Because of the passing of time and my study of the Scriptures, I’m becoming more keenly aware of the fact that my love of God and fellow human beings, together with my hatred of Satan and his slime-ball cohorts is intensifying greatly. I’m also gaining a deeper appreciation of His incomprehensible love for His human creatures through the indescribable agony He suffered on the cross in the Person of His Son, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’ve been hoping and praying each of you folks are also. The more I learn of the horrors of hell, the more deeply do I, and I hope each of you also have an appreciation for being able to escape them through the gift of salvation available only through the Risen Savior.

These days I’m becoming more and more inclined to share the Gospel whenever I can. That’s why I’ve been preaching this series of messages on evangelism. I hope to encourage and perhaps better equip each of you to do the same. Last week I explained that: “Every Christian has the responsibility of sharing the Gospel to the very best of their ability at every divinely ordained easily recognizable opportunity with the lost people the Lord has brought into their life. You will intuitively know which ones they are. And every Christian will be held accountable as to whether or not they take that responsibility seriously.”

I was nagged by part of that remark throughout last Sunday and off and on during the week. Not because I regretted saying it but rather that it might be used by Satan in an attempt to con some of you into laying a false guilt trip on yourself by perhaps thinking you have been completely negligent in the area of evangelism. In fact, I almost sent an email to one person warning them to be on guard. But then I ran into all sorts of computer problems about which my daughter quipped: “I think that your scary sermons scared your computer to death. It was only a matter of time.”

I believe the thoughts concerning evangelism expressed in her brother Mike’s entry in my guest book are typical of those of many Christians. He said in part: “Dad, sharing the gospel with others has always been my big weakness. I find it hard to talk to people about the gospel when I know they really are not interested in what I have to say. There have been many times when I could have and should have said something but did not. What I have done is pray for family and friends that I know are not saved in hopes that God will open their hearts to the truth. It is quite obvious that most people do not want to hear what God has to say. All I can do is pray for them and work out my own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Are any of you folks able to relate to what my son has shared? Have there been many times when you could and should have said something, but didn’t? Of course there were. Every one of us is guilty. That’s why I prayed after my sermon asking God’s forgiveness for all those times we didn’t do what we could and should have done. Do any of you folks think evangelizing the lost is a major weakness in your life? Have you sometimes felt inadequate because you haven’t personally witnessed anyone inviting Christ into their heart despite your best efforts? After all, Jesus told His disciples the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, (Matt: 9:37; Luke 10:2). Do you sometimes feel as though you are an ineffective laborer just spinning your wheels, sometimes for years, without any substantial results? Are you sometimes tempted to “throw in the towel” and leave evangelism to others who know more about it than you?

2 Corinthians 5:16-20 (ESV)
¹⁶ From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
¹⁸ All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to tell those early Christians that they and all Christians such as you and me after them, have been chosen by God to engage in the ministry of reconciliation with Him and serve as ambassadors for Christ. He has entrusted the Gospel to Christians and He desires that each of them serve as instruments in His hands through whom He makes appeals to other fallen human creatures. But how do you feel about talking with all those folks who really aren’t interested in what you have to say? If the Prophet Jeremiah was here today, I think he might say something such as: “So what else is new?” and “Welcome to the club.” For instance, consider these verses.

Jeremiah 6:10 (ESV)
¹⁰ To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it.

Jeremiah 8:9 (ESV)
⁹ The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them?

Jeremiah 20:8-9 (ESV)
⁸ For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
⁹ If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

Are you able to identify with Jeremiah’s disappointment and frustration? He was a prophet and had to continue crying out. But we aren’t and we don’t. For instance, let’s consider a Christian woman married to an unbelieving husband who doesn’t want to hear about Jesus and His Gospel. What should she do?

1 Peter 3:1-2 (NIV)
¹ Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, ² when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

It also behooves Christians to remember that God has set eternity in the hearts of every human being but they can’t figure out how everything in the world comes about.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 1:4-11 (NIV)
⁴ Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
⁶ The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
⁷ All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
⁸ All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹ What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
¹¹ There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

Everyone sees this consistent repetition in our world but they can’t connect the dots as to how it all happens. With the exception of Atheists, unbelievers each have a sense that somehow their life will continue after death. That’s because our Creator has set eternity in the hearts of all human beings and this is the hope of most of them. Can you imagine the hopelessness of someone who believes that at the moment their death he or she will cease to exist? I can and I have, and I feel awful for them. The Prophet Zechariah explains the reason for their attitude.

Zechariah 7:12 (ESV)
¹² They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets.

We must remember that most people despise God’s Law. They don’t want to hear anything about it from faithful Christians who are actively engaged in the Ministry of Reconciliation just as much as they didn’t those prophets thousands of years ago. Consider how those ancient people must have felt. Do you see any similarity between their experience and yours?

2 Chronicles 30:10 (NIV)
¹⁰ The couriers went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned and ridiculed them.

2 Chronicles 36:16 (NIV)
¹⁶ But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words

and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

Proverbs 1:7 (NIV)
⁷ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Proverbs 5:11-12 (NIV)
¹¹ At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.
¹² You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!

