You are the most effective evangelist in the areas where you already operate everyday. You can tell the story of Jesus better to your family members, coworkers, and friends than an outside can. Keep shining brightly for Jesus!
“They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, ‘But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.’ Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.” —C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory
T.M. Moore tells us, “Conversations can build relationships; thus, Christians should be actively involved in seeking to start and maintain conversations with many people, especially those we encounter each week…. But the Christian conversationalist does not engage others merely for the sake of conversation, as though conversation were an end in itself.”
“Information never fights fear. Revelation does.” —Tim Dilena
“Saints find themselves at home in the next life, not in this one.” —J. Stephen Lang
“Do not imagine that there is any love to your souls in the heart of the preacher who preaches smooth things, and who flatters you with his ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. No, the highest, deepest, most heaven-inspired love is that which searches and tries the heart that there should be any deception there.” —Charles Spurgeon
T.M. Moore wrote, “I’m persuaded that one reason the work of personal evangelism has fallen on hard times in our day is that the people of God are simply fearful of the task. We find no joy in bearing witness to Jesus. Instead, we’re afraid that others won’t receive us kindly, that they’ll lash out or, worse, talk about us to others. We fear we might mess up the Gospel presentation and permanently offend someone. We fear the questions and challenges others might pose, that we might not be able to answer them. We’re afraid of being laughed at, yelled at, or dismissed as foolish or deceived or mad.”
“Do not be satisfied, dear brethren and sisters in Christ, with the grace that you already have. Be thankful for it, but ask for the divine multiplication of it; regard the grace which you have already received as being like the boy’s loaves and fishes, and expect that Christ will continue to multiply it for you and for thousands of others round about you: ‘Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.’” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on 1 Peter 1:2
“Come to Me with a teachable spirit, eager to be changed. A close walk with Me is a life of continual newness. Do not cling to old ways as you step into a new year. Instead, seek My face with an open mind, knowing that your journey with me involves being transformed by the renewing of your mind.… Give yourself fully to this adventure of increasing attentiveness to My presence.” —Sarah Young, in Jesus Calling [she formed this quote from Romans 12:2; Jeremiah 29:11]
“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” —M. Scott Peck
Clinton Manley gives us two bad excuses that people give for either not reading their Bible or not applying what they did read. He says, “God woos us to His word with unblushing promises of reward; take hold of them.”
“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.” —Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Geneticists have found a single-cell pond ciliate that uses its RNA to send unexpected signals to the cell. “Surface-level study may make cells seem like simple chemistry, but deeper study reveals coded instructions, used by molecular tools and monitored by timing controls. Those tools operate as part of a larger biological network. This detailed process reflects sound engineering principles.” Even this tiny creature shows the flawless design of our Creator.
When people start throwing mud at you, your natural response is to throw the mud back at them or to run away so the mud can’t reach you. Instead of the natural fight-or-flight response, Jesus shows us a supernatural response. I talk about all sorts of attacks—gossip, slander, betrayal, and more—in my book When Sheep Bite as well as the supernatural, biblical response to these attacks.
“The minute you start talking about what you’re going to do if you lose, you have lost.” —George Schultz
“A decent picture of good leadership: Air-traffic controllers have authority, but they use their authority to enable others to fly.” This is a thoughtful post, but as frequent visitors to my blog might expect, I prefer the term shepherd leader over servant leader.
This post recounts some of the stories people told of how Charles Spurgeon’s sermons led them from the bad news to the Good News. Spurgeon himself noted, “If you really long to save men’s souls, you must tell them a great deal of disagreeable truth. The preaching of the wrath of God has come to be sneered at nowadays, and even good people are half-ashamed of it; a maudlin sentimentality about love and goodness has hushed, in great measure, plain gospel expostulations and warnings. But, if we expect souls to be saved, we must declare unflinchingly with all affectionate fidelity, the terrors of the Lord.”
