar almost in a sugar coma.
SPEAKER_00: Um my point in all of that is um I I don't know that I ever provided a good reason for my behavior as to why I did or did not do certain things.
SPEAKER_00: I I I never I I never felt like I left them with enough curiosity about me and my beliefs that would outweigh their behavior.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we've got to do in the idea of these long-term relationships, the people that we spend the most time with, the people that we're around all the time.
SPEAKER_00: How do we demonstrate our credentials?
SPEAKER_00: How do we build trust with them?
SPEAKER_00: It gives us opportunities to share our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And then how do we also take advantage of those multiple opportunities to talk to them about that?
SPEAKER_00: My point is, we have to be on purpose when we evangelize every day.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what Paul did.
SPEAKER_00: Paul never left to chance his long-term relationships.
SPEAKER_00: He never just let his reputation speak for himself.
SPEAKER_00: He demonstrated in the work that he did to establish churches, in his letters, and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: First and 2 Corinthians in the letter there, and we're going to get into that in a second.
SPEAKER_00: This was a place that he spent a lot of time with these people, and he didn't leave to chance his long-term relationships.
SPEAKER_00: When he wrote uh the letters 1 and 2 Timothy, there's about a five-year gap between Paul writing 1 Timothy and then the second letter to Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Five years and longer he knew Timothy, but he never left it to chance.
SPEAKER_00: That Timothy would say, Yep, Paul, I know what we're about.
SPEAKER_00: Paul never missed an opportunity to remind them the mission that he was on.
SPEAKER_00: Now, speaking of Corinthians, uh, in Corinth, Paul goes on a missionary trip there and he begins a church.
SPEAKER_00: He starts uh con helping uh folks in their conversion.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching and teaching and working and all that.
SPEAKER_00: He spends about a year and a half in Corinth doing that, establishing this church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul, after that, he leaves, goes on to his other uh missionary duties, and he gets word that Corinth has kind of gotten off the rails.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, if you know anything about that ancient history, you know Corinth was a um a New Orleans plus Las Vegas times two kind of place.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul had gotten word that the church wasn't really going the way that he had left it, wasn't really following the instructions that he had given him.
SPEAKER_00: And so he sits down and writes a letter to him, and I wanted to read the introduction of 1 Corinthians from Eugene Peterson's message, and I wanted to read this to you about Paul.
SPEAKER_00: It says this Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is a classic of pastoral response.
SPEAKER_00: Affectionate, firm, clear, and unswerving in the conviction that God among them, revealed in Jesus and present in his Holy Spirit, continued to be the central issue in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: He takes them by the hand and goes over all the old ground again, directing them in how to work all the glorious details of God saving love into their love for one another.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul does in his letter.
SPEAKER_00: This is the idea of unswerving and affectionate and firm.
SPEAKER_00: Those, I think, are attributes after a long-term relationship.
SPEAKER_00: That's how Paul could demonstrate all of those things to them.
SPEAKER_00: He could be unswerving, he could be affectionate and firm, all because they knew his heart after that long-term relationship.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, at the beginning of each letter, Paul is clear about his mission.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Corinthians, this is chapter 1, verse 1, he says, I, Paul, have been called and sent by Jesus, the Messiah, according to God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: Then down in verse 17, he continues to write, God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the message of what he has done, collecting a following for him.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, least the powerful action at the center, Christ on the cross, be trivialized into mere words.
SPEAKER_00: If you flipped over to Ephesians, you'll see the letter here that Paul writes in Ephesians 1, he says, I, Paul, am under God's plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on in verse 4 to say, long before he, meaning God, laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.
SPEAKER_00: Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And what pleasure he took in planning this.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't take him but 17 verses to remind him exactly why he established the church and exactly what their mission was.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians, again, verse 1, I mean, right off the bat, the letter doesn't say, Hey, how are you?
SPEAKER_00: Glad to see you, greetings from wherever.
SPEAKER_00: He immediately says, I'm a special agent of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it only gets him to about verse 4 before he reminds them, here's exactly why God created us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's exactly what God has in store for us and has in mind.
SPEAKER_00: His audience knew Paul very, very well.
SPEAKER_00: They knew his heart.