And, as I have been saying in my last two messages concerning all those who die apart from Christ: “their conscience will hound and torment them throughout eternity.” What should we do about those non-Christians who aren’t at all interested in hearing the gospel?

Matthew 7:6 (ESV)
⁶ “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Mark 6:11 (ESV)
¹¹ And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”

I can’t help wondering how Jesus would be judged today by our current societal standards. How about Him being labeled as being an intolerant fanatic who delights in spewing hate speech? Paul and Barnabas followed His instructions and look at what happened to them.

Acts 13:50-51 (ESV)
⁵⁰ But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.
⁵¹ But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium.

I’m not suggesting you look for some dust to shake off of your feet when you leave the presence of a non-Christian who isn’t interested in what you have to say. Don’t waste your time trying to persuade them to listen to you. Instead do as my son does and that is to pray for family and friends that he knows are not saved in hopes that God will open their hearts to the truth. If that doesn’t happen your effort will not have been in vain. Your loving concern for their immortal souls will be used as a testimony against them on Judgment Day.

Now allow me to share some quotes from what I believe is one of the greatest Christian books in print that I’m aware of. Although I’m still not finished reading it, I have already decided to reread and study it and I encourage each of you to do the same. I’m indebted for much of the ideas in this message to this excellent book. It’s called, Conformed to His Image, by Kenneth Boa.

“Most people associate evangelism with an event (conversion), but from a scriptural perspective, it is more of a process. In fact, the Bible uses agricultural imagery to portray the dynamic process of evangelism (e.g., John 4:35-39; 1 Corinthians 3:6-9). Crops do not happen-reaping a harvest is the outcome of a lengthy series of events that cannot be bypassed or overlooked.

The first phase in this series is the preparation of the soil. Unless the ground is cleared and plowed, it will not be ready to receive the seed. After the soil is harrowed and furrowed, the second phase, sowing the seed, takes place. Cultivation, the third phase, is the lengthiest part of the agricultural process; it involves irrigation, fertilization, and weed control. Only when the crop is mature is it ready to undergo the brief fourth phase of reaping.”

“When we substitute “soul” for “soil,” the spiritual analogy of these four phases to the process of evangelism becomes obvious. Before people are ready to receive the seed of the Word, their souls must be prepared, and there are many ways in which this can happen. Often God used adversities and setbacks to pull people away from their illusions of autonomy so they can begin to see their true condition of spiritual need. The sowing of the seed is exposure to the truths of the Word of God, and the process of cultivation is the gradual realization that these truths speak to their deep needs. The Lord uses His servants in each of these phases as they pray for people without Christ, develop relationships with them in areas of common ground, and share their own journeys when appropriate.”

“Jesus prepared the soil when He asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of well water (John 4:7-10). In speaking to her, Jesus overcame three barriers: first, the racial barrier (Jews had no dealings with Samaritans), second, the gender barrier (Jewish rabbis would not address women), and third, the social barrier (this woman had a poor reputation among her own people). Jesus knew everything she had done, and yet he gently and lovingly offered her the living water of eternal life.”

“The parable of the soils in Matthew 13:3-9 and Mark 4:1-20 illustrates the phase of seed sowing and underscores the need for receptivity to the Word of life. The seed does not take permanent root when the soil is unprepared. The cultivation phase is illustrated in the fact that Jesus was called “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19 and in Paul’s desire to find areas of common ground in order to win Jews and Gentiles to Christ (1 Corinthians 9: 19-23).”

“The final phase of reaping the harvest is depicted in the metaphor Jesus used of the Samaritans as a field that is white for harvest (John 4:35-42). This image is immediately followed by the account of the Samaritans’ coming to faith in Jesus (John 4: 39-41). The key concept to be gleaned from this process principal is the liberating truth that if we are engaged in any one of these four phases, we are doing evangelism.”

“In any area of life and ministry, we should understand that we contribute nothing to the purposes of God. He has no lack or deficiency, and for us to make a contribution would mean that we bring something to the table that he does not already possess. God does not invite us to participate in his purposes by being a part of what his Spirit is accomplishing in the lives of people. This means that in evangelism, as in other areas of life, we are called to be faithful to the process and to leave the results to God.” “We are incapable of changing others, although we often make the mistake of trying. When we adopt the goal of changing people, we are committing ourselves to manipulating and coercing them. But when we realize that the whole process of evangelism begins and ends with God, we can take comfort in the fact that he is in control and that we are given the privilege of participation.”

I know you folks continue to sow seeds as you have the opportunity. However, unless I’m greatly mistaken, most of you are primarily engaged in the often long arduous seemingly never ending work of cultivation. Continue pleading with God to give you the strength of Christ within you to enable you to endure and not get discouraged. Ask God to constantly remind you that as long as there is life there is reason for you to have hope, and that you should never give up! And ask Him to help you to remember that you have brothers and sisters in Christ who are also pleading with God on your behalf. And don’t let Satan or anyone else con you into believing you’re a failure and not actively engaged in evangelism.

It’s been my prayerful hope that each of you has found in this message ‘Some Helpful Things to Remember About Evangelism.’

Lord willing, next week….