“Men have not got tired of Christianity; they have never found enough Christianity to get tired of.” —G.K Chesterton
“Advancing the Kingdom economy is not exactly a cakewalk. It’s hard work, like running a marathon, going to war against spiritual adversaries, cultivating a field, or embarking on a long and arduous journey. We may expect to encounter many obstacles and challenges along the way as we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. … We must neither run from these challenges nor give in to them. Instead, advancing the Kingdom economy requires that we face evil head-on, and determine to overcome it by good works of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17-19).” Check out the rest of T.M. Moore’s post Overcoming Evil.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The letters we’ve looked at so far—B, A, S, and I—are bringing about greater fruitfulness and joy-fullness in our lives, which is then enhancing our personal testimony. So the B, A, S, and I all lead up to the C—community involvement.
One of the first things we need to consider about our community is our role—both what the Bible says is and isn’t our area of concern. Jesus helps us with a parable about wheat and weed and its explanation a few verses later (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43).
From Jesus we learn that the world was created good—that’s what God said at each day of Creation. Since the fall of man, satan has sown his evil seeds alongside Christ’s good seeds.
Our responsibility isn’t about pointing out what’s wrong in the world
It isn’t about rooting out the evil in the world
It isn’t about judging the evil or even the evildoers in the world
Our responsibility is to proclaim how good our God is
Our responsibility is to bear as much God-honoring fruit as we can
Our responsibility is to embody biblical principles and proclaim the benefits of God’s Kingdom to others
The apostle Paul helps us see our role in our community with his payer in Ephesians 1:17-20. Paul desires that we know…
The hope to which God has called us. A rock-solid, irrevocable, eternal hope!
The riches of His inheritance in His saints. The treasure is in us. We get to be God’s blessing to those around us.
God’s incomparably great power for us. We’re never lacking anything because His power is for us—God Himself is for us!
When our eyes are opened to this, we can see better how to live in our communities. God has placed us and equipped us to proclaim His glorious Gospel in our Personal Mission Field. The PMF includes places like our:
Family—John 1:35-42
Friend group—John 1:43-46
Neighborhood—Colossians 1:3-8
Workplace—Ephesians 6:5-9
How do we do this?
We talk about the daily interactions you have with Jesus—make it clear that He is a real Person with Whom you have a relationship.
We live out our biblical worldview.
We stay in fellowship with out saints so that we are sharpened and prepared to give an answer for the reason for the hope we have.
We continually monitor our conversation and attitude to make sure they are Christ-like.
Let us saints be known for what we’re for more than for what we’re against!
Instead of railing on the evil, proclaim the favor of God, proclaim the soul-satisfying joy of a relationship with Jesus, and proclaim the advantages of the Holy Spirit’s continual counsel.
If you’ve missed any of the previous messages in our series B.A.S.I.C. Christianity, you can find them all here.
Unforgiveness keeps our eyes on our offenders and off our God. Free yourself by forgiving those who have hurt you. You can check out this full sermon here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results.” —Chuck Yeager
As I have shared before, I am so impressed with the He Gets Us social media campaign! Some people are still trying to figure out exactly what this campaign is. Sean McDowell and his podcast partner Scott Ray had a great conversation with Ed Stetzer about this. Check out the video!
Some people have been critical of the He Gets Us commercials that aired during the Super Bowl, but I thought they were outstanding! This is a social media outreach designed and funded by some of the most biblically-grounded, evangelistically-minded people I know. It is a social media campaign. It is not designed as a sermon (which is why there are no Bible verses shown in the commercial). The idea is to get past the barriers and misconceptions skeptics have come to believe about Jesus, and then be enticed to go to the hegetsus.com website. It is at this site that the Gospel message is introduced and visitors are given Bible verses and other materials to go deeper.
John Stonestreet wrote, “Before it was the corporate creation of greeting card companies, it was a day to remember third-century Christian martyr Valentinus of Rome.” This post is a good reminder of what Christians really should be remembering on Valentine’s Day, as well as the higher definition of love.
“The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose.” —John McEnroe
If you were one of Christ’s disciples, wouldn’t you think it would be time for Jesus to take a victory lap? Maybe He could show up at the next meeting of the Sanhedrin, or in Pontius Pilate’s courtroom, or King Herod Antipas’ throne room. You can almost hear their longing for this when they asked Jesus, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
Jesus answered that question by saying, “Your race is just now beginning!” You see, Christ’s resurrection wasn’t the end of the race, but an important—absolutely indispensable—part of our ongoing race. “I will be raised back to life again” was a bold claim, but it wasn’t the final bold claim. There is one more for us to consider.