SPEAKER_00: They had spent day to day with him.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul continued to insist on stating his purpose and theirs in terms of what God had planned for them, namely their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I think the second way that we see Paul demonstrating this idea of everyday evangelism is in the short term.
SPEAKER_00: This is what maybe some would refer to as kind of your faith elevator speech, if you will, kind of this idea that, okay, you've got a minute and a half to share your faith and go.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with that?
SPEAKER_00: Paul was very well versed in that.
SPEAKER_00: He was very quick to say, here's how God has changed me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I used to be, and here's what I am now.
SPEAKER_00: And it's his gift for all of us to experience that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in this idea of immediate, uh, in this uh way that we demonstrate our faith always being ready, I think we do that in two ways.
SPEAKER_00: I think number one, we just simply give them biblical truth.
SPEAKER_00: And I think we do that by telling folks that they are born in a sin nature, that there's sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we all are sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Now I think some folks would tell you, yeah, I'm not so sure about that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh yesterday I had the chance to participate in an event and there was a pastor there from Boston, and he was telling me that they had gone to this Japanese restaurant in Boston as some of the staff of their church.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, We sat down to lunch, and our waitress comes out and she says, Are you all businessmen?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, No, we work at the church.
SPEAKER_00: And she says, Oh, well, what do you do there?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Well, we we work at the church, this is what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We're planning our mission trip for the next year.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Why would you do that?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, to tell people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And he's kind of taken aback and he says, How long have you been in the U.S.?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, about three years.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, and you haven't heard of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, I I haven't heard of that.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, let me tell you, we are all born into sin.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, uh, what's sin?
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know what that even is or how that my point is we need to have a frame of reference for folks to know that they are separated from God by sin.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the the way I thought about this: have you ever noticed that um you have to teach a child to share, but you don't have to teach them to hold on to what's theirs?
SPEAKER_00: I think I think our nature is that way, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm gonna get mine, I'm gonna make sure that there is self-preservation that in and of itself, I think, demonstrates, maybe an inkling, of this idea of us just kind of being born into the sin nature.
SPEAKER_00: And so we give biblical truth, we talk about sin, and we say we are all born separated from God the Creator by our sin nature.
SPEAKER_00: And there is no way that sin and a completely holy, all-righteous God can exist together.
SPEAKER_00: There is a huge chasm between this idea of sin nature and this holy God that is there.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a bridge between that, and that is Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, a perfect sacrifice for us, such that we have a bridge between our nature and God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the biblical truth we have to give in this idea of short term everyday evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: I think the second thing you've got to do, and and and and I believe this is one that is is absolutely Impactful, and that is you've got to share your experience.
SPEAKER_00: I think people can argue with us, by the way, the idea of well, was the Bible written by man or was it inspired by God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm not sure about Jesus, I don't know if he was real.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you could get into all kinds of arguments about almost everything related to religion and conversion and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Except one, and that's your experience.
SPEAKER_00: It is my opinion that nobody can argue with you about your experience of what you were before conversion and what you became after conversion.
SPEAKER_00: In my mind, that's almost impossible to argue with.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we're going to be everyday evangelists and we've got an immediate opportunity to share our faith, we've got to give them biblical truth and we've got to give them our experience about our conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, I probably should have adhered to my own advice.
SPEAKER_00: Um in January I had the chance to preach, and right after that, one of our high school students came up to me and they said, Hey, man, that was that was great.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for that.
SPEAKER_00: Um you think you could come to our student group and give that message?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yeah, I can do that, sure.
SPEAKER_00: That's no problem.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've already got it written, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to prepare for anything, and yeah, I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: And so about a week before the event, the student texts me and says, Hey, just wanted to let you, just wanted to remind you, uh, we're on for Thursday at 8 45.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be speaking to our high school students.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me give you a little insight into my ego.
SPEAKER_00: I get that text and I'm like, hot dog, we got the gym rented out.
SPEAKER_00: We we're gonna get the football stadium.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this thing's gonna be a Billy Graham mini over here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I am ready.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming.
SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing fire with me.
SPEAKER_00: Here I come to the high school book, I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: And I send back in a text.
SPEAKER_00: Should I check in at the office?
SPEAKER_00: Is it in the auditorium?
