You are That Messenger!

Everybody, welcome back to this edition of Ignite. I want to talk to you about the sacrament of evangelism. Yeah, the sacrament of evangelism. We so underplay evangelism. I was like, is something for somebody else, I don't want to do that. That's not for me. You know, most laypeople say, that's what the pastors do. But I hang out with pastors and I don't hardly know one that's sharing their faith. They think that's what you do. So you get the point. And it's such a sacred moment. God uses us to reach the last. I mean, He could do it a lot of different ways, but He uses us. That's His plan to use us to reach the last. That's His plan. I did it all all the wrong ways. I mean, I would actually, you know, what I finally had somebody going and it was getting stronger where I felt like I was making progress. I would literally say in my mind, I talk to God, hey, God, I got a lightweight here. Come over and help me. That's stupid. But, you know, when you're learning, I mean, God has such patience for us, right? He's always there. We don't have to invite him over. Do you realize that God loves you? First off, just get this, whether you're saved or you're not saved, whether you know him, as you're already a don't. God loves you. And he loves you. Not to use you. He loves you because he loves you. He loves you because he wants you to spend eternity with him. He spends full time with you. I want to wake up in the morning. He's there. He's been with me. He didn't go to sleep. He didn't sleep. He's with me every moment. It doesn't matter. I get woke up in the middle of the night. And there's a hurricane or whatever there is. He's there. I heard this say what does it? God never says oops. You know, yeah. For you, God, oops. No, he doesn't say oops. God's always there. We can't define God. We can't contain God. He is everywhere at once. He's God. Seven billion people in the earth. He's with every one of us, every moment of the day, every one of us, even the ones that are doing a lot of really bad things. When I first started sharing my faith, I thought that I had to get him saved in one setting. That really put pressure on me. Okay, now I have to get him saved. I need you guys help. But I got a response when I get him saved, get him down on the knees and pray for them. I don't let them get away. When they almost always did get away, I was mad at myself. I was mad at God. I was, I was, I was, I was up. So I was a wreck. That's having a total misunderstanding when sharing your faith. This Jesus said, they'll know you're my disciple by your love. You just love people. It's, it's really easy. And, and you have to recognize that it's a team sport. I've never heard this said anywhere else, but I love sports. And I see it as a, as a team sport. You know, John 437, I think he talks about how one shows and another reaps, right? Uh, another verse in 1 Corinthians 3 says, I planted Apollo, watered and, and, and, and, and the Lord reads the harvest. That's different people in each of your favorite accordingly. There's nothing that says you have to get him saved in one time, working on a time like you have to get somebody saved right now. All of a sudden, put you into a sales pitch and you feel it and they feel it. You don't want to get out of your comfort zone. Just be comfortable. You know, you're not uncomfortable when you're talking to your friends and you, and, and you don't plan ahead, I'm going to be with friends today. Let's see, what's the way, say, what's the way, you know, you just, you're just with friends. When you feel you don't know, even if you don't know them, if you're not talking about about the Lord, you're talking about the sports or politics or whatever it is. You're not scripted. You're just talking and you're excited about it. When you talk about the Lord, you're saying it in an excited way. You do the way that's not defending. You don't want to take yourself out of your, your, your comfort zone and you don't want to take them out of their comfort zone. The moment you do that, you're dead, okay? So forget about face sharing on a time clock basis. You, you can't feed first. You can't force feed Christianity. You just can't do it. Some people aren't ready. It, it often takes 20 times for somebody to come to the Lord. It's the truth. You know, I, I, I think I told this story at an earlier podcast with this guy that I have been sharing my faith with for 50 years and all of a sudden he pops on the screen from his hospice band and he tells his wife, I need to talk to Barry and I lead him to the Lord. 50 years, 50 years of sharing with him and without pushing him and never getting any response from him. Hardly even a comment back on all that's interesting. Nothing. But I just, I just let it lay there. So they do it. I did it. I never, I'd never do anything where it's bothersome. I do ever do anything that, that, that confronts. I do want to do anything. I, there have been sometimes I would say, where God just provoked me to say, I think you're ready to say except the Lord. That almost never happens. Sometimes it happens. And when you get it, when you get that nudge, you better go for it. But basically you don't want to leave your comfort zone. You just, you just don't. And you, and you just share and you just love been, been Carson. Wonderful man of God of the great brain surgeon at all. We've been with him a number of times. And one point he's, he said that struck me so clearly. He says your brain never forgets what it hears. Never. You may not consciously recall it at the moment, but it ever forgets. And, and we do, we tend to make our decisions based on the sum total of all the information we get. If you live it in a godly world, you're going to do one godly things. If you live in a world where God is speaking and moving or whatever, now you have some where you're kind of like, you understand, there's, there's different forces going on and here. So when somebody even as a, is a total rejectioner, as it's really pushing your way, does not want to hear you just love on them, but just leave them with a little something. I caught chiming. You live with a little something that moves and closer God. Even if they don't recognize, they can't get away from the guy. If nothing else, that there was a Christian that loved on them, even if they spoke badly to that person, they got love back. If only that you move and closer to Jesus. So anyway, I say all that to say this. There is a, a great man of God, but he had been Dr. Jerry Root and he wrote this book, the sacrament of evangelism. You got to get it. It's fantastic. And he explains, he explained it so well that I finally understood it so well that he's working with all of us. That's the point. He's working with all of us all the time. And when you come along, somebody, I don't care who it is, do you realize you never have a secular conversation? Do you know that? There's nothing, if we're a Christian, there's nothing, we may treat it as secular, but it's not. Every time you have a conversation with somebody, you want to love them more importantly, you want to have God love them through you. Then you want to have God salvation them through you. Even if they're Christians, sometimes more importantly, if we're Christians already, they need to be encouraged and loved and brought closer to the kingdom. You got me? But Jerry Root says, when you, when you do that, God's already sovereign. He's speaking to that person. Whoever they are, I don't care what they look like. He's already sovereign. And when you come in, you join that, you come, you become the physical manifestation of God's already saying to that person, particularly when you're allowing God to speak to them through you. Not your words, his, wow, that's exciting. Sackered of evangelism. It takes, it takes what we're doing to an entirely new level, where it takes it, where nothing's by accident. And everything has purpose, everything you do, everything everywhere you go, everything you say. And every time you pick up your Bible, every time you pray, it's all part of the same thing. God, how can you use me? Give me a word today that I can use for the next first time representing and open doors for me and be with who I've just been with and bring more people in their lives and and and bring revelation to be so I know how to answer that question better the next time I have it. So everything has said, your whole life comes alive. There's no, I talked about before, this after thing, it just it destroys it. It comes away because of the sacrament of evangelism. Isaiah 55 11 says it really well. And I just read it to you. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Wow, I'm going to say it again. So whether you eat or drink is everything. This is not insurance. I'm not talking about a church God. You're sanctuary is wherever you are. This is the supermarket is you're sanctuary. You're standing beside some kind of some some part of food. There's somebody right beside me that's probably in great travail and a kind word to them and all said you find yourself praying for them. I mean it happens all around everybody around us and is in turmoil and they're searching for love. They want to be loved. They love to find out who God is. And you're his messenger. And when you do that, it ignites your life. It just takes you to a whole another level. God's word never returns void. Never returns void. Without having fulfilled its purpose. Having the word fulfilled through you to the people around you is the most exciting thing you can possibly do with your life every moment of every day. Move everybody. Okay, I'm going to say this over and it's so true. You can have now one person a day. Everybody move everybody every day closer to Jesus. Wow. That's when you have intimacy with God and you understand the sacrament of evangelism. See you next time.