The resurrection of Jesus is our assurance that what Jesus says He will do, He will do. One of the things He promised is, “I am going to prepare a place for you and I will come back to get you” (John 14:1-3). The place Jesus has prepared for us is the end of our race—the finish line for which every Christian should be longing.
The disciples asked Jesus how they could know when His return was getting closer. He gave them a lot of things to watch for, but He concluded by saying, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and THEN the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).
In order for us to go Home, the whole world—people in all nations—have to hear the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
In one of the boldest claims of all, Jesus says He has ultimate authority, and that He is commissioning us to use His authority for the express purpose of our missionary work to all nations. Notice the “therefore” which indicates what we are to do with His authority—
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go andmake disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. … But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will beMy witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8)
The apostle Paul appreciated this analogy of running a race. Just before it was time for Paul to go Home, he told his friend Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
Earlier in his life, Paul used a running example when he wrote to the Christians at Corinth—
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
Paul gives us three don’ts and three dos in this passage:
Don’t fail to train, don’t run aimlessly, don’t get disqualified by focusing on the temporal
Do go into strict training, do stay focused on the eternal, do run for the prize of hearing Jesus say, “Well done!”
Do you want to go Home? Do you want Jesus to come again to take all of His children Home? Then finish the race of telling everyone in the whole world the Good News about Jesus.
“…when it comes to following Jesus, life is never as good as it gets. There is always more righteousness, more peace, and more joy in the Spirit to know, and more love and truth to share, as long as we are willing to press on.” Read more of this post from T.M. Moore here.
J. Warner Wallace understands why the church is often confused about the role of apologetics in evangelism. In this video he does a marvelous job of explaining the value of apologetics—
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I love reading, and I love sharing my love of good books with others! Here is a list of the books I read and reviewed in 2021. Click on a title to be taken to that review.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
In the Foreword to my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter, Dick Brogden observes, “God plucked David from the sheepfold. God chose a sheep to be a shepherd. And though we all are stupid sheep, when God plucks us out of obscurity to serve others, we can have the humble confidence for as long as we are asked to lead that God has chosen us. That confidence both faithfully drives us to our knees and fearlessly propels us against our giants. It is good to be a sheep; it is good to be an under-shepherd. Just remember you are stupid, chosen by the Wise One, and as long as you serve as a shepherd, you and your flock will be safe.”
How true it is that all of us are sheep. The role of the shepherd is to care for the sheep and create a healthy environment for them. The role of healthy sheep is to reproduce more sheep. In this, both shepherds and sheep are ministers—we all minister to those God has placed around us.
God calls all Christians to be ministers. The Church is the sheepfold that equips us, but then we must go out to minister in a way that will bring lost sheep to a personal relationship with Jesus.
Our foundational truth statement about church ministry says: A divinely called and scripturally ordained ministry has been provided by our Lord for the fourfold purpose of leading the Church in evangelism, worship, sanctification, and compassion.
(1) Evangelism. When we looked at the foundational belief about the Church, we noted that it’s not either-or—evangelism or discipleship—but it’s both-and. Christians are being the Church when they are intentionally living in a way that makes Jesus known (Matthew 10:1, 7-8; 28:18-20).
(3) Sanctification. Remember that we are all in-process of becoming saints (I like to remember this by calling it saint-ification). We need each other to do this, which is why God gives gifts to bring out Christ-like maturity in us (Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16).
So here are two important questions we need to ask ourselves: (1) Am I doing quality work? (2) Am I faithfully doing my work?
To help answer those questions, I like this thought from Leonard Sweet’s book I Am A Follower: “The most important metrics we must rely on, the crucial ‘deliverables’ we can present, must focus on the newly formed lives of the disciples we are making, the followers who are following Christ into a place of serving Him by serving others. The most important measure of our faithfulness to Christ must be the extent of transformation into the living image of Christ Himself. … The quantifiable fruit of our church is not found in the number of people we can gather on a weekly basis. What counts is what is happening in the lives of those who have gathered.”