SPEAKER_00: She sends back, no, it's at somebody's house.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah, but no, I'm that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, sure.
SPEAKER_00: No, I I got it, I got it.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Is it at 8:45 in the morning?
SPEAKER_00: She's like, No, idiot.
SPEAKER_00: It's 8.45 at night.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, 845 at night?
SPEAKER_00: This is how I know I'm getting older.
SPEAKER_00: This and if anything happens after 8 p.m., I think this.
SPEAKER_00: You are infringing on my upcoming bedtime, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I had to take a nap at 5.30 that day to be ready for 8.45 that night, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not teasing you.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I had to get a B12 shot just so I'd be ready for this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So Thursday night C2 group for this high school rolls around and I head to the event.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm kind of nervous because uh and this may be just me, but I believe high school students are some of the toughest audience.
SPEAKER_00: They don't get any of my references.
SPEAKER_00: None of them have ever seen Seinfeld or whatever the thing is that I'm connected to, none of them get my music.
SPEAKER_00: And even with my best material, it is crickets, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're just looking at me.
SPEAKER_00: I teach out at the warehouse, and I mean I sweat through that thing for 20 minutes of like, is this thing on?
SPEAKER_00: Are y'all getting me?
SPEAKER_00: Is anybody out there?
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm kind of nervous as I get there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know these students.
SPEAKER_00: I know maybe one or two.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure how this is gonna go.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: So I get to the house and um I'm thinking, do I have the right house?
SPEAKER_00: I hope this is the right place.
SPEAKER_00: I ring the bell, the host comes and they're they're they're they're very gracious in hosting this thing on a weekly basis in their home.
SPEAKER_00: And so he opens the door and he says, Come on in, and I tell him my name, and he says, Why are you here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, why am I here?
SPEAKER_00: Why uh is this the house that has the thing?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me why you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, I um uh one of your students invited me to talk about answering the call.
SPEAKER_00: It's a sermon I did in January.
SPEAKER_00: You you probably saw it on YouTube, but anyway, uh you that that that's why I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna share with them.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But tell me why you're here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, is this sort of some trick question?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: So the student that invited me sees me and she rescues me from this interaction and uh says, Hey, we're playing a game.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be with you in a little bit, just hang out in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll we'll come out and get you.
SPEAKER_00: And so I go in the kitchen and there's all these snacks, and now I'm comfortable, right?
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm in my environment, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I get a couple of cookies, I'm standing there in the kitchen, just kind of, you know, hanging out, just seeing what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And the host comes back up to me again and he says, uh, hey Wade, uh, no teasing.
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna land the plane on Jesus tonight?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, land the plane on Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Won't that hurt Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
unknown: What?
SPEAKER_00: And uh he said, Wade, you you don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: For the last three or four weeks, we have been working with these students.
SPEAKER_00: They've been coming to our home every Thursday night, and we have been teaching and getting ready.
SPEAKER_00: And the culmination is tonight for you to present to them the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And Wade, you have got to get on them.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's, and he's telling me about all the struggles these students are having and all the things that are going on.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine some of those, and he's saying, Wade, you've got to bring them the word, you gotta bring the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I got a cookie in my mouth, and I'm going, uh I can't even spell Jesus right now.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I had my phone with me, and I'm like, I'm texting Neil.
SPEAKER_00: Neil, I think I'm in over my head.
SPEAKER_00: Are you available?
SPEAKER_00: And so I go into the talk and it and it it went fine.
SPEAKER_00: Um my point is we should always be ready.
SPEAKER_00: Peter told us that, right?
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, Peter wrote to us.
SPEAKER_00: Always be ready to give an account for what you believe.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, when that guy told me, Wade, you're gonna have to present the gospel tonight, I should have been like, awesome.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what I'm here for.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I was expecting.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, I'm thinking, uh, let me see where that is in my script here.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I have it.
SPEAKER_00: And why was I taken aback?
SPEAKER_00: I should not have been.
SPEAKER_00: I should have been ready.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I should have been sopping that thing up with a biscuit.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I should have been just laying it to him.
SPEAKER_00: And instead, I'm thinking, uh, well, I mean, uh, y'all didn't tell me I had to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that's what this was all about.
SPEAKER_00: Paul would have never been caught off guard.
SPEAKER_00: He was always prepared.
SPEAKER_00: Let me demonstrate that by just pointing you to one place here.
SPEAKER_00: This is in Acts chapter 19, and it's verses 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this gives us a microcosm of Paul's philosophy, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it reads.
SPEAKER_00: Now it happened that while Apollos was away in Corinth, Paul made his way down through the mountains, came to Ephesus, and happened on some disciples there.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing he said was, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
SPEAKER_00: Did you take God into your mind only, or did you also embrace him with your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Did he get inside of you?
SPEAKER_00: Folks, these are not strangers that he happened to run into on the road to Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: These are disciples.
SPEAKER_00: These are people that he could have very easily just said, Hey, peace be to you, how's it going down at the religion factory?
SPEAKER_00: Boy, I tell you, these sinners are something, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: Instead, the first thing out of Paul's mouth is, did you really take God into your life, or did you just believe it in your mind only?
SPEAKER_00: Paul never missed that opportunity to demonstrate in the short term, long term.
SPEAKER_00: He was always ready, always ready to be an everyday evangelist.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: I think in summary, what it means is that everything we do should be to encourage people to think rightly about God.
SPEAKER_00: I um I mentioned Seinfeld a minute ago.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm kind of quick with a Seinfeld reference.
SPEAKER_00: If something happens in life, I'm like, you know, this reminds me of a Seinfeld reference.
SPEAKER_00: I remember when that, or a movie quote, or somebody will say a word, and I'm like, I can name three songs with that word in it, here I go.
SPEAKER_00: And they're kind of, you know, looking at me strange.
SPEAKER_00: But I I have to admit, I sometimes have problems remembering now, what did the Bible say about that?
SPEAKER_00: What did that happen?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed how easily Neil or Travis or others have that kind of biblical reference point readily available?
SPEAKER_00: They'll say, you know, I remember in the Bible where it talks about, or you go to them with an issue and they'll say, you know, I remember there was a character in the Bible that did this and this is what happened, and this.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that they're able to do that so easily?
SPEAKER_00: Because they spend time in the Word.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, the great thing about the Bible is that it's available for every one of us to do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: It used to be that my uh uh Bible study time was right before bed, and I'd read about five verses, maybe six verses.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a good word.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir, God, that sounds good.
SPEAKER_00: Off to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really stay with you.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be on purpose, studying the word, retaining what it says, and then living that out.
SPEAKER_00: And I think as I thought about the preparation for this morning and this idea of everyday evangelist, and how come I'm not very good at that?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can give me uh a heads up that it's coming and I still fumble.
SPEAKER_00: You can surprise me with it, and I thought, why why is it that I'm not good at that?
SPEAKER_00: And I started to kind of ask myself a couple of questions.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, am I so ashamed of the gospel that what I look like on Sundays is nothing like my Mondays?
SPEAKER_00: I wonder sometimes, am I ashamed to be associated with the Creator such that I'm not willing to tell people about the differences of heaven and hell?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you can't have one without the other.
SPEAKER_00: And so I wonder, you know, if you ask me, hey, where's the best burger in town?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's a list of five, and let me give them to you alphabetically, or conveniently tell me the radius that you want to drive in.
SPEAKER_00: I can do that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you about the best sandwich I've had.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm very quick.
SPEAKER_00: I'll even tell that to strangers if I overhear them talking, right?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, where do you think we ought to go for lunch?
SPEAKER_00: Ah, may I recommend two things for you?
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not very quick with the idea of, hey, can I tell you something that has eternal ramifications?
SPEAKER_00: The idea of everyday evangelism is not only available for us, it's not only our responsibility, it's God's command for us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna leave you with this quote.
SPEAKER_00: It's by Charles uh Spurgeon.
SPEAKER_00: He was a preacher in the 1800s, and he he said this have you no wish for others to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Then you're not saved yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Be sure of that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me close this in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: As I do, Lindsay's gonna come and play over us, and as is our custom here at Grand Parkway, we want to give you just a couple of minutes to think about what was said today, what may have had your name on it.
SPEAKER_00: What is God telling you related to the idea of everyday evangelism?
SPEAKER_00: And what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to consider that while Lindsay plays, and then I'll come back and close us in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God, you not only called us, you commanded us to tell others about you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would a God do that?
SPEAKER_00: Is it to make us sweat?
SPEAKER_00: Is it to show us that we're not very good at it?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's my belief that you did it because you love us.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you do is because you love us.
SPEAKER_00: And that royal us that says, even those that are sinners and are far from me, I still love them.
SPEAKER_00: I love them enough to die for them.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to tell them.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, what I pray for today is that you would convict us and encourage us to be everyday evangelists.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we do, whether it's in our long-term relationships and sometimes our families are the hardest ones to witness to because they know us the best.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our coworkers are the hardest because they know us so well and how we've behaved.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for the short term, that immediate, that immediate opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: And it's and God, I pray that you'd put those in our paths, let us not miss those, but also let us be on the lookout for those.
SPEAKER_00: Let us have our ears tuned to you and to what you would want us to do.
SPEAKER_00: The world needs you more now than ever.
SPEAKER_00: So let us be your evangelist for it.
SPEAKER_00: For it's in your name that we pray these things, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, I wanted to give you just a couple of announcements this this morning, and then I want to give you a quick invitation, and then I'll give you a blessing, and we'll be dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I like to end anytime Neil is out, I like to end early so that in a popularity vote, you'll vote for me for your favorite sermon giver.
SPEAKER_00: Um I I mentioned uh related to the summer that we have a mission trip going to New York.
SPEAKER_00: They leave this Wednesday.
SPEAKER_00: There are some prayer cards here and at the uh exits, uh, north and south door in the lobby.
SPEAKER_00: For you to pick up, if you take one of those with you so you know how to pray, who's going, and what they're up to.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is a uh a missionary relationship that we have in New York City.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's in the city itself.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's to help a church kind of revitalizing that, uh, doing some building and construction, doing some community outreach and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: So be in prayer for that group as they go and as you support Grand Parkway, that's how we're able to use that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh second, um, in terms of camps and uh kids uh events and all of that, be sure you're looking on the website at grandparkway.org so that you can register your kiddos in the ways uh that they can participate this summer uh in that.
SPEAKER_00: In terms of our visitors, thank you very much for being here.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here for the first time, thank you for trying a new church.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've been here a couple of times, thank you for returning.
SPEAKER_00: If you've had a chance to fill out that connection card on the seat back in front of you, uh drop that in one of the wooden boxes as you leave.
SPEAKER_00: That gives us a record of your attendance and a way that we can connect with you if you'd like us to do so.
SPEAKER_00: And let me also say to our members and long-term attenders, thank you for your faithfulness to Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for what you do for the church.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate your service to it and your commitment to that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a quick invitation.
SPEAKER_00: I know that Neil does most of the uh counseling here, and rightfully so, he's very good at that and very gifted at that.
SPEAKER_00: But but let me just offer this up to you for what it's worth.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Travis Meadows, a songwriter, said, if you ever want to stop in and talk about what ain't working and what's still hurting and all the things you feel like cussing out, my door is open, I'm available, and it'd be my privilege to pastor you in that way.
SPEAKER_00: And while my skill set is in the executive, I'm also available to help you through whatever life is throwing at you.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what Grway and our staff is here for you as well.
SPEAKER_00: Uh last announcement.
SPEAKER_00: June starts our new church budget.
SPEAKER_00: We go from June to May.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you that are interested, we have some copies of our budget in the lobby, and I can get you one of those if you'd like to have it.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard that Grand Parkway practices full disclosure, and we do.
SPEAKER_00: While that is a summary of our budget, I'm glad to give as much detail as you would like.
SPEAKER_00: I can meet with you, email, talk on the phone, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we want you to know that we take very seriously the stewardship of what we have here.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're interested in hearing more about that, you can stop me or really any of our staff at any time.
SPEAKER_00: All right, stand to your feet and I'll offer a blessing and we'll be dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out if this receiving a gift.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I'll tell you you've heard that every day is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: It is my belief that we as believers in Jesus Christ have the gift of salvation to share with the world.
SPEAKER_00: So leave here and share it by speaking and living like the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.