These are questions we should all ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us:
What is happening in my life?
Am I telling others about Jesus?
Am I worshipping God so consistently that everyone can see it?
Am I maturating as a saint and am I helping other saints mature?
Is my faith seen in my compassionate actions?
Our individual answers to those questions will determine the success of our individual churches, which will ultimately determine the effectiveness of the global Church of Jesus Christ. I hope you will take some time to consider these questions for yourself.
D.L. Moody passionately and persuasively dismantles all of the hesitations Christians have to being active and outspoken about their relationship with Jesus. Check out my full book review by clicking here.
“I have often said that if I had to convict men of sin I would have given up the work long ago. That is the work of the Holy Ghost. What we have to do is to scatter the good seed of the Word, and expect that God will bless it to the saving of men’s souls.”
“One of the great obstacles in the way of God’s work today is this want of love among those who are the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. … To address men well they must be loved much.”
“Those who have been greatly used of God in all ages have been men of courage. If we are full of faith we shall not be full of fear, distrusting God all the while. That is the trouble with the Church of Christ today—there are so many who are fearful, because they do not believe that God is going to use them. What we need is to have the courage that will compel us to move forward.”
“If you cannot engage in any active work yourselves you can do a good deal by cheering on others.”
“Let us not be discouraged, but let us use all these wonderful opportunities, and honor God by expecting great things. If we do we will not be disappointed. God is ready and willing to work, if we are ready and willing to let Him, and to be used by Him.”
“A good many people are afraid of the word enthusiasm. Do you know what the word means? It means ‘In God.’ … People say that if we go on in that way many mistakes will be made. Probably there will. You never saw any boy learning a trade who did not make a good many mistakes. If you do not go to work because you are afraid of making mistakes, you will probably make one great mistake—the greatest mistake of your life—that of doing nothing. If we all do what we can, then a good deal will be accomplished.”
“When God wanted to bring the children of Israel out of bondage, He did not send an army; He sent one solitary man. So in all ages God has used the weak things of the world to accomplish His purposes.”
“If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced it must be done by men and women of average talent. After all there are comparatively few people in the world who have great talents. … I do not believe, either, that all God’s work is going to be done by ministers, and other officers in the Churches. This lost world will never be reached and brought back to loyalty to God, until the children of God wake up to the fact that they have a mission in the world.”
“Philip was called away from a great work in Samaria to go and speak to one man in the desert. Christ’s great sermon on Regeneration was addressed to one man; and that wonderful discourse by our Lord on the Water of Life was spoken to one poor sinful woman. I pity those Christians who are not willing to speak to one soul; they are not fit for God’s service. We shall not accomplish much for God in the world, if we are not willing to speak to the ones and twos. … The Lord expects us to do what we can. We can all do something.”
You are the most effective evangelist in the areas where you already operate everyday. You can tell the story of Jesus better to your family members, coworkers, and friends than an outside can. Keep shining brightly for Jesus! 
Links & Quotes
February 17, 2024 — Craig T. OwensUnforgiveness keeps our eyes on our offenders and off our God. Free yourself by forgiving those who have hurt you. You can check out this full sermon here. I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results.” —Chuck Yeager
As I have shared before, I am so impressed with the He Gets Us social media campaign! Some people are still trying to figure out exactly what this campaign is. Sean McDowell and his podcast partner Scott Ray had a great conversation with Ed Stetzer about this. Check out the video!
Some people have been critical of the He Gets Us commercials that aired during the Super Bowl, but I thought they were outstanding! This is a social media outreach designed and funded by some of the most biblically-grounded, evangelistically-minded people I know. It is a social media campaign. It is not designed as a sermon (which is why there are no Bible verses shown in the commercial). The idea is to get past the barriers and misconceptions skeptics have come to believe about Jesus, and then be enticed to go to the hegetsus.com website. It is at this site that the Gospel message is introduced and visitors are given Bible verses and other materials to go deeper.
“The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose.” —John McEnroe
Share this: